Build Diary 33 – Are we going to make it?

2 weeks to go….. and so much to do!

We’d extended our current villa lease as much as possible, but our time is rapidly running out. Our current landlord initially wanted extortionate prices to stay on, and then flat out refused. Not sure why, as there are barely any tourists in Bali, and there’s next to no chance he’ll be able to rent it out because all the furniture is ours.

The end result is that we’re out in 2 weeks. Not quite out on the street, but our new home is certainly not going to be finished, so we’ll be moving us and all our stuff into our construction site/villa. Ah, the joy!

Gazebo dreaming

We’ve got this lovely space out in the backyard that is perfect for a gazebo. I don’t like tanning so if we don’t put something there, I’m sure we wont use the space. And that would be such a shame.

So I’ve been sketching up designs of what it could look like. Here is the latest design (thanks to our builder Agus for taking my sketches and creating a 3D version). It’s coming along, but I know it’s not quite there yet.

More mistakes

The resin counter tops for the bathrooms and the kitchen tables arrived. The workers, whose shop is a few blocks away, had been in to measure and remeasure the sizes. Unsurprisingly, there are a bunch of problems  when the finished products arrived. Rather than make the tops in their workshop, they sent the job to Java (!), where it was made and then trucked back to Bali. Clearly they received the wrong measurements and instructions, because there are a bunch of mistakes. So the local resin workers are trying to fix all the issues. Did I mention we’re running out of time?

What are the odds?

One of our ongoing issues has been worker unreliability. The main problem was our foreman going missing for months, yes months! (can you imagine?) and this problem has raised its ugly head again. At the moment, as well as our general workers, we should have 3 specialist teams – metal and glass workers, resin guys and carpenters.

It’s a good day when all 3 turn up on time. All 3 says they will turn up, but mysteriously don’t, or arrive at midday. The odds of all 3 teams turning up are low, and nowadays we need it every day if we’re going to make the villa liveable before we move in.

Here’s a video of where we’re at. You can probably see and hear my frustration and exhaustion!

Gardening 

On the flip side, my wonderful landscape designer Diane has transformed our barren backyard dirt pile. It’ll take a while for the plants and grass to settle in, but one of the few advantages of the rainy reason is that they get plenty of water now.

Tiling away

After deciding on the tiles for our courtyard, it’s time to tile our courtyard. On the fly, I decided to make 2 patterns – a traditional square shape for the main courtyard and a diamond shape (turn the square to the side and hey presto!) for the entryway. The workers staked out the courtyard, brought out the hand saw, and started tiling. It’s long, tiring work.

Behind the scenes…

Recently, I was lucky to shoot Villa Lane’s latest collection. Behind the scenes at any shoot is far less glamourous than the final edited photos. You can see what happened below. We needed to hang a lamp but didn’t have anything to hang it from… so we improvised. Not only did the photos turn out great, but it gave me an idea.

In our new villa, I’m lucky enough to be building a photo studio. I can’t wait to use it. However, I’ll also need to hang things, be it lamps or backdrops, or anything. I’ve arranged to have a large steel beam that will run across the width of the room, fixed to rollers on either wall. It’ll be perfect for hanging whatever I need, and as it rolls, can easily be moved.

2 weeks to go, hopefully we can get most of it done!

Sheila