Hello NSB Community,

Have been drinking tea all afternoon up here in my mountain eyrie at the tip of Africa and reading through this forum. My Shoestring Cottage that I was building on a not so big budget is once again a dream, well digging had started and then I ran into some serious problems so, for now, it is on hold. However, I almost think this was meant to happen.

In the process of trying to find out what I could about owner-building as a single mum, I discovered there was so little available to us here in South Africa by way of good solid information and so, I started a website, All About Building, especially for people wanting to owner-build so that I could try and get as much valuable information in one place as I could. I'm especially aiming this at women in building.

We face many challenges in South Africa with poverty and unemployment and I have been looking at alternative building methods and was really pleased to come across this site. I am trying to make available to folk here ideas and inspiration about what can be done on a smaller scale, using alternative methods and not so big ideas!

Well, Cape of Storms is living up to its name at the moment, so I'm off to make a cup of tea and batten down the hatches.

AnnieK