Fairies At The Bottom Of Our Garden

I was complaining to my sister the other day how it has been ages since I've had a weekend to lie in bed, and that I was averaging 5 hours of sleep max per day.  She said, "Welcome to my life!"  Owing to the fact that she has a four year old and an eight-month old, she has barely slept since the first child came into the world.

It's been a pretty strenuous last few weeks.  As construction progressed, we saw an opportunity to re-look some of the spaces.  And as any architect will tell you, a client who starts thinking is a dangerous thing :-)  But, thanks to the persevering souls involved in the process and Ijam, we have emerged from two weekends of almost all-nighters with a much improved property.  Everything really looks like it all fits together now.  Really.

To say that I am happy is an understatement.  Tired yes, but very satisfied.  And also realising day by day that I would still much rather be doing this than the jobs I had in my previous life.  Somehow, poking around second-hand hotel stores and dusty junkyards, or traipsing about the property gives me a sense of fundamental satisfaction every time we overcome an obstacle or reach a small milestone.

Speaking of which, the magical Din has now managed to put up our roofs!!!!

When I last left the site on Sunday, we were still waiting for delivery of the roof material.  Somehow, somewhere between yesterday morning and the end of day, Din has miraculously put it all up.  Like Ijam says, we think Din uses elves.  In fact, he rather looks like a very friendly albeit slightly shy one himself.

The bridges going across our grey water pond are also almost complete.  They will enable folk to cross over into the brushland that lies at the very back of our property.  I personally have an affinity for the way the wild brush looks at the moment.  Almost makes you want to believe there are fairies living there, at the bottom of our garden, doesn't it?

Of Kerbaus and Progress

Last weekend, I made another trip to the site, and as you can see, things are progressing!

Peering out of one of the rooms in the first block!

Progress on the second block of rooms

While work has been somewhat hampered by rain, it is looking like we will be ready by year-end.  We've had to make some adjustments as we've gone along, but it has all worked out so far.  We abandoned our intent to use cement board as our primary building material due to cost constraints and have fallen back on the conventional brick-and-mortar method.  The good news is, the sand on our grounds is of such lovely quality, it will be re-used to plaster our walls.  We've excavated piles of it, thanks to our digging of the pool and the grey water pond.

Ijam has also been hard at work, trying to reduce our construction wastage.  Wood used for one structure's formwork is recycled for the next and most of it will eventually be incorporated on site into structures or as reinforcement for our grey water pond.

I won't go into the details of the various challenges we've faced in trying to conserve as much as possible and be green, but suffice to say, there have been times when cost has been a real constraint in allowing us to opt for the greenest alternative.  So decisions have had to be made.   But I recognise too that trying to be as environmentally conservative as possible is an ongoing process.  It will be part of our guiding principles when commencing operations and doesn't stop at just our construction period alone.

No matter how stressful things get, comic relief somehow, never seems far.  On our last visit, we were inspecting the grey water pond at the back of our property.  By coincidence, our neighbours, the kerbau Mommy, wandered by, with her brood, which now includes a studly male companion.  She now has four calves, two more than the original pair.

As they took their typical stroll from their property through ours and over to the other side, one of the babies emerged from the brush and decided to take a dip in the pond.  He was very nonchalant about it, swishing his tail and at all times maintaining eye contact with us as if to say, "Hey, this is MY pool, so I better not catch you swimming in it!"  Since the pond isn't very deep, he took a small stroll around one end of it, his body practically submerged, while we laughed on the sidelines.

My little kerbau friend, well camouflaged :-)  I think I should name him!

I almost wish I don't eventually have to cordon off our property.  It will deprive him of his swimming hole.  But I don't think some guests will appreciate being confronted by a family of kerbau while they are sunning on the lawn!

Meanwhile, all manner of folk have been trooping through my home in Petaling Jaya, which has finally been put on sale.  I will miss it, as it has been good to me and I have many memories of my life there.  But as they say, it's time to move on.  And move on we will.