Week 5 - October 13, 2017

This week has seen some rapid progress across the site. The foundations are almost complete for the prenatal clinic, and at the same time 5 courses of blocks have been laid, bringing us up to floor level across much of the building. Concurrently, the perimeter wall blocks are all laid, and preparations are now being made for the columns.

• The fast progress on both aspects of the site has seen some major visual transformation

• After a lot of time calculating estimates, balancing the budget and cost engineering the budget is looking more feasible.

• The tradesmen from both the local community and further afield working well together and sharing knowledge and skills from their experiences working with me on previous projects.

• The beginning of a project involves a lot of large material orders, getting our procurement routes established and managing cash flow is gradually becoming easier, but still presents some challenges.

Mark out the education building to start excavating the following week

• Stay ahead on material purchases to sustain the good rate of work we have currently

• Estimate the latter phases of the project from a budgeting point of view

• Continue to cost engineer and find reductions in the budget, prioritizing quality of work and materials, but looking to make efficiency savings.