Metal ceremony
Bali just celebrated Tumpek Landep ceremony. It occurs twice a year and is easy to spot because all the cars and scooter that you see in the streets are covered in ceremonial offerings. This ceremony blesses all metallic/iron objects (e.g. vehicles, knives, cameras etc). Our wonderful nanny Wayan performs the ceremony for our vehicles.
Visa update
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After releasing regulations that required many of the foreigners who have been here during the pandemic to leave, new draft regulations have been circulating that appear to allow foreigners to apply for new visas onshore. However, the implementation of these regulations has not been smooth sailing as different immigration offices have been giving different advice. The visa merry-go-round continues!
I found my tiles!
I’d been hearing about Sadus tiles for quite a while. Well-known for their high-quality handmade tiles, I was keen to see them in person. After contacting the lovely owner Wayan, I headed over to magical Sideman in east Bali with my partner-in-crime, our architect Silvia. A journey back in time along winding roads though gorgeous forests, just getting there was an experience. Old Bali – with local families bathing in crystal clear streams, and a view of majestic Mount Agung – this was something to behold.
Sadus is run by Wayan and his wife. Friendly and charismatic, he gave us a private tour of his factory and showroom. Wayan built the factory in his village, rather than move to the manufacturing centre in Denpasar because he wants to provide fulfilling employment to the people of his local community. It’s easy to see the passion that he has for his work. His design are precise and require specialist skills to produce. His factory is well-organised, clean, efficient, and even uses a secret method which we got to see it in action but no photos allowed!
Suffice to say, I was super impressed. After scouring his showroom for just the right tiles, I found some that I loved. We’ve ordered some for the 3 en-suite bathrooms upstairs as well as the kitchen.
Meanwhile, at the build our workers have been working on tiling the pool. The bricks for our feature wall have been delivered. Well, not all of them. As they are an unusual design, they are being done in batches.
Change Of Order
Our builder Agus came over to go through the Change Of Order (COO). This is the list of differences between our original quote and what we are actually getting built. Basically, it’s all my changes, including the extra window and door frames, land elevation, reinforced back wall, new storage rooms, and many others. The COO was higher than we expected. So we went over all those changes and cleared up any misunderstandings e.g. when we told Agus we wanted a “special door”, he thought we wanted a (very expensive) antique Javanese oversized door and he budgeted for it accordingly.
Kids at work
During our self-imposed quarantine, one of the very few trips out our kids could make was to our build. And like all kids, they can find a way to play in any situation. Their latest game is called “making our home” and involves a lot of breaking tile offcuts into smaller pieces.
Where to put the outdoor shower?
I love an outdoor shower. Who doesn’t? But I can’t quite work out where to put it. It needs to be near the pool, but where? On one side of the pool, we’ll have a garden. Not much point getting clean in the shower then dirtying up our feet walking through the garden. The other side of the pool will have some stairs that descend down to a tiered garden – I want to release my inner farmer – and then access to the pool motor. One option is to create a place for the outdoor shower on a small platform midway down the stairs, but somehow that doesn’t feel right. I’m still thinking about this one…
Workers in limbo
Our specialist workers, who will install the windows, doors and most importantly the roof of the third and final building, had been stuck in Java. It’s one of the reasons we’ve been running behind schedule. Fortunately, they’ve just arrived and will hopefully start of the final roof this week.
Sheila
