Chief among our early projects - and probably the largest single project we've ever undertaken - was building the house. We started the building project in late-October 1995. Working with builders from 500km away is challenging at the best of times, but, on the very weekend we started the building project, the heavens opened. Over 120mm of rain fell within the next 36 hours. Houses were washed into the Knysna Lagoon. Large trees were washed out to sea. We scuttled back to Cape Town. The rain continued to pour, day after day after day, for over 30 days. We should rather have planned to build an Ark. One month into the building project, we were running one month behind schedule.

The ground was so wet that cement trucks could not get close enough to the house site to pour the foundation slab.