Unemployed teacher Joyce Flack, 44, said extending her two-roomed RDP house in Joza township, outside Grahams-town, had given her and her family a sense of purpose.
With the help of her brother and a trickle of income from a temporary job as a garage cashier, Flack added two extra rooms and gave her house a purple paint job.
"As a woman, I'm house-proud. I'm proud of my furniture. We are not working here but we are trying hard. I can't just sit down and think that I will stay in a two-roomed house forever," she said.
Her efforts did not go unnoticed. The house was spotted by the local Makana Tourism office, which added it to a list of township houses offering bed-and-breakfast accommodation for visitors to the Grahamstown festival.
One of her overnight guests was, to her delight, Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela.
Said Flack: "The Premier's a nice lady, just an ordinary person. She likes green vegetables and black tea; she doesn't even take milk."
Flack now plans to build a garage for visitors' cars and has started digging foundations. As soon as she earns some cash she will buy sand and bricks to complete the job. So far her renovations have cost only a few thousand rands.
Flack's neighbour, 50-year-old Liziwe Kwesela Khuhlane, is equally passionate about home improvements. Khuhlane's extensions, also an additional two rooms, were inspired by her Johannesburg employer, who donated both finance and furniture. When her roof blew off last year in a storm, her daughter's boss paid for repairs, and now it is stronger than ever. As a result, Khuhlane has also qualified to form part of the tourism office's township B&B project.
"I'm so happy. This kind of thing never happened for poor people like me before," said Khuhlane.
Artist's hideaway
Artist Beezy Bailey has spent R1-million over the past 10 years turning a sprawling home, on the slopes of Table Mountain, into his ideal haven.
"We entertain on Sundays. I have my own vegetable garden and enjoy cooking stuff grown in my own soil. During the week the cocooning sets in," said Bailey, leaning on an antique kitchen table recently acquired from India.
Bailey has hosted US musician Dave Matthews as well as David Bowie.
A sunny kitchen is, he said, the most used room in the house. He said that decorating the house, a maze of artworks, antique furniture and collectables, was unending.
He said his children, Jasper, 9, and Saskia, 7, encouraged him to spend a lot of time at home. He preferred snuggling up to watch a DVD at home to visiting cinemas.
Security was important for people who preferred to stay at home, he said.
Afro-chic lodge
Noma Mbontsi and her husband Lubabalo took months to transform his parents' home in Khayelitsha into an Afro-chic backpackers' lodge.
The couple set out to upgrade the three-bedroom house - with the aim of turning the home into a money-spinning business venture - after Lubabalo's parents moved to the Eastern Cape.
Noma, 21, was studying for a diploma in tourism and Lubabalo was working as an IT developer when they hit on the idea last year.
"We started [renovating] in November but because we could not get funds, the work was very slow. We were working with township people and finished in April," she said.
The house originally had three bedrooms, one bathroom, a sitting room and a kitchen. Two more bathrooms were added and the house was painted.
Instead of building cupboards, they decided to store clothing in large metal bins and use wire hange rs.
The house was decorated in an Afro-chic theme. "I am proud of being an African, you see. In most of these places [B&Bs ] their themes are Western. I wanted to remain in my culture," she said.
Noma said the couple had told the local street committee about their initiative so as to create a safer environment for their business. - Additional reporting Thandisizwe Mgudlwa
(Bobby Jordan)
Other Related