This morning before we left for the drive back to Johannesburg we popped into our Durban house to see how far the work has progressed. This is week number 3 and should be coming to the end stages. Unfortunately there was 3 days lost to inclement weather and more rain is expected on Thursday. When it rains in Durban it rains and is like a monsoon type rain. We had hail yesterday along with heavy rain for about 45 minutes followed by bright sunshine so you can get all the seasons within a few hours.
I was pleasantly surprised with the teenage pad and servants quarters exterior
and once the garden refuse has been cleared up will look 100 times better than what it was. This same color green paint will be used on the boundary wall as we have learned you need dark colors due to the rain splashing up the red sandy soil so a light paint is no good and looks dirty within a week.
The swimming pool is still green and now my tenant says the swimming pool pump is shorting and why he cannot get the pool blue. Lucky my handy man is an electrician and this will be fixed along with the electric fence which needs to be replaced in certain sections of the boundary wall. This is a quick job and should take a morning at most.
The roof has been painted along with the exterior of the house so there are still a few crucial jobs to finish. The plan is to be finished by Tuesday next week so they have to get a move on.
The garden work has commenced and there is a lot of chopping down and removing that is now required along with planting grass seed so the lawn can start growing. As you can see this is like a mini jungle as things just grow in this climate and before you know it things are out of control.
Basically the boundary wall needs to be repainted which is two to three days work. The gutters are being fitted this week along with the two window frames that were eaten by termites. The area has been sprayed so this should not happen again and would need respraying in a few years time.
The electric fence like I mentioned above is a key point that needs a few things replaced and should have been covered by the insurance claims and why I should have been informed because we paid the excess for the work to be done. There are two interior ceilings that need looking at as I was told by the tenant this morning he put a hole in one? I had no idea, but it needs to be replaced and just adds to the list of expenses not covered.
My handyman's quote that was R40K cheaper than the original quote from the Durban based company has already exceeded that quote, but then he has found so many extra things that needed doing. We were at around $10K and now expect to end up at around $12K which is still a great price considering what had to be completed. The replacing of the window frames I never saw coming and that was an extra $1.3K on it's own and we are also replacing some of the car port roof sheeting which was also extra. I know how much this type of work would cost elsewhere so I am not complaining.
The tenants daughter is moving to Durban from January and they have now asked id we will give them first options on buying the property which could work out for everyone. I have no idea what the value of the property even is yet as I will get a couple of independent valuations next week.