The House in September

At the start of the month we were here. The basic framework was in place, and the we had a first floor, floor.

By the middle of the month we had the framework growing upstairs and pillars marking the boundaries of the property.
By the month end we had the pillars and beams upstairs, the walls finished downstairs, a balcony, window frames appearing and a perimeter wall and fence.

Creating the framework for the beams on the first floor. Rose sits in what will one day be her kitchen. We can also see the hole that will we hope be the entrance to our basement.

Here we see the sewer pipes waiting to be laid. This area will be the utility room for washing clothes, ironing, and cleaning. Looking down inside the house from what will be our bedroom you can see there are no floors as yet. The ramp that will be the stairs is being used already. Upstairs the scaffolding is everywhere as the pillars and beams are erected.

Once the pillars and beams are in place the walls are added and the scaffolding removed.

Here we see the first sewage pipes in place. Upstairs the doorframes are stacked up ready to fit and in the kitchen tiles, toilets, and mandis await their turn.

On the back wall of what will be the main room the men start to piece together a wall carving.

The House in August

Before the concrete for the first floor could be poured we needed water, lots of water. So with the aid of a lot of buckets and a lot of people we got water from the drainage ditch and put it into water tanks near the front of the house. For the operation we hired a cement mixer and operator.

With the mixer running the bucket chain was formed passing the concrete from hand to hand from the mixer up to the first floor. This was an all day operation.

This was the view upstairs about midday.








Finally late in the evening the job was done. After a few days the surface was patched and tidied up. Now I began to appreciate for the first time how high up our house is.









Then the framework for the stairs was created and a first foundation of concrete was laid.

The House in July

Once the beams had set more scaffolding was added inside the house ready to add the first floor.

Then a plywood floor was added ready to have the concrete poured to form the first floor. Once the wood was in place steel was layed and interlaced across it.

The House in June

The next stage was to "erect" scaffolding so beams could be added, and walls constructed. The favoured material here is a wood that is covered in layers and layers of paper-like bark that peels off and flaps and waves in the wind. The core is quite dense and hard and it is light and flexible. Once this forest of wood was in place the wooden boxes that would form the beams were constructed. and then the walls were built.

At the end of the house we extended the wall out to enclose our plot of land and began work to change the ditch from a muddy mess to a concrete channel.

The House in May

The walls were then skimmed with concrete to give a first layer. So the shape begins to rise from the undergrowth. Here Rose waves to us from what will be the corner windows where the stairs will be. We also have an address and street name. We are Kapling No.1 to 5 JL Medayu Sentosa. Below Rose poses in the bones of our front doorway.

The House in April

Once the pillars were dry the wood was removed. Then concrete block walls were added between the pillars and so the real building work began.

The House in March 2008

In March this year we began to go up.

Wooden casings were added to the re-inforcing rods and then concrete was mixed and poured by hand. These pillars then had to be left to dry.

Zakat Fitrah

Last Saturday we went to Pasuruan to give parcels to the poor, the tradition of Zakat Fitrah. Rose had already printed 80 tickets and Mum had distributed these to the poor people in the village around her house. On Saturday each person simply had to produce their ticket to receive a parcel. Each parcel contained 5kg of rice, 1kg of sugar, and 1.5ltrs of cooking oil. We also gave each person Rp 5,000.00.


Koko handed out the parcels and Alex gave them the money.

Most of the people were elderly, but some sent younger relatives to do the collection. All of them were tiny compared to Alex.

The Garden

They say you can just put a stick in the ground in Java and it will grow into a tree. Well these pictures show the proof. About nine months ago we stuck some cuttings from a papaya tree in the garden and now look at them, complete with fruit.

Kartini Day

Here you see me resplendent in traditional Yogjakarta costume. Rose came to see me 'perform' at my school, EF Kayun for Kartini Day. Kartini Day is one of the many National Holidays we have here. This commemorates a princess who fought for womens rights before such things had even been thought of elsewhere. People are supposed to dress in the various regional costumes as part of this celebration. All the teachers at the EF schools wear and teach in traditional dress for the day. On the Sunday before we held a fashion parade at the school.
The teachers took part in a poetry competition which involved us reading a piece of traditional Javanese poetry. I am pleased to report that I came second in that.
The students dressed in traditional clothes and were judged in various age categories. Below we see the winners of the Trailblazers aged about 9 to 14. The costumes are from Sulawesi, Surabaya, and Central Java.

Last weekend Alex went to Bali with his school. There were two teams, the swimming team and the debate team. Alex was on the latter. Here are the official photos from the trip. Alex is seen talking to Yeaji his team mate.

Furniture

After a few years of regular use our chairs and sofa in the reception area were looking a bit sad, and the padding was beginning to sag, so we called in the man . . . .

He stripped off the old covers and added new foam before recovering with new material.

The final result.

So we also got him to recover the suite in the living room, and decided to move it into the spare room I use for teaching.


So having done that we needed a new suite. We designed one based on the one we already had, but with a higher back and more solid seats. We also want a large footrest cum seat that we can move when we want to lie back and watch TV. We drew the design and explained what we wanted. The completed frames arrived 48 hours later along with the foam.


The next day the man arrived to start covering the frames. He worked in our garage attaching webbing and ticking. He brought his sewing machine and set to attaching the foam and making the covers.

Next the webbing and ticking was added to the frames.

Followed by the base board and the first layers of foam.

Then the covers were sew and fitted. All the tools including the sewing machine arrived on the back of the motorbikes the men were using.

The finished sofa with oversized footstool in place.