Sala Sentle: Bird’s Hide

We thought the first squatters in the new house would be vervet monkeys, but they only visit – quite regularly. Our actual roommate is a bird that makes a nest right above Maud’s desk-to-be. The builders leave a nice hole in the plastering for an entrance, so we hope they will have left by the time we wanna enter.

It’s amazing our bird just keeps feeding her young while the builders keep building.

Right now the second and most exiting roof is being poured: the concrete top / terrace on top of the bedroom (upper left hand corner). As if the making of zinc roof on the main house wasn’t nerve-wrecking enough!

Looking down from our future roof terrace (with a to be shade, fridge, hammocks – the full Monty), our dwelling resembles an eastern temple complex.

And another load of cement bags. It’s amazing how much goes into just one small house! The Mother of all (our dogs) doesn’t only help us with the gardening; she also keeps an eye on everything that happens on site.

And another load of river sand. Foundation, bricklaying, plastering, floors, roofs – everything seems to eat cement, sand, gravel and water.

And another load of steel – despite the Afrikaans we do order everything in Gabs or Mochudi.

Plastering inside…

… and outside.

The real building management: Dammit Louis (left) and Nadia, right on top of it when it’s their shift.

All the sand has to be sieved before it is fit for building.
The pile of stones in front of the house is in fact a big circle around the braai area. We do try to fit in!

It’s amazing how fast one learns. For starters Maud knew basically nothing about gardening in this climate and soil, but thanks to loads of advice from friends some things, actually more and more, turn out nicely, like the lilies we got from Tears.