Before I left for South Africa (see
blog here), we put up our first "building" on the site: A shed! It was just much easier to store all the camping gear there, than loading the car every time we want to go up. Believe it or not, but it is a whole van packed full of stuff. While the shed looked quite big in the hardware store, it looks much smaller on the large section. Just as well, since I was worried if it was a bit too intrusive, since it is not exactly a beauty. But it fits well...
We also found a builder who is specialising in portable cabins (
Portable Kiwi Cabins), and when we saw him, we got a good impression. He had a bach there that had just been built, and it looked good. The workmanship was what I expected, and in addition he was very flexible with custom changes. Thus, I decided to go for a small cabin and ordered it. It is only 10 m2; the maximum size you can have without a building consent. Just as well for us at this stage - we can always add later (when I win lotto... ;-). So while I was in South Africa, the cabin was built. Earlier this year, Linda put in a week of annual leave for me, which was now very handy. Well, while we thought we would spend most of the week in the bach, it turned out that we got delayed repeatedly. Firstly, the bach hadn't been totally finished, but that didn't really matter, since it was a week with horrendous weather, and thus it wouldn't go up anyway. But Thursday was sunny, and Friday was supposed to be the same. Thus, the builder decided that Friday would be the day, after the ground could have dried up a bit on Thursday. We went up on Thursday to check the ground and it looked terrible. Some time in the past weeks some people just drove up and tried to turn their car/truck on the section - and got stuck in mud. It looked nice and firm, but it was soft and wet. We were a bit worried that the builder wouldn't be able to get the cabin up there, because he would lose traction on the mud, but he decided that it would be fine. So we went back on Friday morning, and found the ground still to be quite wet:
Thus, in the spur of the moment, we decided to go to a concrete/quarry company and asked if they would be able to deliver gravel the same day. "No problem", was the answer, "we can deliver within the hour - how much do you want?". Hmmm, I am not good at guesstimating, but the lady there thought that we would need 10 tons. Are you kidding me -
ten tons??? Oh well, we ordered it, and with a slight delay the truck came with 10.36 tons. The driver was worried that he too would lose traction up there, and decided that he'd try to go backwards, dumping the gravel on the way, and thus build his own "driveway".
Waiting for the gravel truck and the bach...
The following photos are in the correct order - remember, he reversed while dumping...
We asked him to dump a pile at the end, which is the place where the bach is going. But he still had some gravel left, and suggested he does a second trail next to the first one. And in the end dumped the rest in another pile next to the first one.
When he drove off the second time, he almost got stuck, with his wheels spinning. Both his tracks left quite deep grooves in the mud. So over the next couple of hours we took the shovels and moved about 2-3 tons of the gravel piles to fill any holes and tracks, and spread the rest around the building site. We weren't prepared for it, and thus didn't have a wheel barrow, so we just walked a million times back and forward, with loads of heavy gravel on the shovel. Our arms and backs were aching once we were finished. But we were happy and agreed that without the gravel there would have been no way the bach could go up. And the 10 tons were just enough - we could have done with quite a bit more. Once the bach is done, we will need another 10-20 tons.
And, after heavy Friday afternoon traffic and road works, the builders arrived late afternoon. They did not have a problem getting the bach up to the site, but still churned up the gravel and mud a lot. But eventually, they had the trailer in the right spot, and started jacking up the bach, and getting the trailer out. Well, at least they tried. It took much longer than anticipated, and we were losing daylight quickly. But after a lot of work, they finally got the trailer out, and slowly lowered the bach. But since it was late and totally dark by now (the last hour or so they worked in the headlights of the two trucks), they unloaded the deck and additional material for the suffit and roof, and said they'd be back on Monday to finish the job - weather permitting! Well, it is Sunday night, and it rained like mad yesterday and this morning, but now it is clear, and tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be nice as well, so there is hope...
Finally, it lifted off the trailer...
and they pulled the trailer out.
It is standing on jacks and blocks only!
