The importance of being earnest

When most of your enthusiasm has been anaesthetized by the never ending challenges thrown at you, the only thing that keeps you going is the fact you've told all your friends about your project already. The prospect of going back empty handed is enough to keep you earnest.

Twice a day, every day I visit the site. Why twice? Because it's worth it. Issues need to be nipped in the bud. A day can be a long enough time to incur extra time. Some things might seem pretty obvious but a worker can't know what's in your mind. The water pipe leading down to the tap on the roof needed to be embedded in the wall. The workers had embedded the horizontal part but had left the vertical part showing. It seemed like a pretty obvious thing to me but not to them.


before

after

It was only after the old balustrades were taken out and replaced by new ones of the same design (the old ones were beyond saving) was it evident that we would need to replace both the base plinth and the top coping as well. While we're at it, perhaps we should take out the stone steps and replace the soil underneath for a stronger support. And the budget keeps on stretching!


balustrades don't look quite right