First thatch

Like Minna wrote, the work on the house is now progressing quite well. On Friday morning I stayed home longer than usual - mostly to help Minna to get her talk together. I also talked to the builders' foreman, Wally.

We found the reason for water coming down onto the dining room floor during recent days. The overflow pipes of the geysers are letting the air in rather than leading it out. That was easily fixed. He promised to get the correct stopper back to the end of the irrigation hose. It was done when I came home in the evening.

The yard and the roof was a real hive of activity when three teams of men were on site at the same time: carpenters, brick layers and thatchers. In addition there were to be men working on sheet-iron rain protection around windows. The ends of the house were raised to their proper height and angle, which was now easy to do when the supporting poles are in place. The ends need to be 20 cm above the thatch.

The first of the two skylight windows were put in place, but I forgot to show the exact location, so it was put too low. We had agreed to put them high enough that there is no direct view to neighbour's garden. That was fixed on Saturday.

The four vertical window frames have arrived. They are quite big letting in quite a lot light into an amazingly large loft area under the beams. Thick veneer sheaths are now where the windows will be once the holes for the frames have been cut.

The carpenters started nailing the horizontal lattice of 3-4 cm wood to the beams. It will support the thatch from underneath. First strands of thatch were put on the roof in late afternoon.

On my way to work I stopped at the Glass Brick Warehouse in Belville to order bricks and the frame for the unopenable window in the new gable. They will arrive on Wednesday.