Here’s day one of the floor-finishing fest. Day two soon.
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Anthony, whose shop this is, is making a small table for my refrigerator to fit on. That will open up some counter space in the kitchen.
Three charter members of the preschool across the road from us.
Puppy, a new mother, had this dietary supplement this morning. You can tell by the two small horns that it is the head of a dik dik, which the dogs must have tracked down in the night.
Today we started the final finish for the floor. First we had to rough up the concrete sub-floor.
Then we laid down a very wet layer of mortar, cement and sand. That's the light grey stuff on the bottom.
A two inch layer of very dry mortar goes on top of that. It looks like sand here.
The dry stuff gets compacted
to a depth predetermined
by the site level.
A little water on top and some trowel work and it's ready for the next step.
Which is to mix white cement with this stuff, yellow oxide powder from India, in a 2.5 to 1 ratio.
This is what you get.
Some in a bucket with the right amount of water,
a witch's stir, and ...a kind of cake batter.
This is where real skill is called for. Japolo, our hired gun, has it.
Using a rectangular trowel, also called a spreader, in a motion that's most like a pastry chef frosting a big cake
without ever leaving a seam, he spread the yellow mixture in a very thin,
very even layer over the whole floor surface.
systematically
painting himself
out of
the picture.
A small dam of river sand at in the doorway
and some dam water will keep the new finish submerged for a week so the cement will cure properly and not crack.
.
See you in the next room,
.
David
Posted on November 15th, 2009 by david
Filed under: Recent News | 5 Comments »
Here’s a record in pictures of some of the action at the property today, Wednesday.
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.
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Tomorrow were pouring the floor finish. Very exciting in our world. We’ll tell you all about it.
.
David
Posted on November 11th, 2009 by david
Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Hello there,
.
The photos below span about a week, and include construction updates, a couple of days in Naivasha, and a couple more poking around in Nairobi.
.
.
The land locked version of a tall ship. Sailing its way to Naivasha.
You shop at the Safeway Supermarket; I shop at the Safeway Hypermarket. You buy "po-tay-toes," I buy "po-tah-toes."
I have been trying to find a starter for the Bedford. One of the many places the search has taken me had this magnificent machine. There may be one 24 volt starter for a 1989 Bedford left in this world, but if so I think it must be housed in the true Ark of the Covenant. And I am not, it seems, Indiana Jones.
A brief meeting and parting in three parts, on the cut off road from Limuru to Dagoretti.
"Hi High. Hi Sigh."
"How's it going High?" "Fine Sigh."
"Bye, High." "Bye, Sigh." Giddy-yup, Giddy-yup.
I woke one morning in Naivasha to take Sabobo out for a short call, and said a quick howdy to this neighbor,
whom I only saw on the way back in.
.
I spent a couple of days in Nairobi while the new shell for the pick up was fabricated, modified and fitted.
It's something I should have done long ago. Like many other things I still haven't done.
Peter, the best welder in the world, working on the gate. Gilbert, at the wheel of the Bedford, had a too close encounter with one side of it,
so we took the opportunity to fortify it.
The beginning of the sub-flooring for the first of the two childrens' houses.
The finished electrical box.
Mr. S in his new mobile office.
His first visitor.
The view from the room.
Peter making the half door for the cooking area.
It will go in this opening, where another Peter, a mason, is putting the finishing concrete on the step below it.
The foundation posts for the second childrens' house.
David, another mason, fashioning the concrete box where,
eventually, the main electrical cable will enter the kitchen building.
.
This is Pascal, the tailor, who does his business al fresco, making canvas curtains for the windows in the truck shell.
At dawn just outside my window this morning.
Our latest big dig. A sunken home for six 24,000 liter water tanks. Our rain water collection repository.
She and her t-shirt declaration were selling bananas in the stopped traffic on the Mombasa Road this a.m.
I went to pick up the disassembled Bedford starter. We were unable to find the parts we needed. I know I've shown you this machine before, but I am in love with it.
Sixty years old now and nearly obsolete,
its duties taken over, no doubt, by a small circuit board.
I arrived at a Tim Sales, a lumber place, at 1:02p.pm. They close for lunch from 1 to 2. I walked to the only restaurant in this area, a tough, no nonsense, keep your wits about you industrial enclave, and found myself incongruously at the Executive Grill, and this extravagant lunch of grilled jumbo prawns. It was lunch and dinner as it turned out, and I spent a happy hour at it.
One of the thirty 8' by 6" poles from Tim Sales I came home with.
The guys from H-Tess have finished the sub flooring for one of the childrens' houses.
And Peter the mason has finished cementing in place the door that Peter the welder finished making yesterday.
.
This is the spot where the extension of our road meets the Mombasa Road in Athi River. Sunday morning, two “thugs,” as all criminals are called here, were arguing about the selling price of a water tank they had stolen the night before. A security guard overheard them and raised the alarm. A crowd gathered quickly and killed the two men with rocks and other things. Gilbert found one of the corpses lying there on his way to buy food that morning.
.
There are some hard truths here,
.
David
Posted on November 10th, 2009 by david
Filed under: Recent News | 5 Comments »
Anthony, whose shop this is, is making a small table for my refrigerator to fit on. That will open up some counter space in the kitchen.
Three charter members of the preschool across the road from us.
Puppy, a new mother, had this dietary supplement this morning. You can tell by the two small horns that it is the head of a dik dik, which the dogs must have tracked down in the night.
Today we started the final finish for the floor. First we had to rough up the concrete sub-floor.
Then we laid down a very wet layer of mortar, cement and sand. That's the light grey stuff on the bottom.
A two inch layer of very dry mortar goes on top of that. It looks like sand here.
The dry stuff gets compacted
to a depth predetermined
by the site level.
A little water on top and some trowel work and it's ready for the next step.
Which is to mix white cement with this stuff, yellow oxide powder from India, in a 2.5 to 1 ratio.
This is what you get.
Some in a bucket with the right amount of water,
a witch's stir, and ...a kind of cake batter.
This is where real skill is called for. Japolo, our hired gun, has it.
Using a rectangular trowel, also called a spreader, in a motion that's most like a pastry chef frosting a big cake
without ever leaving a seam, he spread the yellow mixture in a very thin,
very even layer over the whole floor surface.
systematically
painting himself
out of
the picture.
A small dam of river sand at in the doorway
and some dam water will keep the new finish submerged for a week so the cement will cure properly and not crack.
