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Small Cabin Forum / Cabin Construction / 1850's Brick cabin restoration South Africa
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Frans
Member
# Posted: 4 Mar 2016 01:13
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The brick makers took a long break and returned a week ago to finish the kiln. Yesterday afternoon they started the fire. There is about 3½ tons of coal in the bricks and the kiln. It will burn for 2-3 weeks and then cool down for a week or two before we can unpack. I am in such a hurry to get the bricks out. I have a brick water reservoir that my grandfather built in 1965. One morning we found the wall has exploded.

Frans
Member
# Posted: 4 Mar 2016 01:15
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So here is the burning kiln:
Building the kiln
Building the kiln
Firing up the kiln
Firing up the kiln


Frans
Member
# Posted: 4 Mar 2016 01:47
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I want to share this picture. We found it in the mountains. The old people called it a wolf cage from the 1800's. It had a stone trap door and they set it to catch "wolfs". Now we don't have wolfs in Africa. I believe it must have been brown hyenas or wild dogs.
Wolf cage
Wolf cage


Frans
Member
# Posted: 7 Nov 2017 04:39
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Hello all you good people. It has been a long time since I reported here, and things were a bit hectic. I have not yet started on the restoration of the old house, because I had a contractor who wanted to lease it for his workers, so the restoration was placed on hold for a while.
I can however report on another restoration project: My old farm house and cabin.
My father bought the farm Spitzkop around 1956 and all our children grew up there. Around 1990 he moved to another farm with a better house and the old farm house was abandoned and fell into total disrepair. Vandals broke each and every window and nature took its tole on the old raw brick and mud walls where the plaster came off.
I inherited the farm when my father passed away a few years ago and a couple of months ago it was registered in my name. Then I found a couple who was looking for a place to stay and plant some vegetables and we jumped in and started restoration of the cabin.
Here are some before pictures:

Frans
Member
# Posted: 7 Nov 2017 04:43
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Vandals broke all the windows and the old wooden frames were just rotting away.
The old farm house
The old farm house
The cabin front
The cabin front
Cabin side
Cabin side


Frans
Member
# Posted: 7 Nov 2017 04:47
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And there is also a "longdrop" toilet.
The "longdrop"
The "longdrop"


Frans
Member
# Posted: 7 Nov 2017 05:46
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The cabin initially was the old slaughter room and "separator room" where the milk separator was standing. In the late 1970's my father added two small rooms, one for a toilet and one for a bathroom and changed it to a sleeping cabin for me and my brother.
Around 1987 my father wanted to extend the cabin into a flat for my grandparents and he added another room, but before he could finish it my grandpa passed away and the extension never got a roof.
The wooden window frames were destroyed and rotten away, so I decided to replace it with steel frames.
We changed the old bathroom into a kitchen and changed the old toilet by adding a shower.
Then we patched up the plaster and white washed the walls outside and inside.

Frans
Member
# Posted: 7 Nov 2017 05:51
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New windows:
Steel window frames
Steel window frames
White wash
White wash


Frans
Member
# Posted: 7 Nov 2017 06:02
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So my friend and his wife moved into the cabin. He installed a solar power system and he built a hot water "donkey" with a 210 liter steel barrel.
Hot water
Hot water


Frans
Member
# Posted: 7 Nov 2017 06:04
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This is the unfinished cabin extension. One day I will take it on as a project on its own.
Unfinished cabin extension
Unfinished cabin extension


bldginsp
Member
# Posted: 8 Nov 2017 21:41
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Glad you posted again Frans. I enjoy seeing things from the other side of the world, where things are done so differently. Keep it up!

Frans
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2017 07:09
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So then we tackled the old house.
First we removed the old rotten wood window frames and door frames.
Old wood window frame
Old wood window frame
Old door
Old door


Frans
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2017 07:11
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Then we replaced it with steel window frames.
Steel frame
Steel frame
Steel frame
Steel frame


Frans
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2017 07:12
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And put glass in.
With glass
With glass


Frans
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2017 07:26
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Then we started inside.
I decided to change the layout of the house inside completely. The old bathroom was about 25 square meters and I decided to change it into an open plan kitchen with the next room and change the old kitchen into a sleeping room and then divide one of the rooms to make a smaller bathroom.
When we started to remove the old bathroom door and wall to form the open plan we found a huge old arch in the wall and decided to keep the wall with the arch.
The arch in the wall
The arch in the wall


Frans
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2017 07:31
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The old bathroom walls were in a terrible state with plaster coming off. We decided to replace the window with a French door and to install a new window.
Bathroom walls
Bathroom walls
Door and window
Door and window


Frans
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2017 07:40
Reply 


Then we tiled the new kitchen floor and painted the walls. I wanted to just replace the rotten floor planks in the next room, but my wood working skills sucks and we decided to rather replace the damaged floor with tiles.
Rotten wood floor
Rotten wood floor
Concrete floor
Concrete floor


Frans
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2017 07:58
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A couple of months ago the church on a neighboring town decided to replace their slate tile roof with corrugated iron. I made them an offer and bought two tipper truck loads (700 m²) of slate roof tiles. I found one of those water tile cutters with diamond blade at the pawn shop and thought that I would cut nice square tiles for the floors. Then we saw that it goes so slow that it would take months to cut enough tiles for the floors.
So we decided to use the tiles without cutting the edges straight. We started yesterday and will grout when finished.
Slate tiles
Slate tiles
Tiles
Tiles


Frans
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2017 08:01
Reply 


In the meantime we have whitewashed the outside walls with lime and painted the roof.
Outside
Outside
Front porch
Front porch


Desim
Member
# Posted: 26 Nov 2020 13:54
Reply 


old but nice thread. Wonder what it looks like now?

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