Day 408: Panorama view

Day 395: The view

The shutter work is going up for the first floor slab, and what a view we are going to have! You can literally see a 360˚ view.  Pretoria is visible to the north and west and the Faerie Glen Nature Reserve to the south and east. 

The future view from our bedroom window

Day 392: Steel details

I know it has literally been a month since my last post. A lot has happened in terms of planning for the next slab. We did a lot of research to get the correct formwork for the surface finish of the concrete walls and ceiling. And this week finally everything is in place. The site is crawling with people erecting shutter work and preparing all the details so that the next slab can be cast. I will post some photos about the progress soon.

Off site, a lot of hard work went into preparing steel details which forms the edges of concrete slabs above the fire place and beneath the outside braai.

 Grinding mild steel tapered flange channels into the correct sizes.

 Correctly cut steel pieces with angled edges.

 Welding steel pieces together.

 Final steel structure painted with red oxide primer and ready to be installed and receive in-situ cast concrete.

Day 355: Structural steel

Look! I-beams! Now this really gets me excited. When pondering the colour of our structural steel, we decided a natural rust colour would complement the spectacular red-yellow colour of the stone. We did some research, asked a few steel experts and experimented. We took a steel flat plate, cleaned it and treated it with acid. The acid started and accelerated the rusting process.  After a couple of weeks when the rust colour was consistent we cleaned the sample with soda ash and sealed it with a clear lacquer to stop any future rusting.   

After a lengthy explanation, the steel subcontractor ordered our steel columns and beams and started the treatment. It became important that each individual steel piece is rusted and treated before assembly. Our patient subcontractor waited more than a month before the colour was correct. Today they started installation and I simply cannot stop smiling.

Day 349: Some results

After days and days of polishing concrete floors we are seeing some results. I quite like the rough but refined look. I feel like a jeweller, polishing a diamond to reveal its hidden state. Is this the true face of concrete?

Day 343: Back to business

The truth about builders

In the beginning of 2012 one of my clients taught me a very valuable lesson which I would like to quote before explaining our situation:

“In the beginning it is OUR builder,

after a while it changes to YOUR builder,

then, it becomes the #!@* builder

and finally it is the NEW builder.”

I didn’t believe her at the time, but it turned out exactly as she predicted. Therefore, as from January this year, we are searching for a new builder.  We did not have a bad builder or a dishonest builder or even a rude builder, we simply had a slow builder… a very slow builder.  It was such a difficult decision to make, but things kept dragging on and on without much progress, until we eventually asked ourselves, “When is enough, enough?”

However, it is 2013. We had a wonderful rest during the builder’s holiday, developed plenty of new dreams for our house and hopefully this year will be a great one! Happy New Year! I wish all of you the best!