Over the past 4 weeks I’ve started to think of myself as being a person ‘of no fixed abode’ and it’s not a great feeling.  We came back from Cape Town hoping to move into our new house by the beginning of June.  That moved to late June and in desperation I actually booked the movers for July the 3rd which is next Friday.  For a while last week it looked as though it might be possible, but since my site visit this afternoon, I have started to doubt the wisdom of that.

We’ve been really fortunate in having the use of a friend’s lovely home set high up on Westcliff Ridge with beautiful views out over the densely forested northern suburbs of Johannesburg and sunsets so spectacular as to take our breath away.  Our plan was to be installed – even if camping – in our new house by the time our host returns from his travels on the 4th of July.

Johannesburg winter sunset from Westcliff.

Daisy exploring the 4th floor of our current ‘guesthouse’.

Relations with the contractor have been strained – to say the least – for some time now.  It seemed to take a very strongly worded email though, to get him to realise the extent of our discontent and work has speeded up over the last ten days but it’s too little too late to be in any way redemptive.

The most serious delays have been caused by the company contracted by Esprit to do all the electrical work.  Weeks have passed with no electricians on site and no amount of pleading and negotiating has made any difference at all.  It has become clear that there are issues between the two companies and it is difficult to change ‘electric horses’ midstream.  As with all building projects, the failure of one team to keep to their schedule has a domino effect as each sub-contractor is in some way dependent on the one before him so we have seen one deadline after another pass unheeded.  And I have become used to people who appear to be able to make promises with not the slightest intention of ever keeping them.

So this is where we are:  The brick paving company scheduled to pave the driveway and pathway down to the park, having been deferred several times, are supposed to arrive tomorrow.  What  I could see of the driveway this afternoon – those bits that were visible under piles of rubble and rubbish, made that seem like something of a pipe dream.  So we’ll see.  The paving job is expected to take a minimum of four days.

Inexplicably, one lone painter has been tasked with the painting of the entire house both inside and out.  He is nowhere near finished and already there are areas he’ll have to redo.

Because of a lack of supervision, the gateway into the park was built and demolished twice before being completed.  This delayed the gate manufacturer from being able to take final measurements.

Arched gateway to park. 3rd time lucky.

On the right side of the photo above you can see the start of steps which will lead from the raised lawn down to the path.  You can also see the western end of the pool.  Except for the corners, all the coping tiles around the pool are in place.  Curtis pools have been very reliable so far and have done their best to work around all the date changes.

The prolonged absence of electricians has delayed the installation of the generator, the pool pump and the water tank pump.

The installation of the kitchen has ground to a halt while we wait for the electrical work to be completed.

One the plus side, Oggie, the flooring company, after being deferred several times, was able to start this week although not in the peaceful, cleared environment I’d hoped for.  They have laid the floors in the library and most of the living room and hope to get to the kitchen tomorrow.  They have also almost completed the upstairs flooring and it’s all looking beautiful.  Now we have to hope that the wood doesn’t get damaged by workmen – who should have been finished weeks ago – tramping all over it.  They still have to do the stairs but until all other upstairs work is done, they are unable to start.

Downstairs flooring.

flooring just inside the front door.

Anthony, who is installing the sprinkler system, has kept all his appointments and has managed – despite the chaos – to lay the ‘sleeves’ he needs for his water system.  Top soil has been delivered for the front garden.  Lawn was supposed to be laid next Monday but it looks as though that might have to be delayed.

The bedroom and dressing room cupboards are almost complete and are looking good.

Dressing room south wall.

Dressing room west wall.

Dressing room north wall

I’ll sleep on it tonight but I suspect I’ll have to defer our moving date by at least a week.

Visiting Izzie in her 4th month in a cattery.

I can remember exactly where I was the first time I heard a Beatles song.  I was seven years old.  I can remember exactly where I was the first time I heard Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’, Viktor Lazlo’s ‘Sweet, Soft and Lazy’ and Keiko Matsui’s ‘Tears from the Sun’  And I can remember exactly where I was when I turned over a page of a House & Garden magazine about 18 months ago and fell in love with this light:

I wish I knew what it is that makes one especially drawn to a particular item.  I cannot begin to explain what it is that immediately attracted me to this light fitting but the minute I saw it, I wished I could have one just like it and thought it might look perfect in my new stairwell.  I know where the Jamb showroom is in London and thought I might be able to collect the fitting and bring it back to South Africa myself.  But all that was before I checked the price.  It was just not going to happen.

Bernard had suggested that a chandelier might be good in the stairwell but I just hadn’t been able to find one that ‘felt’ right.  And I looked around a lot.

Just not me.

A globe – sort of – but not me either.

Delos in Cape Town is a great place to visit and they have no shortage of chandeliers. Occupying the old St Mary’s chapel –  built over a hundred years ago – in Albert Road, Woodstock, Delos is filled with fascinating artefacts and antiques.

The Delos Yard

Delos workshop (photo from SA House and Leisure magazine)

I went there several times but in the end found the selection almost overwhelming and nothing appealed to me as much as the ‘Globe’ from Jamb.

Beautiful French Antique chandelier at Delos. But not right for me.

Then on a visit to London a full year ago, I visited the Petersham Nursery Garden in Richmond and look what I found – completely unexpectedly – in the indoor section:

At Petersham Nurseries

It’s almost the same as Jamb’s but considerably less expensive.  Once again I debated the options of getting one home but it did seem like quite a lot of trouble and I continued to keep a look out here for something suitable.

While looking at door knockers in Suffolk, I was distracted by other globe lights.

And then, oh dear, in February before boarding a flight up to Johannesburg to check on the building progress, I bought the latest copy of one of my favourite British magazines again. And the plane wasn’t even in the air yet before I had finally found a chandelier that seemed just perfect…

This, I could live with.

Produced by a Porta Romana in Britain, this design seemed just right.  The bronze colouring would pick up on the wooden flooring and the beautiful leaf design would echo the view of the trees in the park.  I thought I was sorted.  I’d barely checked into the guest house when I googled Porta Romana and found the chandelier on their site.  Part of a new range called ‘Enchanted Forest’, the photos were accompanied by the text below:

This description reinforced my feeling that the design would work well over our stairwell but when I saw in the small print below that the chandelier had been featured in a Sotheby’s exhibition, I began to have some doubts.  Further trawling through the internet revealed the price and if I’d thought the original Jamb fitting was out of my range, this one was out of my galaxy. Perhaps I need to stop looking at foreign décor magazines. With our exchange rate what it is, what used to seem expensive now seems positively outrageous.

I decided to stick with simple downlighters until something suitable happened along.

A few friends had suggested that I look at La Basse-cour  in the 44 Stanley Avenue development in Milpark and finally, last Friday I did just that.  And there I found it, the perfect light fitting, I hope, right on my doorstep at a perfectly reasonable South African price.  Again, it is not quite the same as the Jamb example but it’s close enough to create the same atmosphere, I think.

I’ve chosen the biggest of the three.

Another perspective.

I’m looking forward to seeing it in place eventually but that’ll be another story.