June 2013 Tile on the Floors!

The week before we moved everything out of our house and left the country for the year, we went tile shopping!  Actually, it was Leanne (the first to live in the new duplex), our good friend Jan and I who went to the tile store with Johannes the foreman.   It was fun picking out tile for each side of the duplex, and now even more fun to watch it being installed!

tile stacked up and ready to go!

Sandy (EvFree missionary) finally took a tour of the house to see the tile get put in.

One bedroom complete!

Just days after purchasing the tile, bedrooms were finished!  And then on to the kitchen/living room level...

Living/dining room and kitchen getting tiled as of June 25

So this is how it looked on our last trip to the duplex just hours before our departure from Cameroon.

11 June: Window Glass, Ceilings and Shower Stalls ... oh my!

It's graduation week at RFIS and Ron & I are busy with end of school year responsibilities, trying to pack some each day, moving a little bit of stuff to the duplex storage area each day.  And progress keeps happening on the duplex.

Glass in the windows.

Glass panes in the windows

Varnished wood slats holding up ceiling panels.

All done except light fixtures, switches, and tile on the floor!

The only parts of the hosue still resembling a construction zone are the kitchen, awaiting sink & cabinets, and the bathrooms where shower stalls are still being built.

concrete blocks form a shower stall wall.

June 3 Color

Monday morning this is what I found at the duplex...

Emmanuel pulls cement upstairs 1 bucket at a time

In the left side, Emmanuel was working on the base for bathroom cabinets.

Pouring cement in the base for bathroom cabinet

Meanwhile in the kitchen on our side, the pipes are finally in the wall, so a mason is plastering the final wall in the kitchen.

Plastering the last wall in our kitchen

But what I was really there to look at on this day was the color of the walls.  Johannes the foreman wanted to be sure I approved before they painted any more.  This is what it looks like from the upstairs bathroom doorway, looking at (L) stairs, (Center) one bedroom, (R) 2nd of 3 bedrooms on that floor.

Johannes got a phone call as he was showing me the baby blue walls

Looking into the office on the living room level - varnished door, blue walls

When I exclaimed to Johannes, "I love it!" A smile and sigh of relief came over him.  "That is what I wanted to hear," he said in what was probably an understatement!

May 31 - Paint!

It's looking so nice and bright now that the walls and ceilings are being painted!  First 2 coats of white, then a very light blue on the walls, keeping the ceilings white.

 On the way over to the duplex, I stopped at the industrial arts area at RFIS to see the progress on our kitchen cabinets!  Looking good so far!

Kitchen cabinets in the making

Ceiling painter 

Looking at the living room from the entrance/stairs to upper level

Looking from the living room toward entrance (plumber just came in) and stairs to upper level - right of stairs is an under the stairs storage closet and bathroom farther to the right (around the corner and out of view)

Standing at the top of the stairs - bedroom to the left of the "fence" bathroom to the right, here I am stuck in the middle  with you... oh no, with 2 bedrooms on either side of and behind me.

May 21 Base for Cabinets

Next we're working on plans for the kitchen and bathroom cabinets.  So, a base was made to put the cabinets on.  Ron has been drawing cabinets, wisely consulting me about what style and sizes of cupboards I'd like in the kitchen and in the bathroom.

This part of the kitchen will be much like the Stoker's kitchen with stove to the left, cupboards around the corner to a sink under the window, continuing around the corner with a peninsula counter top.

Base for kitchen cabinets poured

Across from the sink unit we'll have a wall of counter space with cupboards below and above.

base for cupboards, space at right for fridge, far right: door to "common room" between the 2 sides of the duplex.  bottom right corner of the picture is the end of the "peninsula" cupboard.

See how drab the concrete walls look?  Well, in the next post all that will change!  The painters have been hired and have been working in the bedrooms, office, stairway, storeroom.  Stay tuned!

May 15 The Doors

26 doors made by Ekwe, a Cameroonian furniture maker known by many in the missionary community for his quality wood working.  3 of the doors are screen doors.  All 26 were delivered to the duplex where the carpenters team of guys planed and installed them.

Stack of doors delivered to the duplex

Installation of store room doors

Office door installed

Main entrance door - and screen door... awaiting the screen.  Notice the wood shavings from being planed.

10 May 2013 Stoker Apartment

In July Jeff & Carolyn Stoker will plan to be back in Yaounde after their year of Home Assignment in the US.  We're pretty sure their apartment, on the lower level of the UBAC Hostel building, will be ready for them!

Kitchen cupboards being installed in Stoker's apartment

When I went over to take these pictures for Carolyn to view the progress, the carpenter was there, working on the "peninsula" unit at the bottom of the above picture.  As you see, tile has yet to be installed on top of the counters.

Seen from the other side - living / dining room is beyond the the cupboard.

Here are some unique features of the kitchen cupboards...

Corner cupboard awaits a lazy susan shelf.  

Corner drawer with a false front

And the bathroom still needs a sink and tile on the counter top.

Bathroom - needing sink and tile

And the essential fixture is functioning as is the shower :)