Saturday
I once went on the Cobra at Ratanga Junction when it was in operation. I screamed for all of the 90 second ride. At the end, I got off and had to sit down for at least 20 minutes to recover.
To be honest, today has been a bit of a roller-coaster day. All week I had expectations about today. Last weekend I was shattered – completely exhausted after the electrics preparation – working flat-out both Saturday and Sunday. I almost dreamed of today. I looked forward to it, knowing today was a day off. A complete rest day where I could do whatever I wanted to and just relax and not worry about anything building related.
That was the plan.
But it wasn’t to be.
Mike was checking over the plans and reading some of the Council requirements. He came upon a massive issue.
Our house is 1 meter too high.
He got hold of the plans lady. He got hold of the builder. Much discussion was had.
I wanted to run away and bury my head in the sand. I felt like blocking my ears and going ‘lalalalalalalala’ for the entire duration.
After long discussions, he went back to the plans and started seeing if he could do some damage control. He came upon an excellent idea which ultimately not only fixes the issue but also adds some unexpected character to the top floor. He thinks it will work, so he has sent the suggestion off to the plans lady.
Off the roller coaster. So for the moment, all is calm. The stress is over. All should be well. I feel I’m sitting on the pavement outside the roller coaster recovering. I tried to recover the day and do some relaxing. How did we do that? We watched a Grand Design and saw someone else struggle with their building!
Everyone has always said to us building a house is difficult. There are so many details and so many decisions. They were not wrong. Mike is so involved in the design process, the plans and the electrics which adds an additional dimension of stress.
I need to keep pressing the reset button, amazed that we have come so far. This was 6 months ago…August 2019 – we had just had the roll-over kerb done…
Mike had just finished putting in the solar system at our current home. We were spending weekends seeing Cape Town. We had been to Scarborough Beach and spent a few minutes praying – Mike had a strong inclination the build would go ahead and all would be well. It was in October we got the go ahead to start the build in earnest. Look at the progression:
10th October 2019…
11th November 2019…
7th December 2019…
9th January 2020…
15th February 2020…
This perspective is heart-warming. We have got so far. Yes, there’s stress, but there are super high highs as well and I wouldn’t want it any other way. My biggest prayer is for the safety of the workers. As long as we can finish the build safely, I will be happy.
Unless the Lord builds the house, they who build it labour in vain.
Jeremiah 15:11
The Lord said, “Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose.”
We trust the Lord for that.
These are the days!
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂
Gym:
- Ran 5km – on the treadmill it was 42 minutes. My watch however is slower than the treadmill, so it recorded 5km in 49’13’
- Cycled 20km in 52′ 6″
- Swam 400m in 12 minutes. I have seen a lot of progress in my swimming. I swam (pretty slowly) crawl for those 16 lengths with tumble turns at each end. At the end, I just chilled in the pool for a while. It was a wonderful way to end the exercise.
Braces:
1 year and 101 days.