a renovation update

Yesterday I mixed paint by hand!  It felt like art class all over again.  I helped the painter mix a small colour sample, so he would know what colours we wanted.  Then yesterday afternoon and today he has been mixing large quantities of the same colours.  He's pretty good at what he does, but I still need to keep popping in for quality control.

 

Stew has been doing a lot of that lately, as we're getting on to more of the finishing work around the house.  As the mason works, he's often going over to check if things are straight or level.  And they often aren't!  So they tweak things regularly.  Like today when I walked into our new bathroom and immediately noticed that the towel rack wasn't level.  It is cemented into the wall, so it's a good thing it was only installed moments before and still able to be adjusted!

But things are really coming along on the house.  We had expected to be moved in a few weeks ago already, but hey, this is Africa.  Things always take longer than planned.  The floor is almost done being tiled, the masonry work is almost complete, and plumbing is done and ready to have the fixtures installed and hooked up.  The painter is busy mixing colours and the ceiling is already almost done being painted.  The biggest project that is yet to be tackled is the kitchen.  We need to have new cabinets built and the countertops tiled, and they haven't been started yet.  So even if the bedrooms and bathrooms are nearly done, we can't move in until the kitchen is done.  Especially since convenience food is largely nonexistent here.  And what does exist is generally unaffordable.  And so we wait for our kitchen!

the outside still looks a bit like a tornado came through!