It’s great seeing some of the details of the house taking shape. I just realized now that the Z-shaped concrete under the corner window of my daughter’s bedroom is “hanging” in the air, with no support underneath. A nice little touch there by the architect, and I never noticed from the drawings…

A little worse was realizing that the concrete hollow-block supporting wall that they have put up in front of the entrance probably has to be demolished. I’m not sure, since John (our architect) still has not finalized the plans for the entrance and the water feature, but it seems to me that that wall should not be there.

The contractor complained the other day about the prefabricated concrete slabs that the architect has mandated we use. I spoke to John about the slabs, and he explained that the slabs help lower the overall weight of the house, such that a thinner, simpler structure can be used. The slabs are giving the contractor a bit of a headache, because the slow supply from the manufacturer and the fact that the slabs are somewhat curved and hard to install, but it’s too late to change the design now.

This is great. Even while I was on the other side of the world for a month, the house continued to grow up, almost by magic. Mind you, maybe the 20 or so construction workers had something to do with it…

The posts and beams in the basement are done, as is most of the ground floor. We are seeing some delays due to the late delivery of the prefabricated slabs, but they should all be in by Wednesday. They are now working on the floor slab on the second floor, and pouring concrete for the posts there.

With the second floor starting to take shape, the house is now easily visible from the main road across the approaching bridge. We continue to be pleased with the location of the house, and the view should be magnificent from up there! With the sports center now open, and badminton courts just a stone’s throw away, we can’t wait to move in.

In a week or so, we should be able to walk around the second floor so that we can finalize the layout there.