Coming from an Afrikaans family, one thing I fondly remember is “kuiering op die stoep” – whether it was a late evening glass of wine or an early morning cup of coffee. I have my own home now and have moved far away from my childhood home. In Hillcrest KZN, my mixed modern family (my husband is Portuguese and speaks Afrikaans very deliciously and my son is a mix of English and Afrikaans) will grow up to know how lekker it is to enjoy a stoep, no matter where we are.
So, when we bought our new little home, we definitely saw that the stoep area had loads of potential.
We hired a local carpenter to set up the pergola and build the outdoor braai area in July 2022 – he left the walls plastered and wrought iron doors raw. We timed the painting of our new addition with some painting renovations our complex was doing, so the lighter wall paint did not cost us a thing. I tried my hand at tiling, using old tiles we had left over from our kitchen renovation in 2021! And as time went on, we did the rest, adding in touches of colour and details. It has been a work in progress and has landed up being the favourite part of our home.