Build Diary 9

During the last two weeks, lots has happened as usual. We’ve moved into our new temporary home closer to our building site, bought our very own motorbike and are feeling a lot more settled in general. The pups are also loving their new garden and daily walks down to the site.

We’ve also been experiencing a small shift in the weather pattern lately, with a lot less rain and more sunshine during the daytime which is a big relief and makes life easier on site. Sunny weather also means that we were finally able to paint the exterior of our garage/office space without constantly watching the sky. The final result looks amazing and the dark grey really pops against the green of the surrounding rice paddies. For those of you who are wondering, we’ve used ‘Deep Onyx’ from Dulux which is available for a small fortune in Gianyar, however definitely worth the extra cost.

Our metal fabricator was able to finalise the wall panels for the back wall of the Kitchen / Living area as well as the posts that will hold the roof and the walls together, and is now working on the wall panels for the sides of the Kitchen / Living.

We have also started to bore the holes for the foundation of the Bedroom, keeping the idea of a Gabbian foundation for the Music Room / Yoga Shala which we will build on the lower terrace later in the year.

To prepare for the bedroom construction, we cut to size 10 x 10 inch PVC pipes with an angle grinder which will then be placed into the ground and filled with concrete. The decision not to employ an external contractor for this job was pretty straightforward once we knew that we could get the appropriate pipe size and that pre-mixed concrete is actually available in Bali. Doing it ourselves ensures that the job gets done properly without ‘stretching’ building materials or pouring concrete that is too wet (we see this happening all the time).

Lastly, we had our 6mm toughened glass panes for the Garage / Office space delivered from Denpasar, which we will be installing next week. This should definitely give the space a more complete look and feel.

That’s it for this week, thanks for reading as always and until the next update!

Anna & Sean