Richard Scott Blog - 31st August 2025

Ok, so this is the last week of The Church updates as we finished today, Sunday.

I will 100% show you the BEFORE/AFTER pics next weeks blog. I will take some photos Wednesday when we 100% done.

So basically, The Church Project came about in May this year, 2025, when Joanne and I were having lunch, in Lugano Switzerland, with our good friend Danilo.

He was not happy with a price quoted to fix the roof of his beautiful Church home in Cape Town.

I overheard the conversation and suggested Hendrik, and I do it for him.
So we agreed I would inspect the damage and report back to him.
Well to be honest the leaking roof had done a lot more damage than expected over the years. So, I gave them a report and a project plan of 60 days and a fraction of the budget. The 60 days comes to an end today and we went double my budget, which is still 1/8 the price quoted.

It has been a super duper experience for all of us from myself to Hendrik to his son Nando and brother in law Joseph.
Even Frans, Chad and Angelique spent weeks helping chip away.
So do I start a construction/renovation company in partnership with Hendrik? Let’s see where this road takes me.
I blame it all on Rodrigo who taught me everything I know about building when he helped me build my house from 2008-2011.

Ok back to Monday. Up early, energised and off to The Church.
Final list of things to do:
1. Paint roof after all the patch work is now completed 
2. ⁠Sand down and paint last external wall in the court yard
3. ⁠Frans to finish the huge Church windows that makes The Church so beautiful 
4. ⁠Me to fibreglass and install the shower roof and all 3 shower wooden floors to varnish.
5. ⁠Angelique to redo and paint all kitchen cupboards 
6. ⁠Paint all 4 floors grey.
7. ⁠High pressure hose the pavement around the front of The Church.
8. ⁠Replace the plant pot.
9. ⁠Final clean up and touch ups, which will take us all, team of 8 of us two days.

Took Richie for a haircut at my guys on  Monday. His future is so bright he had to close his eyes.

Showing Eslyn how to spray paint his prints.

Test run.

So, Monday went well, we ticked the first few boxes.

Making a box out of Marine ply for the outside windowsill. Finished photos to follow.

Prepping the windowsill.

Joseph high up on the ladder painting the arches grey.

Top coat on the shower roof.

Next day, the other side gets a coat of top coat resin.

Joseph installing the new shower roof. Better photo to follow once fully installed.

Tuesday came and went quickly, which was a bit of a worry, but boxes were ticked. Added to that was it was the 25th so I had to do all my payday admin late into the night. So, more boxes ticked.

I even found the time to go see the physio for an hour to sort out the dull ache in my left shoulder. Been seven years since I had needling done.  Thank god my dangerous mountain biking days are over.

So yes it’s Wednesday morning now and yes it’s 4am and I’m awake and typing to you. It’s actually 5.22am now, so I’m up to date and gonna get up and put the coffee machine on so that my beautiful dear wife can enjoy one of my delicious coffees before we head out.

Me and my new foreman. Before the STOEP got a coat of paint.

Frans not missing anything. Even the inside of the doors got attention.

Slowing getting there.

Joseph fixing the drain pipe running into the road.

Looking so Brand new. Thanks to Frans.

Front Deck almost done.

Beautiful Sunset on Wednesday night in Melkbos.

It’s now Saturday morning 3.44am and I’m up again typing. Like I said it’s been finishing off The Church this week.

Hendrik and I committed to finishing Sunday 31, but we were told the guest will only be in on the 7th, so we made a call to take three extra days till Wednesday the 3rd to take our time and not rush.
So Thursday and Friday I got stuck in with all the odd jobs like hanging the art and patching up the cracks and holes in the walls and doors. I got hold of a tube of industrial clear glue and a caulking gun and glued all sorts of stuff like loose Wi-Fi boxes and door knobs and cables to the wall. Frans got stuck into painting all the floors with a waterproof paint and even Angelique got to paint the stoep red and sand and varnish the sun beds.
Hendrik finally finished off the roof while I did all sorts of odd carpentry work cutting out and gluing all sorts of odd shapes for new facia boards and window sills.
Joseph did all the masonry touch ups which take a while.
I even got stuck into being an electrician for two hours replacing two botched plugs.
So five good long hard days. 
Hendrik finally finished repairing the red roof and painting it with Joseph’s help attached to a rope as the roof is very steep.

Steel brush and rust protection paint on this small drain.

Time to make some money.

Marco Garbero popped in.

On the art front, we made some good sales and even got a message from Sabine at Zimmerman in Dusseldorf about another sale, so that was nice.

Friday we celebrated with some Dogs Bollocks pizza, and all appreciated the opportunity to work together on repairing The Church.

Nomm Nomm staff lunch. Happy faces.

Today is Saturday, and I am not sure what Joanne has planned but I will let you know shortly. It is only 4am on the dot, so I’ll start with banking and the likes.
See you just now.

We went for a nice long beach run and potted around the house. I did some planning for the week and re-wrote my daily TO-DO check list. Angelina popped in for a cup of tea and a catch up and then we have leftovers for supper and movie night. We actually watched the end of two movies we did not finish in the week due to early nights.

Sunday was up earlier than Saturday, Beach run and a Sunday lunch prep. Joanne was dress shopping as we got an invite to the annual Woolworth Charity ball mid-September.

Our beautiful beach.

So now I will put some Kameel Doring wood on the fire for the 1pm Braai and sign off as Richie is coming for a Sunday Lunch Braai.

Sunday lunch turnout. Chad and Richie.

Thank you for reading.

Until next week.

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