Mudroom - Now with glass and new roof!

Glass.... Yay!

I know it's been a while, and I have been a little slow with updates on the blog.. but believe it or not I have been rather busy..

Not only did I become a mom again, but since then everything else has sort of taken a back seat.. and this includes the house, the garden, our veg patch... *sigh*. But you know what, I don't feel bad actually, because I know that once I am fighting fit again, then I can once again focus some more the things that need some attention. :-)

Anyway to the matter at hand - We have managed in between baby and mad dogs, and overgrown garden, to put glass in the windows of the mudroom. This has vastly improved the inside climate of the kitchen as well as the sitting room, which means that in winter when we use the fireplace, we won't lose as much heat as we did before we built the mudroom extension.

First layer of cement on bad patch

Having had the builders do the brick work for the mudroom left us with some of the old plaster in a bad condition. So obviously it needed repairing. Due to the house being built of clay bricks, they are very week in some places, and we have been told by a very knowledgeable source that the best way to strengthen clay brick walls that are damaged or crumbling, is to fasten some chicken wire, and then plaster over that. So we have done just that, but still need to do one more layer of plaster just to finish it off nicely.

The door you see next to it, is going to be replaced by a window eventually. This will then mean that we will only have two doors on the stoep instead of three.. :-)


We also still need to paint the whole exterior again, and put up the ceiling in the mudroom, and do touch ups here and there in the kitchen, and bathroom... There is still a lot of small things that need doing, and it will probably take us the rest of this year to complete everything... but och.. that's what happens when you have a house in the country.. :-)

Jan - the uber handyman!!

And seeing as we are doing most of the work ourselves, in between work and other duties, things are rather slow going at times. But - the rewards are immeasurable, the satisfaction of having done it yourself being the biggest one. :-)

I am so looking forward to being able to repaint the outside of the house, and to start making things pretty, getting some pot plants etc, finishing the inside decor, doing the loft room up as a room for Rene so that he has a private space. And then there is the garden as well.. this has been sorely neglected and will need some love and attention again soon. We have many plans for it - but more on that later. :-)