I had a conversation with a furniture and interior designer about business growth. She has made some great furniture pieces for my house. Her business is called Tira studio and she has a showroom on Ngong road. Check out their website https://www.tirastudio.co.ke/ for their end of year clearance sale on timeless furniture. Tira Studio Business secret She told me of a business secret that she...

I had a conversation with a Kalenjin friend about investing. His views on investing contrasts with mine so much. Before I break down the facts and myths, I wish to tell you a short story. A story about a young bride A young bride was seen by her husband breaking the legs of a chicken before placing it in the oven to grill instead of placing it whole. Her husband inquired the reason for that and she...

This week the contractor finalized on the masonry work in the foundation. Depending on the height prescribed in the drawing, the foundation had about 4 courses in the higher sides and up to 7 courses in the lowest land levels. Backfilling The backfilling also took place this week.  The contractor returned all the red soil into the wall space, then left a gap of about 1 foot to the top.  the...

The question of where to invest is common for investors before they can commit their money to any investment. It is not any different when it comes to real estate. It is of equal importance to know where it is to invest. A friend mentioned about the investment potential of Lake Elementaita. I have been there on holiday with my family twice. It’s a beautiful and affordable place. Not too far from...

I asked this question on Facebook and it elicited a lot of reactions. In case you haven’t seen the question, here it is; If you are a single woman and you buy or build a house, then you get married, would you allow your new husband to move into your house? Why or why not? After a very successful debate, I feel like “addressing the nation” in my capacity as a valuer and real estate...

Materials Ballast Cement sand stone Hardcore Quarry dust Metal bars for the beams and columns 6*1 wood to form frames for the beams The structural engineer this week made his first site visit to confirm the contractors had reached stable ground where they could construct the foundation of the house. The trenches were about 3 feet deep. The strip footing...

Items required this week Hose pipe Fork jembes - provided by the contractor Spades - Provided by the contractor Plumb line (Kabiru) Materials  D10 D8 D12 Binding wire This week the contractor started digging the foundation trenches. The land is on a slope of about 2.7m and this week we were grateful that the architect  requested us to get a topography survey done before she...

Construction Preparation This happened as we waited for the approval of the architectural and the structural plans with the county government.   To save on time we did some land preparation. The land had quite a lot of trees which unfortunately were cut down to pave way for construction. The tree stumps left were too sturdy and needed an excavator to uproot. There was also a banana...

This is the second last part of this series on Real Estate in Ruiru and its environs. Click here to read part 1 of this series. One of my best articles was on Kamiti road. Click here to read the article on Kamiti road. When it comes to Real Estate in Ruiru, Murera and Mugutha have several similarities to the Eastern bypass in the sense of lack of planning and haphazard land subdivision. Finding a very...

The readers had some questions for Mrs W and she was happy to answer them. What is a cantilever/Double volume A Cantilever is a slab that appears to be floating.  it doesn't have visible beams/ columns supporting it and it is also not attached to any side of the wall.  it is basically a floating slab.     The double volume ceiling is twice the length of a normal room height. Normal ceiling...