The back story of a Stellenbosch home

Professor Emeritus Rousselot Pienaar of Somerset West writes

I thought your readers might like to see what the house featured in the article “From the inside out” on page 40 of your May/June 2021 issue looked like in 1964-65 when it was built.

In 1963, my wife accompanied me to the USA during my studies. Whilst there she came across a magazine featuring plans of American houses, and we fell in love with one particular house. Back in South Africa, we started making plans to build our dream home on a property in Stellenbosch which I had purchased for R3 000 in 1961 from our vet, Dr J Maree. However, back then money was as scarce as hen’s teeth. I’d had a savings account at Saambou for 10 years by then so, after much pleading, they agreed to loan me R12 500. But alas, it was still not enough for us to build our dream home.

We found an architect-builder, Joop van Rijswyk, who adapted the plans so that the house could be built within our restricted budget, and construction began in 1964. During the July holidays, my wife and I travelled to Pretoria to see our parents. While there, we visited Ely Holm to view her art. On the spur of the moment, I asked her to engrave an impala on a piece of slate; it was finished two days later and we were able to take it back to Stellenbosch in our Beetle, where Joop and I bricked it into the stone wall above the fireplace. It became the focal point of our living room. The ceilings upstairs were made of pine and the floors of Japanese birch – after the Haumanns’ upgrade they really came into their own. Meyer and Ferreira made the built-in cupboards in the kitchen from mahogany. The house was completed in March 1965, and we moved in in early April, barely 18 days before our son was born! Since I love indigenous plants, I planted a variety of small trees and shrubs that were all less than 0.5m in height, but by the time we moved out in 2007 (16 years after my retirement) had grown to quite a size. I built the playhouse for my children, so I’m really glad to see it has been preserved.