THE BEGINNING……

In 2011, I purchased a piece of land in what I thought would be a prime area to build my dream home. Inwardly though, I wasn’t sure I’d embark on building soon, seeing as the road infrastructure was barely developed . Additionally I thought that it was far from every place that mattered-school for the kids, work for me, malls etc. 

Earlier, I had looked around to buy a ready house or apartment offplan, knowing fully well that my salary wouldn’t accommodate purchase either of these, in areas that I fancied. On the two occasions that I tried to be ambitious, I enticed the developers with a 10% deposit. However I wasn’t able to convince them that I would raise the 90% balance to complete the purchase. And so stayed put my dream to own a house before I turned 40. 

In 2013, I had visited an architect to actualize my dream plans for my Victorian Style House. Plans I finalised and then safely kept away.

My dream stayed alive though, fuelled by a friend who believed I shouldn’t give it up. Once again in 2013, we visited one of the two sites. The developer had just broken ground for phase 2 and I thought I’d convince them to let me have one of the units. This time though, a second look at their houses made me realise this wasn’t what I wanted for myself. My friend also convinced me that with the same amount of money, I’d build the house of my dreams and have some small change to boot. If that didn’t sound enticing, well…

And so it was that in 2014, I embarked on seeking for building approvals to enable me apply for a construction mortgage. One look at how much mortgage I qualified for was quite discouraging. It didn’t stop me from pursuing my dreams and in December of the same year, having fulfilled all the lender’s requirements, I received my 1st drawdown and thus began my beautiful and adventure-filled journey of constructing my dream house. What nobody told me was about the tears, heartaches, headaches, anxieties and biases I’d encounter in this journey. Today, with humility, I’m the proud owner of a house that’s 80% complete. Like childbirth, when you finally get to move in and settle in, you tend to forget the pains you underwent. I do not want to wish away this journey for the simple reason that there was so much to celebrate and learn, so much I can share with aspiring builders and more than anything, so much encouragement, advice, ideas and support I can offer to budding builders, more especially women, because the biases in this journey are real. With that was born my idea to put together Mjengo Chronicles. 

Let’s go😊😊😊!.

The Foundation

So it was that we broke ground on December 6th 2014. Awesome and surreal experience it was. Only then did I realize that the architect never factored in the topgraphy and terrain of my land. My drawings were meant for a fla….aat piece of land. Digging further, we realised that there was so much stone right beneath the surface. I guess the implication of this never quite hit me the, and those who knew better offered no viable solutions when they should have.

So we continued……..on and on till I realised the house was so high up, above the gate-literally! You would walk to the construction site and had to crane your neck right up to see the house, like you were viewing a 4 storey building. On the plus side, my house was built on a solid rock😆😆! No kidding!

It wasn’t until the house was well past the first slab that the impact of this fully hit me- there had to be some intervention. . Either I had to introduce a false roof or introduce an extra room the entire structure, to mitigate the unrealistic levels . I settled for the latter as I figured I’d have more use for it. Again the rest of the terrain had to be worked on if anyone was ever to gain access to the house. Hence the need for retainer walls and backfilling.

But then I digress. There was the small issue of the plumber – much older than me and who certainly knew what was good for my house and for me! And well, construction is for men now,isn’t it? SMH 🤦‍♀️. Well, more about the plumber later.

Lesson 1: For those that are planning to construct their houses, ensure your architect factors in the various levels of your land as you embark on your drawings. Several site visits before you finalise on your plans should take care of this. Levelling the ground before you begin construction is an option that will cost you a sum but would be a cheaper solution than building retainer walls and backfilling the spaces created, later on. Blast the mighty stones if you have to! And hey, building is still lots of fun😉!

NOTE: The main objective of this blog is to share advice and insights based on real life experiences, in order to encourage you and hopefully, make your construction journey easier, more meaningful and help you avoid the pitfalls that I walked into because I didn’t know better. For more information, reach out to us on mjengochronicles@gmail.com.