We have started working, and are feeling quite tired despite the fact that the first few days have been relatively easy. It has been good to get back into rhythms and routines - the early mornings are particularly beautiful here - but also exhausting! Many things which were "easy" in Cape Town (like grocery shopping) are a lot more challenging here, though this is mainly due to a lack of familiarity and will improve with time.
At the moment, our commute is about 800 steps (guess who just joined an exercise rewards programme!), and full of interesting sights.
But at lunch today we went back to visit our new house. It's a slightly longer walk (1200 steps, give or take), but has a much more rewarding view (though possibly slightly less entertaining).
There is definitely visible progress, though we are still a way off moving in. But the internal walls are all up, and the floor of the loft is in progress.
It is rather exciting to be able to see the bones of our home coming together. And also to see the details which will make it manageable to live in, like the composting toilet... not quite there yet.
We also measured the windows for curtains. Our present spot doesn't have any and it is driving us crazy. Nothing like being woken up in the middle of the night by the light of the moon! So, curtains it is.
(Adam thinks that there is a particularly lovely view outside of the kitchen window!)
(Joanna thinks there might be space for a vegetable garden there.)
We have investigated the road to the homestead our house is built on. It looks like the Golf might be able to manage it if the weather is dry and our nerves are strong! But if it rains then grocery shopping will have to wait.
But for now all of these considerations are some way off, and impatience will get us no-where at all. Instead, we are looking forward to hitting the ground running on Monday, when work will start in earnest (and Adam actually starts!), and (more importantly) to lots of restorative sleep over the weekend.
We're still quite glad our house isn't made of these mud bricks spotted en route!
Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain. -Psalm 127:1