At the end it was just too late…

Yesterday I got held up by all sorts of little bits, concerning the Sentebale guest house, so by the time I did manage to have some time it was already too late to go to site.

I did manage however to meet the welder and with him we discussed the detail for the frames that will be mounted on the courtyard. The QS also returned an amended version of the claim and like that it was a lot easier to check…

On site work was going well, the door frames should now all be up, and all the partition walls are now done. All that we got left now is plastering roofing, and the courtyard.

Where, by the way Tau has already started to lay the foundations for. Speaking to both the contractor and the foreman, it seems that they are keen to at least have half of the building as an example that they can follow once I’m gone.

In the afternoon I went to meet the welder and since he was working at an old site (which I had visited with Martin nearly 6months ago) I decided to have a look around and see how that work had matured. The walls still look new and that really gives me confidence that our building might look the same in 6months time.

You could say that I’m not ambitious, but I am trust me. I have seen many buildings, less than a year old, with cracks that were not your average hairline or shrinkage crack, some had serious structural problems!

And it did move fast!

Amazed was I when today the dome nearly completed…

I had seen it start two days ago, but had not looked at it since, so today when I went to site in the morning and it was 5 courses away from being complete, I was more than surprised!

The structure is self supporting and easy to build, when I asked Christopher (TED) what was the biggest they had ever built he said 4,5m radius. I think that there’s potential here for something else, it just needs to be refined and maybe it could be used a simple and cheap housing solution?

There were also some big changes on the rest of the building. The roof structure (not braced, yet) is up on Block B in all of the small section and in 1/3 of the large one. The thatchers have finally showed up, all four of them, and that also seems to be picking up speed. And Tau and his men have nearly finished the last partition walls. The foundations for the courtyard have also started to be dug.

The QS showed up today and promised to bring me tomorrow, the emended version. He also claims that that is the way that they always do it… Maybe it’s just me, because this is my first time checking this sort of documents but I do believe that the way I asked him to do it is a lot better.

Orange, green, and yellow…

An early morning site visit (I had gone to drop off Liz at the airport, gave me hope that one day I’ll also be on my way to the airport) proved quite useful, as they were setting out the last walls in the kitchen area.

I also caught a glimpse of the thatcher, didn’t quite manage to see how many guys he had with him? Not really a problem, as it will be possible to calculate how many they were…

And in the Afternoon I received claim nr2 from the contractor. I had a quick look at it and have decided that I will not check it, until it is properly done! Who ever did it, just didn’t care anything about what they had doing and have mixed, previously claimed amounts with current amount! A true mess!

Both these events were important, however the biggest achievement of the day, was the decision on the colour scheme. Well not quite the decision (as I still need to go and find exactly the colours that I want), but the “go ahead” from Lydia on the overall colour scheme.

As agreed the scheme will be a simple, traditionally inspired (picture shows one house with a similar scheme), orange/terracotta for the walls, yellow/beige for the frames and light green for the doors and windows. The interior will be painted a light crème and the carpet tiles and vinyl tiles might be of changing colours.

Sills, roof and dome

I have since learnt that not all things move at the desired speed. Now that I know this I am a much more conformed person.

Yesterday I visited site and as there was little of interest to report I chose not to do so and to use that occasion only as comparison point for today. It was with some surprise, and also a bit of joy, that today the roof structure on the front of Block B has started to go up. Also the interior window sills have started to be put in place in Block A, and in the general things are starting to look a bit more finished (there is still miles to go, but the spirits, at least for today, were high).

A new thatcher also showed up today (4 were meant to come), but I must say that their progress was not that noticeable.

The biggest change of the day was the start of the Biogas dome. I met on site the guy that started TED 20 years ago, and he told me that he would be accompanying this build step by step as part of the training of the men that are doing it. This makes me feel more confident both with its quality and speed.

So things are slowly moving in the right direction, and with a little bit of luck we might soon be starting to see it close to its final shape.

Sometimes things come back to haunt you

Not all days can be fun and joy…

My day started off as my night had ended. Quite and adventure I must say, last night Harper had 2 flat tyres and after picking up the passengers (last night), today we drove back to give him his fixed tyre so that he could finally drive back! Nearly 24 later he was back in Maseru and I was off to site…

When I visited the site, expecting the same kind of progress as I had encountered yesterday, I not only did not find it (what was I thinking anyway?) but I also noticed that we are having some problems with the plastering.

On the tops of the walls especially in the round sections, the plastering has cracked. I suspect the reason for this is in part the omission of the wall plate. Not that it avoids cracks, but because if it was there the poles would have been free of plaster and would then be able to slightly shit their position as the wood expands and retracts due to changes in humidity.

Maybe I should have been stronger and not have conceded to that change of detail, but my thoughts at the time were “we need to move on”. I still believe that we do, and I do hope that once the roof is on, and before we paint that maybe we will be able to resolve this minor issue and that it will not come back to haunt me (again).

Best day so far

I would like t start by saying that it was not (entirely) Ntate Linakane’s fault that we did not meet last Tuesday, in fact he did end up coming but someone had told him that I was not here and then forgot to tell me about it…

Today we did meet and at the arranged hour! The meeting was really productive and we have agreed on a lot of issues that were still pending. Next Tuesday we will meet again and try and set a date for completion…

But this was not the only thing that went well today. When I visited the site, it seemed like something really special was happening (or maybe I just learnt to expect less, who knows?). The thatcher finally showed up, and had already done a bit of work.

I spoke to him and he explained to me how he will go on about it. It’s quite interesting! The thatcher works with an assistant, whilst he is placing the bundles on top and sowing them down the helper is tightening the sisal rope to assure that the bundles are nicely into place. They start at the eaves (bottom) and slowly make they’re way up to the ridge (top). Once the metal flashing is fixed they will then comb the grass down to finish it. Whilst this is being done the inside is gradually being coated with clean combed grass. In this way a nice thatch finish will be visible from both sides.

The Structure for the roof on block B is also being put up at good rhythm and I’m really less sceptical about it than I was with block A.

And if this was not enough progress for one day, the last slab has finally been cast! (when I left at 3:30pm they only had about 3m2 to finish, so I assume that by the end of the day it would have been finished!)

If the next few weeks go as today there might still be a little bit of hope for this building after all. (it will not be complete unfortunately, but it will be at a stage when I can comfortably move on and not look back too much over my shoulder)

The other side

Work on Block B looks like it might finally get on its way!

Today when I visited the site hoping to meet Ntate Sello and discuss the courtyard and the “DPM sandwich”, I was very happy to discover that the Roof Structure man was back and had started to erect one of the roundavlos.

It should have started last week, but anyway I’m actually happy that it started now… I already had to rectify a small detail, an maybe if they had done it lat week this week we would be discussing the same problems as we had on Block A. What is past is past and now we should only look ahead and carry on to finish this building ASAP.

Ntate Sello was not there, he had to come to Maseru to buy extra materials, but he told me that I could show Tau how to do the “DPM sandwich”. Upturning the DPM is not a standard practice in Lesotho, and it had been causing great problems so in order to make everyone’s life a little easier and allow us to move forwards, we have devised a solution that avoids the use of mesh! It’s actually quite simple, behind the existing plastic DPM you paint a Bituminous layer (2 coats, one pure paint, the second, at right angles, mixed with ruff sand, then over this mix you sprinkle extra sand, the whole purpose of this recipe is to provide a good key for the plaster), now that you have your Bituminous layer you upturn the plastic DPM and cast your sand and cement screed. After that you can cut the excess plastic DPM because (hopefully) the pressure from the sand/cement screed plus the 50mm overlap of DPMs will be enough to make it continuous. It is not an ideal solution but I believe it will work!

This is supposed to be last month here, to finish the LCCU and go home, but never have I received so many requests for new projects. I cannot start them and follow them through to the end so I’ve sent them all to “London”, for A4A to decide whether it is possible for them to commit to these new proposals.

No show (once more)

Do not be scared by the picture!
This fire started today behind the Sentebale office, but thanks to Patricia’s sharp eye, we were able to put it out (nearly 1,5 hours later) before it reached our fence. However the title of today’s blog does not refer to this but to another not unusual but annoying event!

It is not the first second or third time that I get a no show by the contractor! (I waited all day, called about 3 times and still ziltch)!

No wonder work does not progress at the right rhythm, but I honestly don’t know what I can do to make him work better!

On site, which I visited just before it closed, work was slowly on its way with not much progress being noticed between yesterday and today. Met the electrician and decided to change a few plug positions in order to make the building phases more efficient.

Also in order to make things more efficient and less time consuming I have decided to cut down the number of decorative panels. Now they will only be fitted on the two long walls, simplifying the fixings and also making it less expensive.

One of my tests finally survived, and although it was the one made of simple clay (commercial) with mesh on the inside I’m happy that I now have a formula that works. I will try and come up with a refined mixture using local clay (crushed) so that we can make the panels virtually costless.

The reason why some of the other panels just cracked was the fact that when clay dries out it shrinks and harder backings would not allow it to shrink naturally thus causing it to crack! It is in fact unbelievable how much they actually shrink: the sample was 295 and shrunk down to 280. I will need to measure on site and then make the fixings in such a way that they can absorb these (possibly different) shrinkages.

Back (once more)…

Sometimes I wonder for how long this build is actually going to last… I’m disappointed but not surprised.

From the list of tasks that I left to be carried out this week, very little which can be seen has been done! It’s a disappointment because it means that in no way will it ever be near completion by the time I need to leave. And I don’t understand it, every day that goes by is a day on which they are loosing money, so why don’t they speed it up and get done with it…

Of course it doesn’t help if your thatcher doesn’t show up, or you run out if stone just two loads short of the top, but surely more could have been done this past week. Even when I phoned on Tuesday and Thursday I had the impression that it was going better than I have seen! Ok one slab has been cast and the other should be cast tomorrow, but these are things that should have finished month ago! The exterior plastering is also on it’s way but then again that is not a major achievement…

Tomorrow I have already organized to meet Ntate Linakane and maybe we will be able to talk it out, but even that I doubt.

And this was not the only disappointment of the day, another small project that I started with Camille has also slightly side tracked due to client changes, but in end I do hope that it will look ok.

The only joy of the day (although not 100%) was to see children playing in the refurbished Football pitch for the blind, it needs one or two finishing touches but at least it reminded me why I enjoy doing this. To see people (children) smiling and enjoying themselves!

Away for a week

Once again Baba is in charge of the site… Work has been set out and hopefully when I return block B will be looking more like a building and less like a hole!

Contractor for a day

I picked up the truck at 8:30 am, as had been organised yesterday, and by the time I had arrived on site and that truck was already on its way to load some stone another truck popped up at the entrance!

Yesterday we had none and today we had two! It was bound to happen! So Ntate Sello and I just did what needed to be done, we organized for one truck to stay and collect the stone that we’d already quarried and together with the other truck we sent off to buy the stone at another place.

Thanks to Sentebale’s willingness to speed up the project it was possible to pay off the stone and profit of the fact that we had 2 trucks! In total we managed to bring to site 10 loads (60m3) and tomorrow we will do an extra 7 which should allow us to have enough stone to complete both fills.

Somehow I cannot understand why it had taken so long to organize everything, I tried and it was easy… So now let’s just get all we need so that then we can cast the slabs and start cruising to completion!

Accidents do happen

The most tragic accident happened today, luckily it was not on site and none of our people was injured.

I would like to share my deepest sympathy to you and I hope that you will recover soon.

In the mean time I will try and relieve you of some of your worries and work load.

It was in this spirit that I have decided to order a truck for tomorrow 8:30am. This morning when I visited the LCCU the truck had not arrived there so I have now, and in the light of recent events, take into my own hands the responsibility to source a truck to allow us to carry on work as normal.

I had gone to visit the LCCU, with Andreas from TED to discuss the water issues, when I discovered that there was not truck yet organized. I also met the thatcher, who gave me the good news that it would only take him 3months to complete each block… and by the time that I made it back to the office I received the news that there had been a road accident with a victim.

After that I decided that both for work to carry on and for people to be able to recover that I had to take it on me to organize the next couple of days. To start I have organized a truck for tomorrow and we will see how we take it from there on…

On to a more cheerful note, the QEII playground opening ceremony was today and it was with great pleasure that I noticed that the NEW hospital superintendent was very happy that we had built the playground here in his hospital!

The inauguration kind of reminded me of Expo98, when by the time people were making nice speeches about the success and goodness of the whole event there were still contractors and cleaning people finishing up on the other side of the park. This because just minutes before the ceremony I had been there fixing the swing to the tree! I had to insert a floor tile into the tyre to prevent the little kids from falling through but I think it will be a success. Judging by its short life today it will as children were already knocking each other over both to play in it but also from playing in it! Maybe I’ll have to dismount soon, if something serious does happen…

Up, up but nowhere…

I finally managed to get through to Ntate Linakane and he promised me that tomorrow I would have a truck. I do hope so!

On site today plastering continued slowly, and with a lot of hard work and setting up scaffolding on unfinished fills we managed to complete the ring beam on block B.

I also asked Ntate Sello if they could start clearing out a 2,5 metre perimeter around the internal courtyard so that we can start to prepare to also cast those slabs. It has still not been decided if their will be a small retaining wall on a strip foundation or if the the perimeter slab will sit on a rock fill with pad foundations for the poles (that will support the canopy) but I do wish that we go for the wall solution as it will mean less work.

Linakane does not seem to interested in the bonus that we have offered him if he decides an end date and completes within it, but tomorrow I will try once more and negotiate an end date.

Work on the Football pitch is ongoing, and it is looking better day by day. At least there are things that are going the way we planned and those have been keeping me busy whilst I wait for those trucks…

100

I had timed the blog perfectly with my school obligations, today I would have been writing about how well the build had gone and how happy I was with what we have achieved, instead I’ll have to write about one of the most frustrating days ever!

I spent all day trying to call Ntate Linakane to see if we could sort out the truck problem! Unfortunately his phone was either on voicemail or with no ring tone, I assume a network issue as I tried every 30 minutes. Although my will is to just go ahead and order the trucks and then deal with it as it happens I’m afraid it might cause further problems so I did not do it. But I do not know how much longer I can wait!

The whole day was not wasted anyway… Pete and Susie (K4L) have a couple of friends over, Paul and Rachel, and they have decided that they wanted to revamp the football pitch at the Blind Centre. Over the weekend we had discussed alternatives of how to it and today we set out to buy the materials needed and they have already started it.

Another achievement of the day was to finally manage to speak to the guy that drilled the borehole at the LCCU. I learnt the capacity (18 L/m) and the depth (50m and water 9m) of it and this will for sure help us in discovering why we are not being able to pump enough water. In the next couple of days I will meet with TED to discuss this.

So all in all, the day was not that bad but not as good as I had hoped, when long ago back in March I started both the project and this blog. But slowly we are getting there…

Doing what we can…

We do what we can but without a little cooperation I cannot produce miracles.

The truck broke down yesterday, today we had a poor turn out on site, and we have not bought enough grass for the roof…

I keep thinking of ways to save time and build faster but without Linakane supporting us, Ntate Sello and I cannot work, and without the workers showing up we cannot continue, but even if they had today, we could not have done much, without a truck we cannot complete the fill for the two missing slabs!

We cannot relly on one truck and a contractor that does not sort out the problems when they occur, so if by 12pm tomorrow he hasn’t done his job I’ll do it for him! I’ll just hire 2 trucks and expense him! This situation cannot continue like this.

But in the mean time we do what we can, Ntate Sello has started to cast the ring beam on block A and I have asked him that as soon as that is finished to start the roof in the round section that has a slab. The plastering has continued at a good rhythm, and is looking good (only one window that I had to ask to be redone as the mix that was used seemed to be too strong and it has cracked up, or maybe t was an end of the day job, when they just tried to save some time and added water to a dry mix), but we need to sort out the other issues if we are ever to complete this any time soon!

A boy (16-17 I guess) has now been employed on site, he works as hard as the rest of the men, he had originally come to replace his father whilst he was sick and now been given a job. A nice gesture and double example of doing what we can.

Self standing

The diagonal bracing was today completed and the roof now stands on its own and looks a lot more stable.

When I arrived at 10:40am on site this morning they had already done 3 of diagonals, and were just about to start the last… It was good that I came anyway, as they were preparing to just sit it in the wrong position, too difficult to do it the right way it seemed, but with a little incentive and monitoring I managed to convince them to chisel it into position.

The end result is quite pleasing, they do not interfere with the space and give it quite a modern look. I was sad I had not arrived a little earlier, as there is one of the poles that is too low and will have to be shaved so as not to interfere with the top of the wall detail, but considering how hard it was to get all the bracing done I guess I mustn’t complain (I even got a free brace that I hadn't asked for)!

The stone that arrived yesterday was started to be placed in the whole, (the pipes having previously been wrapped in geo-textile and left to sit on the foundations, but this flow of stone was to be stopped as our truck broke down! Tomorrow maybe they recon it will be operational again…

Let’s just hope so! Monday I will meet Ntate Linakane again and hopefully discuss a new end date.

roof bracing click here

The mystery of the rotating house

A note on another project, but something that I feel that I should not go without mentioning… Work at Lydia’s new site has started, in the end the contractor that was not awarded the job got this new one (I’m really happy that we choose the one we did). But although the workmanship is not great I still cannot understand why her house has rotated 90 degrees and is now nowhere near the site!

It upset me because not only I had made my best to make the house as rationale as possible but I had all the time the constraint of keeping the curved walls as a memory of the old house, but now that it is facing south/west I cannot see what is the point of having done so. Good luck to them but a house can not just be rotated and sat on any old site…

All alone, again…

It seems like ages since Camille left, but it also seems that it will take ages for the building to be completed! When we first planned for her to come it was supposed to be for helping me with the finishing touches but it seems that that slightly backfired… But thank you for the support and the help on all the projects some of which without you would I would have not managed to continue.

I have done my best and so has Ntate Sello, we are both working to see if we can deliver this building within an expected time frame!

Work on the roof was been carrying on today as planned. On one of the roundavels the bracing was put in the write way, but in the other (mainly because of the spacing) it was not possible to achieve my 60-60-60 angle division. Tomorrow I will check and discover if it will be possible.

So by now we have organised the roof, only diagonals missing, and after yesterday’s meeting with Linakane, it seemed as though we have overcome some of our divergences!

Stone has started to arrive today, and 3 extra men, have been invited to participate on this specific task. Three women have started to clean the thatch, to be used on the underside of the roof and a Thatcher, has also been employed but it might happen that he will be sacked, as the speed of his work is not top notch! The decision of trying to speed up work, at least for September 2007, has been taken and now we all hope to be able to make our work as good and quick as possible.

Hands and knees

A hand full of blisters is all that I have to show for an afternoon of really hard work!

Camille and I spent the last few hours of her stay laying floor tiles and hammering/clicking them into position! When I had thought of this I had thought that it would be a 2 hour max task, but by the end of it, the hospital gate had been closed and our hands were already in pain!

Yesterday I had gone to site but had discovered that not much had changed! I wish that soon we will start to see progress so that hopefully we will manage to recover on some of the lost time.