Category Archives: Building a house on a mountainside

Mooching About

Sunday It’s something we like to do…go mooching about above Echo! The next six or seven months are going to be all-consuming. The build is now front and centre of our minds and conversations and our prayers!  Mike stood at … Continue reading

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Discussions and Dreams

Saturday Today Julian returned to Johannesburg but not before we had a lovely breakfast out. As he is down for such a short time, most of our conversations are about the build. There were many discussions and dreams of what … Continue reading

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Manual Labour Day

Friday I sort of had by day planned, but then Mike said he needed an extra pair of hands at the building site. One thing I can say is I am absolutely not manual labour fit. I’m fine for holding … Continue reading

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Mike Has Finished!

Thursday It’s been a bit of a mission over the last couple of days for Mike to finish the changes to the plans as well as go through all the lighting, all the electrics, all the plumbing, the windows and … Continue reading

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van Niekerk Train Station

Wednesday It felt like a train station at our house this morning. By 1-30pm, 5 people had stopped by. Not that I mind. It just felt a whole lot busier than usual. Mike had an important meeting with the engineer … Continue reading

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We Have Bricks

Tuesday Last night we realigned our expectations, worked out our building finances and had an early morning talk with Werner.  There are plenty of ways we can save money and Mike will look to employ every one of them! When … Continue reading

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What A Busy Monday

Monday Today was busy. I got to work at just before 8am and worked through to just before 11am. Haircut and gym and then home to get some more work done. Riana came at 2pm for tea. At 4pm Werner … Continue reading

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Basement Pictures Before and After Foundation

Friday Today was a slow day for work, a good day for socialising and an amazing day for cleaning! As it’s Middle East weekend, things were quiet on the work front, so I had a slow morning. I went to … Continue reading

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Someone I Haven’t Seen in 37 years

Thursday Today was a good work day but I also did some housework. I scrubbed the kitchen floor! The highlight of the day was visiting a friend who I have not seen for 37 years. Grahame Wray. He was a … Continue reading

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A Significant Day

Tuesday Today was certainly significant. We left home early and got to the building site just before 8am to find this standing outside… A full complement of workers were setting up the pump pipes on site… The process began and … Continue reading

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What a Day!

Monday Yesterday I was trying not to stress over two things – the first was how to manage the half tonne chunk of granite and the other was Mike’s plan to do the electrics for the new build! Fast forward … Continue reading

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The Workers Worked Today

Sunday Due to the tight deadline to get the cement poured for the basement on Tuesday, to our surprise, the workers arrived at the site today so get the rib and blocks put in place.  When Mike and I walked … Continue reading

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We Bought a Slab of Granite!

Saturday Today will go down as a day we took a risk – we went to a granite sale and bought a +/- 500kg slab of granite. It’s 3.2m x 1.8m x 30mm.  This massive chunk of rock now needs … Continue reading

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The Echo Basement

Friday The bottom floor of the new build is referred to as the basement. Initially, it was going to be an empty space that would usefully contain water tanks and that kind of thing. The pillars would be around it. … Continue reading

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A Good Work Day

Wednesday When you build a house, every penny counts. While I’ve been working a 4 hour day, most weeks, I get excited to get enough work to fill 6 hours. Today was one of those! I also managed to get … Continue reading

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