As 2011 comes to a close, work on the new UBAC hostel, and an apartment for Jeff and I is moving ahead at full speed. Moving more slowly but progressing is the construction of a duplex for other Covenant and Reach Global missionaries serving at RFIS.
Site for the duplex which will provide family housing in November 2011
Digging and laying out the foundations for the UBAC hostel.
The initial blocks are going in for the UBAC hostel and apartment foundation in November.
December 22 was the day to pour the floors for the bottom section of the split-level of the hostel building. This is where our new apartment will be located. Before the floors can be poured the tubing for the wiring needs to be put in place.
The spaghetti effect of wiring tubing for our new home.
A new experience for us (as in the Covenant in Africa) using a cement truck to bring the ready mixed cement to the job site.
This is the truck getting ready to pour the section which is our apartment.
And on December 26th th outline of the walls of our apartment is complete and over the next week the exterior walls will be completed and maybe some of the interior walls.
You can begin to see the floor plan of our apartment.
We are looking forward to living in this space and having not only a walking commute to RFIS but also no more tiles releasing from the floor of our home – like these did on Christmas night and a few more on Boxing day morning. I am anticipating tile that will stay attached to the floor.
A large patch of tile out by the entry to the kitchen -this was the Boxing Day event
Look closely and you can see the "tent" effect made by the tiles as they have lifted up. These are the ones that without warning popped straight out with a loud crack on Christmas night.
The key that we will remember as we watch tile go in, is to make sure there is enough space for expanding and contracting tiles. Years ago I wrote about the first incident of jumping tiles and the need for margin with tiles and our lives.
Have a wonderful New Year and may you leave enough margin in your life that as the tiles that make up your daily life expand and contract, you will be able to flex without cracking.
