Merry Christmas ... is the house wrapped and ready?

So the year slowly comes to a close, but is the house coming any nearer to
completion. Progress made, but slow going with some very wet weather.

We had hoped that the house would be a sealed unit before the builders down
tools for the festive season. Sadly things have been going a bit slow after
some very wet weather earlier in the month. Outside and inside has been
plastered now, the windows and sliding doors are all in, so good news there.
The kitchen was meant to have been fitted in December but as the house is
not 100% sealed due to lack of doors this has not yet been done. It is
looking good though and with the builders due to re commence work a week
earlier than scheduled in January things might just get back on track as
they get on with some painting, doors fitted, and kitchen in.

We have got some slight concerns with a couple of things we have noticed
from the pictures we have been sent, but hopefully we can resolve those when
we head down there in the new year. Our collection of bits purchased has
increased with a basin mixer and shower mixer (many thanks to Michael!) to
go with the kitchen sink and mixer we had already acquired. Must remember to
pack it all in Mufasa when we head down!!

I have put up some of the latest pictures (see the link on the right) and
will add more as soon as possible in January. Other than checking on the
build progress we need to get the grass cut before we have our very own
safari park!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2011!!!

Getting plastered ... big style!

Well, a lot has been done to the house since we were last down in the village, well we assume it has. Money seems to be pouring from our account all too often, but as far as we can tell things have been happening, and the odd photo we get from Oliver (the builder) seems to concur.

Yes, I know I have been slack with updates, but ... been busy. Since we spent our two weeks in our new house (indoor camping) back in September our time has been eaten up with both scraping together the funds to keep Oliver happy and also finding and deciding on fittings, i.e. sanitary ware, taps, tiles, kitchens, blah. Ok, there might have been a bit of feet up time in between chores. Hopefully we have nailed all the bits and bobs now, we even bought a kitchen tap and sink, not that it is going to do much sitting in
Bob's garage 600km from the building site!

All the hard graft on the house is nearly completed, i.e. walls and roof, and the plastering and windows will also soon be done so that the place is a sealed unit. The builders break up for Christmas on the 22nd December, just a few weeks away, but if all goes well the place will have a kitchen (no doors), sewerage, internal plastering, plumbing and basic electrical. Of course this will induce another scrape of funds from us as an early Christmas pressie for Oliver! He did mention sommit about Barbados for the festive season?!

Anyway, our aim is to get down to Underberg in early January to check it all out for ourselves. Sadly it seems like end of February will be the earliest we can actually move in, sigh, long wait still. Good news though, our goods we shipped from the UK have arrived. Funny thing is though, they should still be in the UK as we told Anglo Pacific not to ship until December 1st at the earliest. They apparently 'overlooked' this wee detail. Several emails and interesting telephone conversation later we got a decent apology.
Oh, and they even buggered up the invoicing for it. So now our stuff will have to sit in storage in SA, assuming it is all there, for a couple of months until we can receive it in the house.

I shall post some pictures now (see album link to the right) and hopefully some more later in the month,
assuming we have some new ones.