Renovations

We received pieces of a broken light that was situated in front of our town hall.  

Town hall in Harrismith built in 1907.  It commemorate the soldiers of the Anglo Boer war 

It has been scattered all over our town.  

Hennie started to renovate it!

Building a puzzle was at the order of the day!  

Puzzle pieced together 

The section that he started on was the top part that has the most wonderful curls and flowers in the design. 

Still changes to fit every piece.  

Almost there. . . . but there is some missing pieces

The painful task of welding the cast iron pieces together is in progress 
Missing pieces has to be manufactured from old cast iron.

The first section is now in one piece. 

Will keep you posted as this project progresses

We keep moving forward, opening new doors,
and doing new things, because we're curious
and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
- Walt Disney

Spring ..... time to regenerate our attic

SPRING . . .  ATTIC . . .  REGENERATE . . . .  NEW SEASON . . . .  INSPIRATION

SPRING . . . . .  and the smell of figs goes hand in hand.
A sure sign that spring is here when the fig trees start sending out their beautiful buds.


Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do ... 
but how much love we put in that action. 
- - Mother Teresa - - 

An piece of art that holds dear connections with our attic!!

. . . . . . . 

SPRING . . . .  and our dream to regenerate our attic 

What will it be . . . . . . 

The magic words for a great family are,
"I love you just the way you are."

This bathroom would fit in wonderful . . . 

The life of inner peace,
being harmonious and without stress,
is the easiest type of existence.
 - - Norman Vincent Peale - - 

An option for the chimney . . . .


The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.  
- - Sydney Harris - - 

                                            

Perhaps a little sitting area . . . . .  
Happiness... consists in giving, and in serving others.
- - Henry Drummond - - 





Ideas for a bedroom . . .  will it be number one ? ....

Positive thinking will let you do everything
better than negative thinking will.
 - - Zig Ziglar - - 

Whatever happens, always look to tomorrow -
with courage and optimism.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others,
you should put a good deal of thought
into the happiness that you are able to give.
 - - Eleanor Roosevelt - -


Any ideas . . . . .  ? 

While we are waiting and working we need to eat 

 Frances Hansen’s lovely cookbook

1/2 scrapbook, 1/2 recipe file:

Snow . . . snow . . . snow

In our country we are definitively not geared for snow.  

We have had power failures for almost three days. 

BUT we still loved the snow.  

Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night; For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow upon a raven's bac

A picture taken from De Oude Huize Yard garden 

Before you love, Learn to run through the snow
Leaving no footprint

I love you because no two snowflakes are alike, and it is possible, if you stand tippy-toe, to walk between the raindrops. 

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather

For the moment, the snow is quite wet and soft.

 If it was hard or icy, it would be a perfect downhill for my style, because I could fight even harder. 

Leonardo playing in the snow!

Bicycle not available please use your car today

Regenerated old salvage building materials from old ruins

 In 2007 this process started.  First we had to salvage old building materials.  The term beg, borrow and steal got new meaning. The photo's tell the story!  Hennie (my husband ) did almost everything with the help of Eric Maleka.  

The foundations where once a quince lane grew
After approval of our local municipality the digging started and  hand mixing of the "dagga" could be heard.

The layer for sandstone, that was hand dressed on the premises and every one was dressed to fit a certain space.

It was time to fit the bay windows.  

Slowly but surely progress
is made.

The window sills

As you can see the second
storey is also going strong

Adam Trusscott has honoured us
with this wonderful sketch 

Brick-by-brick an old wall is removed.
The old mud bricks it to be utilized again. 

After many time and errors the stairs is now leading to the top floor 

Oregon pine floors in the upper storey 

Fireplaces is now in every little nook!
Remember wintertime is on average -7 degrees Celsius

Floors in the bathrooms - trying to keep with the time -
 black and white is the theme!
Hennie is the artisan

Parquet floors in the lounge  

Start of the ceiling 

Ceiling fitting

Bathroom fitting 

Sussex bath before restoration

Lovely eagle tub feet

The finished product

Then it was time to get access to the attic

Hennie and Eric are holding on for life

The walkway is almost there!!