As you can see our new Kuti is almost complete. A big Anumodana [= rejoicing in your goodness] to everyone who donated time and money to this worthy endeavour. We still have a few little things to finish such as steps and inner painting and nice floor covering. Our new nun Anagarika Pasanna moved in as soon as the roof was on, without waiting for interior walls or doors!
Like many things, the kuti ended up being a little bit different from what we expected. Firstly, the kit room that we ordered was bigger than what we had imagined. Secondly we had thought we ordered it to have the verandah on the long end, but it had been marked on the order sheet as having the verandah on the short end. But actually we like it better like this – it matches the existing shrine room more closely. So it is bigger and better than what we thought we had ordered – how nice! As with many building projects, it ended up a little bit more expensive that we first imagined, but only by about 20%, so that’s not too bad. We learned a lot from building this one, so next time we won’t order a kit, and that should save us about 40%.
Eventually we will still need to build another one for visiting nuns, since this one is now occupied by our student nun. But we need to take a breather from building for a while, as well as [of course] needing to raise funds for the second one. Extra toilet and bathroom facilities are also on the wish list. Something like this perhaps.