Darryl's log home

The Balcony... . Darryl has more or less finished the balcony. The reason why this structure went up first, is to give him a platform to work on when we start with the logs. Wayne Oaks came to help with the building of the balcony.   The poles are drying after a few coats of linseed oil. We will put planks on top of the poles and then rough boarding over that to protect the balcony surface during the building process.   Stone walls...  We're doing odd bits of wall-building in the garden (A retaining wall to form a terrace.) And along the top retaining wall to make it look a little more natural..... using up the natural stone that abound on the site! Precious has built this beautiful wall in my garden with Steve's help! Timothy, Lobsen and Munga are busy with coating the brick wall.

The slab is down! Four trucks of cement later! They've covered it with sand and are keeping it wet for the time being. John has erected a temporary railing to prevent accidents.  When you stand on the edge looking down, you feel as if you're high in the air on the edge of a cliff!   John.   Lobsen.   Timo.   Precious. Steve and Precious  on Tea-break.       The pillar bases for the balcony supporting poles. Looking up towards the road.  Mischa and Precious made temporary stairs to get up and down.

The slab The cement will be thrown on Tuesday the 10th October. Will keep you posted!

The Plans.

Almost two years later..... Our logs look weathered but awesome.  Some have cracked badly but we won't use them.  80% are perfect for building. We've had to wait a year for the plans to get passed and then 9 months for the building to get to a stage that it's ready for the logs. well - now we're just waiting for the garage slab to be thrown and cured and then we're going to start! One week ago we did the final check and allocated each log to a certain place in the walls or ceiling according to their measurements and appearance.

Starting on the cement structure. For the first time we could see what our log home will start to look like! It suddenly started to take shape for the first time. After the ground floor was done, they started on the columns that would hold up the garage. Whenever we stood on the edge of the building we were AMAZED at the view. we cannot wait to start building with the logs!

The columns Because we're building on a slope, the whole house will be resting on the columns.  A lot of planning has gone into this to make sure of structural integrity and strength.