Special holidays at the construction site
In March, Klaus also came to Cape Town for three weeks. He had to work in the north of South Africa for one week, and for the other two weeks, we were on “holiday”, because obviously, we had to continue to take care of the house construction. Furthermore, I was glad to have Klaus by my side for such challenging appointments as tax advice and visas.
For relaxation, we rented a houseboat on Langebaan Lagoon for a weekend for the first time. The booking was made before the pandemic, and we had to postpone it repeatedly. Fortunately, the owner was very accommodating. Finally, the time had come. We arrived at the West Coast National Park armed with food and clothes for 3 days and were able to drive straight through to Kraalbaai. As soon as we called to check in, a friendly young man arrived with a dinghy and took us to the houseboat. It offered everything we needed. I think it was ideal for Klaus to relax and calm down. I had quite a head start compared to him…
Then we returned to Hout Bay. From now on, Klaus really had to visit the construction site every day, gladly in the mornings and evenings. 😉 He could not get enough of it. And for once I did not have to take loads of photos and videos for him every day to keep him up to date. In the evenings, when the construction site was already “closed”, we could only glance from above through the fence into our big sandbox.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time together. It was an excellent test for us to see that we were both coping well because Klaus loves his job and wants to continue working. However, I will certainly be in Cape Town more often and very much like it. So we will have to deal with the separation for a while. We both seem to still be flexible enough for it.
Guest House
Our tax advisor gave us the idea of not only using the house as a private holiday home but also as a guest house. It would be a shame to leave the many rooms empty for most of the year. And she is right. The architecture fully allows for this, as we had planned the guest part separately from our secluded area from the very beginning. The doors of the guest rooms now also have access control units, so that guests can enter their room with their fingerprint, with the help of facial recognition, a PIN or a tag, as was already planned for the house, so that nobody has to carry an inconvenient key around with them.
A large dining room table had already been thought of for our family anyway. This suited us because we have always loved staying in guest houses where all the guests eat breakfast together at one table. This way you always meet nice and interesting people and get useful tips.
Klaus and I have always enjoyed having guests and I love preparing nice things in the kitchen. I also look forward to welcoming guests from all over the world…
Construction progress
Things were moving swiftly on the construction site. Almost every day, all the construction steel that was already stored on the property was moved piece by piece to a different location. On a particular Friday, the foreman decided to start digging away soil for the foundations of a retaining wall facing the neighbour. Perhaps motivated by the anticipation of the coming weekend, the excavator driver set to work. Unfortunately, in the process, he “somehow” eroded the neighbour’s property, which was about 4 m higher there than our excavations, which didn’t stop anyone from disappearing into the weekend afterwards.
The next morning I received the unpleasant news from the neighbour that parts of his property had moved to our site and that some of his paving had cracked.
Over the next few weeks measures were now taken to prop up the area. Support poles were placed, and soil was refilled and weighted down with sandbags. The most effective action here was probably the positioning of the man with the most delicate feeling in his backside on the sandbags so that he could detect and report further movement in the terrain. 😉
I am glad that the retaining wall has now been completely finished and the neighbours’ house is still standing where it belongs.