Air temp 32degC, pool temp 30degC

Having our first really hot day of Spring today. No wind yet, sea turquoise. Days like this I really know why we like living here. Ask me again tomorrow when the South-Easter is howling, and I may have to think about it.

Cape Cobra

When we came back from the beach yesterday morning, Sarah shouted "Tommy's got a snake!" when she got the beginning of our path (first, as always). I thought it must just be a large lizard, and that she probably just saw the tail-end of it. But no. It was a small Cape Cobra. Tommy (Sarah's cat) either just saw it, or had been annoying it, but Sarah said he jumped a foot or two backwards into the air. Fortunately, he didn't seem to have been bitten, and he ran off without having to be closed up. Common sense. We closed Honey up just to be sure she didn't get too close.

I got a pole and the braai-tongs and a bucket and thought I'd do a Crocodile Hunter impersonation. Unfortunately, the little snake (30cm or so) was under a bush, so I couldn't get to it easily. I know you have to hold them down behind the head so that they can't bite, but doing that on soft sand didn't sound that easy. The snake had it's head up and flattened and was striking at the pole when I got too close. I just couldn't get to the back of its head with the braai-tongs (which handle was also a bit short for my liking).

So I forgot about Crocodile Hunter and did Damsel in Distress instead. I phoned the neighbours. I told them I wanted to try to catch the snake rather then kill it, but when they arrived with only a sharp spade, I knew the poor snake was history. Long story short, they confirmed that it was indeed a Cape Cobra (very poisonous), and killed it.

I am so, so cross with myself about this. The poor snake was only looking for a mouse or something, and ended up dead. Of course, I am justifying it to myself that I won't be very comfortable with kids and cats all over the place, thinking that there could be a deadly snake in the garden. Not that I would know if there are any anyway, as they obviously lay low most of the time (pun not intended).

In our 5 years here, I've never seen a snake close to the house, so maybe this poor little one had strayed a bit farther than normal from it's territory (are snakes territorial?). Let's hope the rest of its family stay away from our dune. It's horrible to just kill a snake on sight (even if you KNOW it's dangerous). There's no line that says "your space", "my space" and because of my ignorance of what to do, the snake ended up dead. It might just happily have slithered away never to be seen again, but just because I DON'T KNOW anything about snakes and their manner, I can make myself believe that killing it was the only option. People fool themselves about all sorts of things all the time. Ignorance is bliss and all that....

Flying Spiders

We've got spiders flying all over the place this morning. Nice still day (so far), and very hot so there are nice thermals for them get up into the air. When you look up into the sky, there are little strands of white spiderweb all over the place. There are a few swallows flying amongst the spiderwebs too, but the little spiders are so tiny, I don't know if they make much of a snack. The other day when we were driving back from Vredenburg, there were strands of spiderweb blowing from the telephone-lines all along the road. I wonder where all these little spiders hatched and where they are going to end up. Some of them are really high up in the sky so they could end up far, far from here.

I don't know anything about which kind of spiders do this, or if they all do. The only reason I know that spiders do this at all if from Charlotte's Web (the movie). Must look it up. They more you learn about things, the more you discover how little you know. Life is one long learning experience.

Forget WII, just give the kids a box

The kids have dragged the fridge's box off the rubbish heap in the driveway, and have happily been turning it into a house in the garden. They even have a granite offcut for a kitchen counter and a kitchen cupboard offcut for a shelf. Having a ball. So much for hi-tech. :-)

Some more pics too.

Keep waiting for that light at the end of the tunnel....

I should probably be dusting something or putting something away, but since there's still not any other rooms finished-finished, it's a bit of a waste of time. The minute we dust and polish something, someone seems to find a reason to sand something in that vicinity and it has to be cleaned all over again. Wasted effort.

The kitchen is ALMOST done. The granite went in yesterday, which has made quite a difference. The kitchen people are still fiddling around here trying to finish off the kitchen in the guest suite. As far as I knew they only had to put glass in 2 doors and put on 3 drawer-fronts and an extraction fan, so heaven knows what is taking so long. In our kitchen there's a few things that aren't right, but over-all it's looking like a completely different kitchen (which it is). I will keep the things that I'm unhappy with for the snag list, and not bore you to tears with it. I should probably clean and repack the kitchen tonight. Must see if there's any of Stewart's wine that I can drink for some motivation.

The paving has progressed quite a lot today, and is looking good. None of the 'grout' has been done yet, but they may get to that tomorrow and then it will look even better. I hope it doesn't take too long to set, as the pool is getting cleaned tomorrow and I will then run out of reasons to keep the kids out of the pool. Except that the water will still be very cold. That reminds me, I'd better go and look for a hosepipe to fill the pool to the brim as per the pool guy's instructions.

The painters are hard at work, but they still haven't finished any of the rooms. They hope to finish on Friday, so here's hoping. They varnished our wooden floor today, so it's off limits for a while. Tonight I officially have nowhere to sleep. Will have to have a sleepover with Shannon. Will probably have to wear Shannon's clothes too since I can't get to our wardrobe. Now that will be a sight to behold.

PG Glass has been to install the shower doors. The one in the guest suite looks fine, but the one on our bathroom has a big gap on the one side. They ran away very quickly before I could even check, so I will have to get them back here tomorrow. Fortunately, we've only paid the deposit so they have some incentive to come and fix it.

The plumber has installed our toilet, basin tap and shower-head. I've hoping it looks nice, but I can't get into the bathroom to see because it's full of bedroom furniture. The shower floor has been grouted, and all the other bathroom tiling done too. Some of the border tiles are a bit on the wonky side, but I will happily live with it if I can just have my bathroom back. It's been quite nice having a bath (in Shannon's bathroom) in the morning actually -- it's seem like a more relaxing way to start the day than having a quick shower.

Some more photos

Getting somewhere at last?

Don't want to sound prematurely optimistic, but it does seem that this week things have been moving forward a bit. The kitchen people haven't finished yet, but will come and do the last few things when the granite guy comes to do the countertops. They said that some of the drawerfronts didn't fit, so have to be made from scratch. My cookbookshelf is also still missing, and some of the drawer handles have to be done. I thought they would be finishing tomorrow but they obviously have to wait for the new doors and drawerfronts. Don't know when they discovered this but the people who spray the panels are very slow. I was hoping that I could pack things back into the kitchen, but that will have to wait a bit longer. The guest suite kitchenette in not that far from finished -- missing drawerfronts, glass in some of the doors and the extraction fan.

The painters have been busy in our room and on the staircase. The first coat of paint is on, so maybe they will finish that tomorrow. Lets hope they don't get distracted by something else. The floor still has to be sanded, so no moving back into our room for now. Would be nice to not have to dress out of a washing basket every day. Strange how you stat appreciating the small things in life -- like wardrobes! :-)

The windshield wall by the studio doors has been built and most of the one wall out to where the driveway gates have to go. One of the painters gave most of the new boundary walls its undercoat.

Buks has been busy tiling in our bathroom. It's looking rather nice so far. Unfortunately, we've now run out of the border tiles. We were planning at some stage to tile the shower differently, so I didn't measure in there for the border. Damn. Will have to get those sent up quickly before Buks goes off in a huff.

Kitchen troubles

The kitchen today looks worse and more unfinished than it did on Friday. Stewart noticed that the gap left for the new stove was too small (96cm instead on 102cm), so the kitchen people had to move some cupboards around today to fix that. Their solutions were all unsatisfactory, but in the end I managed to switch over to left-brain mode long enough to figure out how to sort it out. Living with Stewart for so long, some of his Virgo characteristics must have rubbed off. :-) There's still a problem with the extraction fan, but hopefully that will be fixed tomorrow.

The other team of kitchen people were busy building our wardrobe. So far it seems to be going smoothly. Fortunately, there's no appliances that have to fit in anywhere there. The guest suite kitchen is still the same as on Friday. Could have been worse, at least it didn't go backwards like the main kitchen.

The courtyard wall and the fishpond were plastered, and the top of the pool pump housing too.

We finally gave up and had Scooters pizza for supper. Blech! After more than 2 weeks without a kitchen it seemed like a good idea. But it wasn't.

Yesterday's photos

I was too moedeloos last night to put up any photos, but I am feeling a bit more positive today. Maybe this WILL all end some day and our house will be normal (and slightly less dusty!) again. The kitchen is slightly further along today, and some more walls have been plastered, and the backyard has been mostly leveled. The painters have moved into the main bedroom and have started prepping for painting (this means there's Polyfilla dust EVERYWHERE!) We can still sleep there tonight, but only just. The shower in our bathroom is still working but the toilet and basin have been disconnected. No sign of a tiler yet. The pool coping is done and the pool pump is working. The slab under the heatpump has been poured and everything connected to the rest of the pool machinery. I guess they will switch it on once the pool has been cleaned.

These photos are from yesterday. The kids wanted to go skateboarding so I didn't take any photos this afternoon.

So much activity, so little progress

Feels like every plumber, painter and electrician in the general vicinity of Paternoster decided to drop by our kitchen today. At the same time. Hammering, grinding, chiseling, scraping, knocking, whistling all day long. I have such a headache (mostly because I only had one lousy cup of Nescafe today). The electricians were moving the power points, the plumbers were closing off the water pipes and the painters were making the rest of the noise and mess. They still need to plaster over the new pipes and still have cut out the hole for the extraction fan. Plus the window has to be knocked out and the new (smaller) one put in. And the power points in the guest quite has to be moved too. All this is happening tomorrow. The guys will have to spark.

The carpenter has hung the studio doors and added on various locks, handles and things all over the place. He's put up Sarah's glass shelf in her bathroom, but still hasn't drilled the holes in the desk for the cables. I think he has a mental block against doing that. I keep asking him and he keeps 'forgetting'.

Angelo has plastered most of the low wall next to the pool, and has finished building the short wall on the other side of the pool. No sign of the pool people to do the paving today. Marius did bring the painters' ladder back but I didn't get to see him.

The kitchen people delivered the wood for the carcasses today. They only got here at 17:00. We thought they'd gone to Vredendal by mistake.

I scrubbed all the tiles in Sarah's bathroom this afternoon. It was either that or disembowel one of the whistling people with a screwdriver. Took all my frustration out on the leftover grout on the tiles. We've got most of Sarah's stuff in the right place and most of the room has been cleaned. I've locked all the building people out of there now. I am not cleaning that room one more time. Grrrr. Not QUITE ready to move in, but at least it's getting closer. Sarah can't wait to get back into her own room.

Grumpy troll march

Daniel doing the 'grumpy troll march'. Something he saw on CBeebies this morning.

Building Cats

At least the cats love the mess!

Rain just when you don't want it

The wall around the pool is mostly built now, but it started raining just after they started plastering so they had to stop for most of the day. The electricians put in a few powerpoints, and the painters started prepping the kitchen for painting.

Slowly getting nowhere

It feels as if there's constantly people doing stuff at the house but that nothing is actually happening. Either everyone is really good at looking busy or there's a lot of things happening behind the scenes. I sometimes think that the painters carry out all the furniture from the guest suite and then they go home. If the furniture is standing outside, I naturally assume that they are inside painting, but now I'm not so sure. And then just before home-time, they come back and put all the furniture inside again.

The studio doors are going in, but the glass people haven't been here yet to put all the glass in. Once the doors are done, the tiling can be finished and also the painting and then perhaps we can move some of the furniture from the soon-to-be-demolished kitchen into there. The kitchen has to be stripped early next week so that all the preparation for the new kitchen can be done.

The pool is in, but there's no paving yet, or power to the pump or any kind of heating. The solar power installer-guy was trying to get some panels up onto our funny disjointed roof yesterday, and then (out of frustration?) recommended that we get a heatpump instead. So that's where we're at with that --the solar panels are standing on the balcony and we are waiting for a quote for a heatpump.

One of the Manitoka trees had to be removed to make way for the new boundary wall. They managed to pull the last bit out with the truck, leaving a strange abstract tree sculpture standing next to the public walkway. It wouldn't fit on the truck with all the other stuff, so maybe someone will take it home.

The foundation for the wall were dug yesterday and were poured today. We were at a homeschooling get-together all day so it's a bit difficult to tell exactly what everyone did today. It rained from time to time so I guess that also slowed things down. There's a lot of bits and pieces happening at the same time, so hopefully a lot of things will finish at the same time too. Here's hoping.