WEEK 2 - view from lounge toward kitchen and first bathroom

View from lounge toward kitchen (behind middle wall) and front door on the right of wall. Dinning room through doorway on left and first bathroom behind wall on left of this doorway.

They have removed the doorway from the lounge into the dinningroom area. And, half of the wall, so far, between the lounge and the kitchen. The open plan version will allow more light and make life easier for those with low vision:) The bathroom is otherside the wall on the left.

WEEK 2 - steel rafters to hold up new roof

Bringing the steel beam into the house. It weighed 125kg. Mark found that the previous beams beside being effected by wood bora, also had warped by 2 inches. The span of the lounge was too great for the load of the roof. He plans to put 2 of these steel beams in to hold the roof - because he is removing the load bearing wall between the kitchen and lounge (to make it open plan and to bring more light into the lounge). These load bearing walls were also significantly cracked. He is also thinking of putting a room space later on.

Mark and Mmalae working out how to get it up (the celings are high!) without injury and without it falling and taking the floor with it.

Half way up...

It took them the whole day to get it up, but there it is. Second one... next week.

WEEK 2 - first bathroom and front of house

Front view of the house this week. The rubble we're planning to use to make a ramp to access the front door. This is the rubble that came out of the bathroom and the bricks you see in piles are what Mmalea has salvaged from taking down parts of walls around the kitchen. They plan to reuse these bricks.

This week Mark and Mmalea plastered, set pipes in walls and replaced the window.

CONSTRUCTION WEEK 2 - Side enterance veranda roof

'Before' shot of the side enterance and veranda.

With it being school holidays, building the veranda roof was a nice project for J to help his dad with.

Mark putting on the finishing touches. We were so thankful for the roof last night, as it poured with rain and we could sit very comfortably on the veranda.
You'll notice the outside washing basin. This is because the kitchen is a construction site and Mark has set up a temporty kitchen for us on this side of the house.

CONSTRUCTION WEEK 2

FIRST WEEK OF CONSTRUCTION

Mark has a friend from church helping him - Mmilai. Its fun watching them work together as they are so similar. Mmilai comes all the way from Shakahead (an hour by car, he uses public transport so its longer) so he spends 4 nights with us and returns to his family on the weekend. Pray that our times of fellowship would be mutally encouraging. He is a wonderful worker... let us know if you know anyone who needs work done at their house.

The before shot of the one bathroom.

The remodeling is gradually taking shape. The bashing and crashing is done. Mark will also have to replace the window frame as its full of wood bora too. Watch this spot as next week the bath etc go in...

FIRST MONTH -the great tree felling

We felt the pine tree on the side of the house should be cut down for a number of reasons... it had rot in ints trunk, the pine needles would make growing anything below it pretty difficult and it wasn't very attractive compared with the many other trees in the garden.

Didn't know that Mark could singlehandedly cut down a 10m high tree. Well thanx to Sunbury's loan of their chain saw!

J and K helping dad make sure the main trunk didn't fall on the neighbors roof!

FIRST MONTH - side of the house

The side of the house was dominated by trees as well. The side enterance of the house leads into what will be a private lounge area. So we anticipate using this part of the garden a lot.

Its been fun planting and organising the gardens on the side of the house. After Mark cut down the 10m high pine tree that is...

FIRST MONTH - front of house

No-one had lived in the house for a year, so the yard was very overgrown. Tho full of wonderful trees!\
For 2 mondays, Mark drove through to the house from Sunbury with Sibo and Musa who helped clear the front garden. So you can see the front of the house.

This is a picture of the sagging roof (which led to the departure of previous SIM missionaries, the Fosters, who lived 25 years in this house. Wood bora had devoured main supporting beams in the roof structure.