A Vernacular Restoration Project Published

To devote oneself to a restoration project means that you have to sacrifice and compromise along the way. Our passion for history and particularly architectural history allowed us to discover not just the joy of restoring a Cape vernacular building but the history of a whole region that has been unrecorded.

We have taken an old building and through the restoration of it have discovered the human lives that has shaped it and transformed it. In honouring the buildings and their integrity we have honoured the people that lived in it.

The rich history of the region is something to be proud of and we tried to capture it in restoring a house and garden that celebrates the best of a simple but generous life.

Towerwater  has enchanted our lives and made it rich with experiences culminating in the lecture about the restoration of the property to the Vernacular Architecture Society of South Africa followed by a tour to the property and Bonnievale in October 2014. The nomination for a Captrust award and winning that in November 2014 was a big unexpected honour.  Publishing the record of the restoration of Towerwater in December 2014 was the biggest Christmas present ever.

The best Christmas Present

Years of research, days in the archives and hours on the internet e-mailing different parts of the story between Cape Town and Pretoria finally came together, I would research and write bits of the history in Cape Town and Keith will fit the big picture together in Pretoria. After days of intense editing we agreed on the final draft and it was presented to Dr Antonia Malan who spent more time on the layout and presentation to make sure it meets the requirements of publications for the Vernacular Architecture Society of South Africa.

We are grateful for the time and effort Dr Malan spent on the publication and we are very proud of the final product.

And the biggest thanks are owed to Heinrich Wolff who made time in his busy schedule juggling teaching in  Zurich and the practise in Cape Town to draw the cover  for the publication.

Cover Drawings by Heinrich Wolff

It was an eventful year and we enjoyed every minute of it, thank you to all the people we could share it with. Joy is not just one big experience but a million little ones.