extension – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

Suite 1 – Progress

The photo shows the new entrance to Suite 1 from the poolside at Chanters Lodge early this Friday morning as Max, our hard working handyman, sweeps the water used to cure the floor out of the way, so that the carpenters can access the site and start fitting the ceiling.

Ireen, my partner, is going to Lusaka today to buy curtain, bed-cover and cushion cover material – her speciality – she has excellent taste (I would say that wouldn’t I?). Oh! And she’s going to a Michael W Smith concert at Woodland Stadium tomorrow afternoon too!

We’ve bought the additional air conditioner we needed and the chairs for the sitting room are on order and partially paid for. New panel doors are in stock.

The next big job will be tiling the floor. Tiles are yet to be bought. Thought for the weekend…may the Zambian Kwacha still be weak against the US$ next Monday!

Chanters is located in the suburbs of Livingstone, just 10 kms from the mighty Victoria Falls.

21
MAY

accommodation, Africa, Chanters, entrepreneurship, extension, renovation, victoriafalls, Zambia

Sweet Conversion

Check the three photos above, taken yesterday at Chanters Lodge Livingstone.

With my back to the bathroom (which is almost finished) I took the photo at the bottom. The builders (demolition workers?) are knocking through from ex Room 2 to ex Room 1. This is to allow for a new big en suite double bedroom.

The middle photo shows the space being created in ex bathroom 1 for a large window overlooking the pool, which will be the feature of the suite’s new sitting room. The entrance to the suite will be on the right of this picture around the corner, with steps leading from the poolside to a new front door opening on to the sitting room.

The suite bedroom will have its own entrance door from the main house as well – just in case….! The top photo is with my back to the new sitting room, looking through the new bedroom to the en suite bathroom.

Do we have it right? I think so, but you can’t really tell until it’s finished! I’m already seeing a few things I wish we’d done or were doing differently, and some things I hadn’t anticipated.

Anyway, as my friend Derek said: “Full Steam Ahead”!

2
MAY

accommodation, Africa, Chanters, entrepreneurship, extension, renovation, World Cup 2010, Zambia

Offices, Chanters Lodge

Here’s two good photos of the new offices at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone. You can see immediately that the pictures weren’t taken by an amateur! They’re the work of Phil Broadhurst at www.fishfilms.co.uk who’s staying with us at the moment as he’s part of the crew filming ‘Lion Country‘, the ITV documentary series being shown in UK about the Lion Encounter, out at Thorn Tree Lodge. Great conservation effort, super activity and wonderful TV programme!

In one of the photos with me are Annastasia and Melinda. ‘Why do we all look a bit fed up?’ I hear you ask. Well, it was pouring with rain, and we were worried about all the activity cancellations that were coming in – upsetting our Guests. Helicopters don’t fly, lions don’t walk and elephants don’t safari in the pouring rain! And, most of our Clients this week are from UK – naturally more weather conscious than others! We were also tired from a busy week made more hectic by moving offices!

The construction of the offices started at the beginning of December and I suppose 4 months start to finish wasn’t too bad for the build considering Christmas, New Year and Easter in this period with their long public holidays, plus the fact that we were working during the rains. I had doubts about this project, but not any more. It’s great to have a new attractive office facility and we’re really looking forward to the conversion of rooms 1 and 2 into an executive suite. Without new offices this wasn’t going to be possible.

Like any move anywhere it was all quite stressful, but Annastasia’s pleased with her new office next door to mine though we need phone extensions – due to be installed next week. Anny’s previous location has re-invented itself as a linen store! “Come to the office!” Has definitely taken on a new tone at Chanters Lodge!

Thanks again to Phil for the super pictures!

10
APR

activities, Africa, Chanters, extension, infrastructure, management, Zambia

Office With A View

Check the view from the window of our new offices at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, Zambia – looking west up Obote Avenue. Isn’t that nice? Have you moved in? We hear you ask.

Errrmmm, no, not quite, but we will, the moment the curtains are up!

Then we’ll post a view of the interior too – minus the beer crates we might have to be sitting on!

31
MAR

Africa, Chanters, entrepreneurship, extension, infrastructure, innovation, leadership, livingstone, victoriafalls, Zambia

Offices

We’ve been making good progress on our new offices at Chanters Lodge as the picture shows. We still have to put up the fascia boards, finish the external painting including the roof, and fit then paint burglar bars and grill gates. There’s still a tiny amount of tiling to be finished as well.

Pelmets have to be erected, curtain material has to be bought and the curtains sewn. Then we have to buy at least the basic furniture, fit phone extensions and move in. When? Hopefully, but not necessarily, before Easter which is the first weekend of April.

18
MAR

accommodation, Africa, Chanters, entrepreneurship, extension, livingstone, Zambia

Why Offices?

Most visitors to Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, when they see the new office building pictured above (with a roof on, you’ll note), ask “are you building new rooms?” They’re usually surprised when we reply “no, they’re offices”.

We then go on to explain that back in 1998 when we were developing the original 3 bedroomed house into a restaurant with some rooms, money was very tight. An admin office seemed to be the last thing we could afford in the light of having to provide private bathrooms for the 3 bedrooms, refloor the whole building (parquet tiles throughout), provide public toilets, convert and extend the servants’ quarters to become the stores, kitchen, laundry and staff changing facilities, and the small existing domestic kitchen into the bar. We also had to landscape (there was nothing), equip the kitchen, bar and restaurant then fully furnish the rooms and public areas.

So, where did we work? Well, initially I worked on the end of the terrace, from where I had good peripheral vision and the accountant worked under one of the seven rondavels we’d erected in the garden as an afterthought! These were soon to become, and still are, one of the most popular features at the lodge! Accounts moved to share our tiny reception area. As for me, I got fed up with having to move from the terrace due to Client demand – the terrace was our second most popular feature – so I moved into the restaurant. When I first got a laptop in 2005/6 it was too risky to leave it lying around the restaurant and I sort of moved into room 2 (we had expanded to 8 rooms at this stage), and later somehow became firmly ensconced!

In 2009 it seemed to me daft to continue occupying a guest room when we did have space and just about enough finance to build offices, and reception is still too small for two people to work in comfort! So in late December we started the construction of two offices. The exciting plan once we’ve moved in, is to convert two of the original rooms into a pool facing suite. This won’t be simple and won’t be cheap but it will be the most innovative challenge since we built the first two pool facing rooms in 2006!

We’ve posted a photo of the original building to give you perspective! Oh! And I was writing this the builders arrived to start plastering the office block.

6
FEB

accommodation, Africa, Chanters, extension, innovation, offices, victoriafalls, Zambia

Offices

Our new small office block is taking longer to build than we’d hoped at Chanters Lodge in Livingstone. But there’s some progress as evidenced by this picture.

Most of the roofing materials are now to hand (if not yet paid for!) And we hope the roof will be on this week, weather and builders permitting. If we’re occupying the offices and solvent by the end of February, we’ll be happy enough! Even if it means sitting on beer crates with laptops on laps!

1
FEB

Chanters, electricity, extension, infrastructure, innovation, livingstone, victoriafalls, Zambia

Offices

Despite the festive holiday (for some people), the rains, slow deliveries and financial constraints, we have made some progress on the new offices at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone as witnessed from this photo taken this morning.

We’re expecting delivery of roofing materials this week and if this happens, and weather permitting, in a week’s time there should be some more progress to report, but don’t hold your breath!

12
JAN

Chanters, extension, livingstone, offices, Zambia

Accommodation at Chanters

We were delighted to learn yesterday, that Chanters Lodge was cited by a Trip Advisor executive at a recent e tourism summit held in South Africa for the complementary reviews about us on their site. Indeed we’re grateful to all Guests who have reviewed the lodge. We’re often marked slightly down on rooms in these reviews. In order to try and make it clear what we offer at our very reasonable prices, we’ve recently updated the accommodation page on our site to reflect the current situation. Here it is:

Chanters Lodge offers Guests a variety of rooms all of which are self-contained and air-conditioned with satellite TV (choice of 5 channels), refrigerators and complimentary tea/coffee making facilities.

There are 4 poolside double rooms (each with one double bed), located in a quiet, peaceful lovely garden setting. These rooms have spacious bathrooms which contain a seperate shower cubicle.

There are 4 large twin bedded rooms, each (soon to) have two double beds – these rooms face the main building and are ideal for those requiring family accommodation, as they have space for at least one extra bed. These have self-contained shower rooms. Travellers can park their vehicles immediately outside these rooms.

There is 1 big, purpose designed, family room with two double beds and a double bunk bed. It has a spacious bathroom with seperate shower.

The original building of Chanters Lodge houses 3 small double rooms, each with one double bed, and self-contained with private bathroom and/or shower. These rooms are ideal for the single traveller or couples travelling on a budget.

Click here to see the various different rates for these rooms.

At certain seasons and for group travel, as well as for long stays, discounts are available on request. All room rates are per room per night and include full english breakfast and free transfers from/to Livingstone International Airport or the city centre on arrival/departure if required.

All rooms have Wifi availability. The lodge gives one free hour internet access per room to Guests on arrival and very reasonable internet vouchers are available for purchase thereafter. There’s also a laptop situated in the lounge for Guest use if required.

The lodge has a stand-by electricity generator in case of power cuts and a 28,000 litre reserve water supply. The site is surrounded by a wall fence and there is a security guard at night. There is space for parking approximately 10 vehicles.

The picture is of one of our recently completed poolside doubles.

8
DEC

accommodation, Africa, Chanters, extension, TripAdvisor, Zambia

Offices

Work has started on the construction of a block containing 2 offices at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone. “Why do you need more office space?” I hear you ask. “Is your administration getting bloated?” Ummm – more office space? Actually we don’t have any! And this more than 11 years since the lodge first opened! How have we managed?

Well, initially, the ‘office’ was located under a tree in the garden. From there it moved to a table on the terrace. From there to a table in the restaurant, and then, as the lodge got bigger, to a Guest room – meaning that whenever the room’s let, we have to move out! Inconvenient – to put it mildly, though we’re not a management team that enjoys being, or is, ‘office bound’.

Now, as the years go by and I get no younger, it’s time also to consider the future. To this end, Annastasia Katele my delightful assistant has to learn to do some of the things I do at the moment – initially stores, bar and kitchen stock control. So she also needs a base from which to work.

Our two offices will be located on the right of the restaurant in the car park as you enter the lodge, in such a place as to afford me a good view of the front gate, lodge entrance, reception and the back yard! And Annastasia the same views forward, but behind her a view inside the laundry where Chanters Girlies meet (and talk) etc.

This addition will also allow us to redevelop the room we’re currently using as an office, then giving the lodge 12 letting rooms consisting of three small self-contained double rooms in the main house (for single or double occupancy at economical rates), four poolside doubles, 4 spacious twins and a family room.

There’s a picture of the work happening on the first day – and on the second day it rained!!!

4
DEC

accommodation, Chanters, charities, extension, livingstone, Zambia

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