The roof!!!

Building has ,over the last few weeks, trickled down to all but a standstill. There have been issues with plumbers and electricians which resulted in hold ups in other area's of the build (i.e. the plastering cannot be finished as the electrician still needs to finish putting in plug boxes). So needless to say its been quite frustrating for us especially as we're living very close to the site and can see what does(or doesn't) happen on a daily basis.

 

But yesterday was a fantastic building day! the roof is FINALLY here!! Our house has got three separate roof sections. There are two flat roof sections (over the kitchen side and the bedroom side.You can look at a layout in this post)then a 'pointed' roof over the living area. For a while we've had roof trusses in place and most of the roof sheets on the flat sections

(see below)

 

 

Well here is the same view now. All plastered/roofed and pretty :)

 

 

 

And yesterday I arrived to find this

 

 

The Centre Trusses have arrived and were put up :) The roof sheeting for them will go up today and we will have a completed roof!!!

 

 

 

I must admit I was very glad it wasn't me who had to stand up on the scaffolding and hold them in place. I was getting dizzy just watching them from my safe perch firmly on solid ground.

 

It's finally starting to come together and we can now see more clearly what the facade of the house is going to look like :)

 

 

thankfully the trusses counter the overly high wall feeling I mentioned before . I'm so excited for it to be finished! And now the builders take a three week break for Christmas holiday !! AAAGGGGH!

Brain Dump

I keep starting posts and then not getting around to finishing them, mainly cos they require some kind of effort on my part (researching facts/finding pictures). So today you a going to be Privy to one of the laziest post's I'll probably ever write, because its all I can drag out of my brain at the moment

 

1) Can this year end already!!! I know it's flown by but this last little bit seems to be flying but crawling along at the same time! It probably doesn't help that I'm not going on leave either

 

2) Today we need to bake a wedding cake for my brother and sister in laws reception Saturday.... PRESSURE!!! I really hope it works first time other wise its going to be a long late night of baking :)

 

3) I miss my friends and Family that are far away TONS right now ! COME VISIT PEOPLE!!!

 

4) Pinterest is awesome !!

 

5) This house building thing feels like we've hit a wall ! I just want things to start moving again ! plus we need to pick paint colours and I keep second guessing my choices! any one with Interior design Experience want to help?

 

6) Why can't people just be nice to each other for heavens sake!!!

 

THE END

 

Pinterest Craft Night :)

 

Seeing as many of my friends are totally hooked on Pinterest it was only natural to at some point get our booties in gear and try our hand at making some of the fantastic things we pin :) I've already entered this realm before with joining in on the Pinterest Challenge (you can see my previous attempts here and here) and this time wanted it to be a more social occasion.

 

I got in touch with some of my crafty friends who were close by and we decided to have a craft night.

Meet Liesl...

 

 

and Mia...

 

 

who were awesome enough to agree to the plan. We jumped backwards and forwards about how we were going to do it. We debated about everyone choosing something off their boards they wanted to make or choosing something collectively which we could all try together :) We ended up deciding on the latter and decided to make the angels you see below.(you can find the original Pin Here)

 

 

As this was an etsy Listing there weren't any instructions so we had to wing it a little bit . There was also the slight hangup of not being able to find any natural coloured tongue depressors and ending up with the craziest coloured ones ever!

 

 

We painted and ate and chatted and glued and had an awesome evening. Our little angels were surprisingly time consuming to make but in the end I think the turned out to be very cute :)

Here is our 'choir" as we christened them:)

 

 

 

My angels are now at home hanging out happily on our Christmas tree.

 

 

 

We're very excited for Christmas (the trees been up since middle November:)) and the angels add a perfect touch of home-made fun.
We enjoyed it so much we're talking about making it a more regular thing, so here's hoping there'll be many more fun craft nights ahead :)

Building Updates

Things are (slowly) happening in the process. Again not very quickly (much to my frustration) but we're getting there. All the walls ,with the exception of the small wall over the engineered beam at the back which still needs to be inspected are up! As are the roof trusses over the two side 'wings'.

 

 

We've even got a few roof sheets up (can you hear the Angels singing!!) just in time for the first rain.

 

 

We've come to realise that this house is actually a lot bigger than we anticipated it would be... those extra long walls in the middle are 4.2 metre's high PLUS they're still getting exposed roof trusses on to which should at the highest point be about 6 metres high!! I'm going to need a VERY long feather duster to clean up there:)

 

 

The other nice thing is that the wall between us and the Neighbour is also done on both sides.its nice to have the privacy back and again it's a BIG wall!

 

 

This is how it looks as of this morning. They've started plastering the outside of the house and are moving along nicely. Hopefully this week they'll be able to finish the roof so the electrician can finish putting in the junction boxes. The Plumbing is also being done and should hopefully also be finished by the end of the week.

 

 

Building a house is definitely not for the faint hearted! there have been so many setbacks along the way. I just hope its all worth the drama in the end :)

 

Guest Guru: Lessons from a Life Coach

 

It been a while since I posted a Guest Guru post.Even so these are the posts that consistently get the most hits on here :)

 

Today's Guest Guru is Nabukenya Muwonge.

 

 I met Nabukenya through work last year and she took the very brave step of resigning and starting her own business doing life Coaching and training.

 

She's here today to give us some tips for self care ,which in the busy would we live in is something that seems to get neglected more often than not!

 

        ___________________________________________________________

What is the last thing you did for yourself? Your first instinct will tell you that you prioritise your well being everyday by keeping busy; nourishing your body, sleeping or whatever else it is that you do to look after yourself.  For some the answer will be nothing, I have not had time to look after myself. I have other responsibilities like my family. If this is you like most of us, perhaps your best option is to make a commitment to do just one thing for yourself.
  

Let's look at what self care really means. In this case I am not talking about only eating or sleeping. I am talk about looking after yourself from the inside in by nourishing your spirit. Eating enough food to fuel the day comes naturally. Sleep comes naturally for most of us at the end of an exhausting day. But when is the last time you made it a point to look after your spiritual self?
 

 

Looking after your spiritual self entails taking time to sit in quiet reflection, pray and thank our source for our blessing, reflecting on what we really need and what we do to help ourselves to attract the life that we want.  We are all different and do different things to really get in touch with ourselves and nurture our souls. But what is the use, surely food, fun and sleep is enough?
 

Well technically to keep functioning, adequate nutrition and rest is enough. But the amazing thing about human beings is that we have a mind and soul that needs to be nourished too, and food and sleep are not going to suffice. Feeding yourself spiritually means you are more in tune with yourself, you nurture and fortify yourself and of course you get in touch with the outside world and get to connect with your surroundings in a way that is not possible unless you take time to sit and be still. Here is a challenge for you, try one of the below suggestions out for 21 days, and see whether or not it has a positive impact on your life. I dare you! 
 

Here are some suggestions of different things you could try that you can do to get in touch with yourself and nurture your spiritual self: 
 

1. Find your path to God - for some people they find this through religion, or joining a group that practises their spiritual beliefs.  For others, it is reading to enhance their knowledge, meditation, pray or simply spending some quiet time in nature.
2. Identify a cause that is close to your heart and volunteer some of your time - this is an excellent way to get perspective. These are tough economic times, and often times because we are human, we are inclined to believe nobody is as bad off as ourselves. In most cases this is a mis-perception. What cause could possibly be close to your heart? Are you especially concerned about the elderly? Is there a centre or facility nearby where you could volunteer your time and learn more about those less fortunate? For every gift and privilege that God has given us, we have a responsibility. What could your responsibility to society be? Volunteer your time and open your mind. 
3. Identify an outlet to express yourself, your innermost desires and the aspects of yourself that you need to work on. E g. writing in a journal, talking to someone whom you trust, exercise in nature - and spend some time getting to know yourself and the awesome person you are evolving into becoming.

These are simply a few suggestions, but there are so many things we can do to nurture our spirits and get in touch with our own humanity. Try it and feel free to write and let me know of the impact in your life on info@petitecoach.com
 

 

I look forward to hearing from you! Onwards and upwards!
 

Your Lifecoach

 _____________________________________________________

 

Thanks Nabu! Definitely and important reminder to keep things in Focus!

 

You can contact Nabukenya through the email listed in the post or through her website or Facebook page. If you are In Namibia and would like to have some sessions with her please contact her!

 

Thanks for stopping by !

100 posts

 

I've been mentally rewriting this post in my head for the last week and I really hesitated publishing it ,which is completely ridiculous! It's my 100th post on my little space of the Internet and somehow it felt like it should be profound and amazing and yet all I have are update on how life is going... thats profound and amazing right ;) Anyway! I've enjoyed this little blog so much over the year and a bit I've been able to be here and learned SO much about the background of a website (still not an expert but I try). It's a creative outlet and a way to keep family and friends up to date with what we were up to and I love that. I've also met so many new virtual 'friends' and I'm glad you joined in for the ride:) Here's hoping there's lots more blogging fun and projects to be had!!

 

So moving away from the sappiness here's some updates:)

 

I wrapped all our Christmas presents over the weekend (we went shopping last week as it was W's weekend off and we wanted to try and get a head start on Christmas as we're both working right through this year)

 

 

I'm feeling super proud to be so organised (believe me it doesn't happen often) and it almost makes up for the fact that I couldn't find the gift's I'd been stocking up on through the year which are in a box .... somewhere.... all the gifts are now sitting pretty under the Christmas tree which we put up yesterday (and I forgot to take a picture of )

 

Secondly I've been on the look out for thing's for the new house to dress it up a bit. I found these amazing paper place mats from Ishish designs at our local arts and crafts shop, Jenny's place. unfortunately it looks like IshIsh only sells to retailers so you won't be able to get their stuff off their website but the designs are great! (the also had some beautiful Christmas ones!!)

I'm planning on framing them for the HUGE wall in our dining-room/lounge

 

 

Lastly remember a while back when I got the broken mirror's I said I wanted to try my hand at some mosaic? I finally got my act together and bought the supplies I needed :)

I still haven't done the grout(and to honest I have no idea how to do that!) but it was a quick and easy project which looks like a million bucks!

Here's a sneak peak:)

 

 

So that's pretty much what's going on!

 The house is looking amazing but I forgot to take photo's (bad blogger!). They've put the roof trusses up on the sides (IE over the bedrooms/kitchen/garage) and are still waiting for the ones for the *HUGE* living/dining section. Its looking amazing but we really didn't realise it would be so tall ! today they hoping to get the roof sheets on (hold thumbs !) and hopeful start finishing up the boundary wall between us and the neighbour.

 

 

 

all in all it's just another brick in the wall

No this is not me going through a rebellious Pink Floyd stage. It seemed a pretty fitting title for whats been going in our little neck of the woods. Bricks, bricks and more bricks.

 

We've moved from this

 

 

to this

 

 

 

to this amazing sight

 

 

in three short (but felt very long) days.

That's right folks the walls are going up:) we can see our little house coming together before our eyes.

 

below is a view of the house from the front gate. 

 

 

this view is from the back patio looking over the bedrooms and bathrooms

 

 

Again from the back of the house looking through the living/dining room.

 

 

VERY EXCITING STUFF!!

we are so ready for this house to be up ! Unfortunately our December deadline slipped away due to the tree that held us up earlier in the build but here's hoping they can make up the time somewhere! A girl can dream right :)

 

Pinterest challenge number 2

I know I'm late but hey better late than never right! Back in July I joined in with some of my Favourite Bloggers (Sherry & Katie) Pinterest Challenge. You can check out my previous attempt Here. the first time round I was super new to Pinterest (follow me) and hadn't pinned to much awesome stuff. This time round I'm a Pinterest Junkie with to many options to choose from :)

I decided to do my own take on something that's been floating around for ages!

a Family established sign

(source : 1 ;2 ; 3; 4)

this is something I've wanted to do ever since we got married so this was the kick in the butt I needed to get me going. We have the Huge Mirror that used to hang over our bed in the old house. It was the perfect backdrop to do this project on

I initially tried to take the cheapskate route to make my own stencil out of contact paper and to use a glass etching paint to get the effect i was looking for. Needless to say that did NOT work!! the contact paper was extremely difficult to work with and ended up sticking in all the wrong places. So the mirror was left alone for another few months while I pondered my next move.

Enter TRENDY WALLS. I found this local company who does vinyl wall stickers on face book and decided to give it s try. I measured up how big I wanted the sticker to be and sent off my request and dimensions

My Sticker arrived within 5 days of placing my order!! They even upgraded it without charging me extra!

I laid out the sticker on the mirror (after cleaning the mirror to make sure it would all stick) and followed the instructions

I taped it into place so it wouldn't move around

Basically all you do is peel off the backing paper and press the design down on the surface you want to apply your sticker too.

Once its all in position (i had a little wiggle room her to reposition since I was working on mirror but not much! that Vinyl is sticky!!) then you peel off the top sheet.

I had a bit of trouble with the 'F' in family. the little curly bit would not stay put no matter what I did so i just chopped it off.

To say I am excited about the Final outcome would be an understatement!! it turned out EXACTLY how I imagined it (don't you love it when that happens? :) ).

I tried to take pictures but trying to get a good picture where the flash doesn't glare off mirror is hard!

Can't wait to put it up in the new house :) :)

Speaking of new house we have a floor!!! The concrete has been put down and will be left to dry over the weekend. Monday they start building the walls! The builder wants to try reach roof height by the end of next week!! Whoop Whoop!!!!

marching on

Our house is progressing at quite a pace now which is quite nice after the initial setbacks . All the Foundation walls are now in place and (in my very limited building knowledge) I think the next step is compacting the sand that they dug out back in and casting the floor slab.

 

It currently looks like this

 

 

To make it easier to understand the layout I've labelled it

 

 

exciting times :)

Wish we could just Snap our fingers and jump to the fun part, but I'm satisfied with the pace things are moving. We probably aren't going to meet our (hoped for) deadline of December to move in but things are progressing and it's exciting to see ! I've always been a fan of things where you can see your progress (hence I tend to do only small 'instant gratification crafts) , and every time I get home from work somethings changed back there:)

 

also welcome to all my new followers :) thanks for joining us on this adventure