Sunday we all just chilled, Dee and I are “checking out” all the local eateries only so as we can recommend the good ones, we went to Zorba the Greek’s spot which has two names, one greek – thats the greek restaurant of course and one French, that of course is the Italian restaurant, HUH! we tried the greek and it was Dee-licious.

 

Blue Monday – mr B treated some more decking and – I got frustrated by paperwork and admin…

well that is it – Tuesday 31 July, the thatchers completed their nesting and flew the coup finally, THANK HEAVENS! I had had quite enough of waking up with dust on my teeth! As it is I have a whole new challenge, typing this when I have lost keys on my keyboard, I now have broken keyboards in tandem.

calibre security did the final sorting out of the alarm systems, yes we have 2. Dee to cape Town, the lucky fish just in time for Luke’s birthday.

1 Aug – Wednesday – I went to the dump, had my car checked for insurance and collected tiles from Humansdorp – HECTIC! that was quite a load, luckily I had the trailer leaf springs changed from 4 blades to 6 or it wouldn’t have managed. expecting the DSTV guy and a plumber today + shopping and fetch Dee from the airport and get her car assessed as well. Wednesday and Thursday – Bongani cut the tiles because I could only get 300 X 300 and I needed 300 X 200 – Thys from the stone and tile place lent me his machine, I just had to pay for wear and tear on the diamond blade. Thursday it rained so he worked under a gazebo 🙂 I returned the cutter on Thursday and saw I had a flat – 2 screws grrrr! luckily its only R25 for a plug here but my valve had gone on another tyre so I had that replaced and 2 wheels balanced.

Friday I bid farewell to mr B, he is going home for 10 days to see his wife and children, I am deeply grateful for all he has done to help me on this ever expanding project and wish him a good rest but I look forward to his return, heaven help me if I am not ready with materials and plans… After a long day Dee and I were alone in our home for the first time.

Sat – I have a cold – annoying!! we have started moving in at last though everything will have to move as we decorate.

 

 

Well another week has flown by, again a case of 2 steps forward and one step back… yes! the thatch birds are still nesting but they have promised to finish on Monday 30th (I can’t see it) – there are quite a few finishing touches to be done still.

I have now used 25l of rystix armour deck mahogany and still have 19 and 1/2 left and Dee has decided (and I and Bongani agree) that the colour is wrong – lol it needs to be darker to match the rest of the place…

Sunday 22nd July – I fiddled in my garden and the electricity went oopsie daisy, circuits were tripping all over the place..

Monday – I tried to sort the electricity and failed so I called the guy who did the compliance certificate. he could only make Tuesday damn sparkie!

Tuesday – He spent most of the day trying to figure it out and finally discovered that one of the 5 geyser’s elements had blown, he will sort it out next week when the thatchers are out of the way.

Wednesday & Thursday involved much computer work and admin, insurance etc. with some DIY interludes, Bongani treated tons of the decking and started fixing the entrance stairs from the parking and at the driveway entrance, he also opened and filled cracks, surface and deeper in the Lounge and reception area so the place looks like a zebra.

Friday was interesting after de-plumbing the kitchen mixer tap and dismembering the whole sink drain system, we discovered that the new mixer that I scored from a job a couple of years ago, had the wrong size pipes… nothing in town to sort it so I drove to On Tap in J-Bay(35minutes one way) got the reducers and headed home to find Margaret Thatcher had turned on the water and flooded my kitchen – the buggers!!! A half day Job turned into a full day job, grrrrr! And of course – the moon, did anyone have a look? it was spectacular.

Saturday was a great day with us getting most of the Sundowner Deck down and de-paving a section of driveway, removing a root as thick as a fat sweet potato that was doing its level best to tear my house down and repaving said area 🙂

Hi All, more blur as one day blends into another, there is quite a bit more to do than I imagined and it all takes a bit longer than I expected and contractors finally got to me this week, I just want them gone now..

Not much news except more deck building, Dee’s return flight from Jhb was delayed and she only got in just before 12 Friday night. Saturday more decking and  Sunday was a non event, I did a bit of gardening and chilled before braaing chicken.

Sunday 15 July, Happy Birthday James!!!, welcome home Charlie family – I am missing my family and friends, especially Thuli and Tendai, it was tough seeing Dee head to CT whilst I played mechanic with a dish washer. Olivia I hear is settling in well

This morning I glued my sheepskin slippers 🙂

Dee and I went for calamari at Port St Francis and I am about to braai chicken, the indian summer is over, its cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 16th – Thursday 19th July 2018

Blurrrrrrr!!! – The thatching dust is starting to get on my wick… the nesting team has ripped the roof of the lounge, I have straw in every orifice and I am expecting to hear the baby Jesus (oops I forgot “no crying he makes”) and I feel a bit like Huckleberry Finn.

The timber appeared dry enough so Bongani and I have wiped it down with turps – to remove the wax from the treatment… we have sanded it and painted it, cut it and installed it and tomorrow we start on the deck timber which arrived today (Thursday)

Dee flew off to Jhb on Tuesday, leaving home at 4 am or something awful, I was hoping to have a deck for her when she got back on Friday but alas, its taking a bit longer than I expected.

So Blue Monday strikes again – I was supposed to be building but spent the day instead sorting out internet, office phones, other peoples emails etc..

Olivia made a fine dinner after which I sorted out a kist for Dee to store linen and then made a work bench and fiddled and faddled in my workshop which is taking shape slowly. So the day improved quite a bit. The thatchers continued and Bongani finished stripping the last of the sundowner deck and started prepping for the rebuild.

Tuesday – mr B left me to go to PE dept of labour, Jackson however came today and man does he make supervision important, the guy has been trained by the Oke who jerry built half of this house and he has all the skills required in cutting corners etc.

So I finished the day by making my first Chilli con carne, it was an ostrich one and very tasty thanks!

Insurance – is a pain but our Cape Town brokers are not coming through, I have changed ti the local guy on buildings, am looking at him for household (50% less and now we are told by the car guys to drive to East London to have trackers fitted, what??? have we come to the wild west?

Wednesday – one slow day with a visit to the headmasters office, gulp!, I felt like a naughty boy and it got worse because we arrived early so I went for a smoke and the headmaster came out and bust me in the act lol. The interview was great and Olivia had him convinced within minutes and we went off on a grand tour…

Thursday – as one day blends into another, I ordered beams etc. and now rain stops play… but not before Olivia went to the township to feed stray dogs with a bunch of volunteers, they spay and de-worm etc.

It being Olivia’s last night, we had pizza – yummy.

The hunt for Red October (my chalkline), there are still boxes and things squirrelled away everywhere in the workshop, I decided to find my chalkline (for tomorrows setting out) and not to go to bed until I found it, Bongani searched, I searched, I had seen it here, eventually I found it in my grinder box at about 22h00, I celebrated by packing everything I took out in the hunt in there correct places, that took me until 1am lol.

Friday – RAINING – I bought 5 spadefuls of sand, this involved ordering them by phone, receiving an invoice for R30, paying the EFT, going up to the aggregate place in the industrial area and helping the guy put 5 shovels of building sand in the 2 bags I brought with me,spent the day with admin and crack filling – sorting internet solution, having wood delivered

, the girls both headed off for haircuts.

On my missions I stopped overlooking Bruce’s  beauties – wow, storm swell has hit and the surf was coming up…

Olivia has left me… she and Dee left at 15h30 and flew to CT just in time for the tail end of Teddy’s birthday, Dee returns tomorrow.

Saturday, I had a lie in, thats a lay in that is a lie, half past 6 and I was awake, Rats, I even closed the curtains…

Bongani and I spent the day plumbing in a dish washer, it was a MISSION of note!

we removed cupboard doors, it didn’t fit…

we cut under the counter, the pipes got squeezed…

we broke tiles and chopped concrete, finally it was in…

working like mechanics inside the cupboard we struggled to connect up but finally suceeded… the tap wouldn’t let water through… off with the ta, flood the kitchen, find the cut off valves (none!, just about in the whole house) turned off the mains and dis-assembled the tap, got that working…

The drain overflowed, flooded the cupboard,  we cut some off and tried again, same result…. BLOCKED! – Caustic soda and an evil smelling drain cleaner and 1/2 an hour later we finally got that sorted, it involved a man at the manhole and a man in the kitchen yelling like fishwives – Dang!, it was still a funday.

I took the hounds of Baskerville for a walk through the nature area above the 2 harbours walk and we encountered 2 big pigs, it took all my power to hold Zeva back, I guess she felt like a bit of pork. As I managed to haul them away another bloke arrived with a sheepdog and a jack russel and all hell broke loose with pigs hurtling through the bush snorting and grunting being hunted by 2 naughty dogs who barked and squealed with delight, naturally my two wanted to join in the fun – the bloke finally said ” probably good that got chased away, they bring lots of flies” wow and I was feeling sorry for the terrorised pigs.

I cooked eggs and bacon on toast with cheese for supper, thank heavens tomorrow is a day of rest.

A big squall just hit, pity its on the coast and not further inland where our dams are.