moving day- part 2

We are so enjoying being in our house! We continue to unpack, sort, fix leaks, and build things.  As promised here are some pictures of things that are crucial for a house in Tanzania. 

Here is our gate. It was originally supposed to be a garage door on our house, until the owner decided to ditch the garage and turn it into a couple of rooms. That was before we were here. Anyway, the doors got a new life as a gate. Maybe one day we will paint them.

This is what our fence looks like. It is made out of something that is kind of like bamboo. It's called matete. There is no chance that I spelled that right, but even if I did you probably wouldn't pronounce it right! 

This is our water tower. There is one tank in the ground that water goes into. Then a pump sends it to the top tank. Without the gravity from the top tank to the house we wouldn't have enough pressure for the water to come out in the house. Part of the idea of the two tanks is to store up water for when there is none. In fact we were without water Tuesday and Carson had to go buy some and fill the tanks himself Wednesday. Part of the problem is you need the water to be on and the power to be on the same day in order to fill both tanks. I'm glad Carson takes care of all this kind of stuff. 

Here we are at the front door the day before we moved in. Sorry, I was too busy the day we actually moved in to take any pics. That is a baby in my stomach, not a small melon.

This is not really important, but kind of nice. It's grass! Or at least the beginnings of it.

This is the gravel front walk which will eventually lead to the gravel driveway (still in progress). The dirt to the right is for planting beautiful things.

Here's one of the concrete sinks Carson made. Didn't he do a good job? This one is in the master bathroom and someday there will be a countertop to the right of it and cabinets below. The white specks are paint that need to be scraped off. The gray color variations in the concrete are intentional.

I hope you have enjoyed my attempt at technical explanations of our house. I'll post pics of the inside as things start to come together. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

moving day- part 1

I had intended for this post to include pictures and details about all the many things that happened last week to make moving day possible. At the moment, I have no energy for pictures. My lower back was begging me to sit down, so here i sit in the corner of the master bedroom in my rocking chair. Our mattresses are propped against the wall. I've managed to get the shoe rack together and put the shoes in their place on it. I've filled the chest of drawers Carson put together yesterday and bags of more clothes sit around it. There are still paint buckets and a piece of scaffolding with tools on it. Several other rooms have boxes which I have begun to sort through. Some of the exciting finds include metal spice tins full of dried herbs from our garden in Tennesee, Carson's Intrepid Traveler mug, some bright colored little bowls that I picked up at Ikea in hopes of one day having a toddler at the table, and the prayer shawl made by some ladies at Westwood that is draped over the rocking chair. I hear the drone of the planer in the front yard where Carson is working on shelves for the pantry. Tonight, for the first time in 1 year, 5 months, and 23 days we will go to sleep in our own place. We are so thankful to all who have let us share their space during this long transition. But, we are excited at the thought that we may now be closer to the end of the transition than the beginning. This is a huge step in settling and means that Carson can stop running himself ragged trying to get us into the house. There is still plenty to do. We have no interior doors. Our closets are just big holes. The kitchen could use some cabinets. And not all of the rooms are painted. But those things can all be done little by little with breathing in between. 

Part-2 with pictures coming soon.