Some work some don't others well they are in transit

Ed has to go to work. Dhevi had a comp-off and she took it today. Next day was spent in arranging somethings. Suchi was taking care of chicken curry, while Palani and Dhevi fixed the reminder of crystal chandelier for the Dining room (Ed fixed 70% of it...but was not around to hang the pretty crystals...poor him). Ed came home early.
Suddenlty Aki called up to say their flight was cancelled and the airlines is not ready to arrange for a diffrent flight. After nearly two hours struggle they called up and said they will start by 7:30 pm. Hurrraaaaayyyyyy!. Dhevi and Suchi went off to buy some sheets and runners. No luck (it's written that Aki should chose them) and came home late.

Ed, Suchi and Palani went in two cars...(Well, Suchi went in the driver seat of mustang and got lost...Since we didn't want to risk the life of IL residents, Ed and Suchi switched cars). And to Akila's irritation, Ed's new walkie-talkie was used to the MAX.

Both kids arrived in pretty red coats...and went to sleep immediately. Dhevi

Chandelier challenge

Well one of the SMALL work was to change the chandelier in the dinning room. Ed started on the project yesterday night and spent 4 hours removing the old chandelier and installing the base for the new one. Tonight he continued the monster project. It is a crystal chandelier and there are more than 100 pieces to put together. Finally we fixed the arms and ready to hang the crystals. Ed went to Shiva's place to pick up the village set (christmas decoration). After a week of night works we both were tired and really sleepy. Now Suchi and Palani are supposed to land around 11 PM but got delayed. Ed was really sleepy and exhausted from all the work and forced himself to stay awake till he returned from the airport with Suchi and Palani around 1 PM. The Chandelier has to wait for another day's work! ;)

Tree Hunt

Sunday evening we went for the tree hunt. Menards fresh cut trees were sold out in a week they said. So went to home depot....love live HD, they had few 8-10 ft trees. Not much choice we picked the biggest tree in the lot and a stand and headed home. At home we started to arrange the tree base, when Vishnu and Renuka entered. So we chatted and drank the tea (Ravi special).

After that and some more chat we decided it's time to get to work. Ed, Ravi, Renuka and Vishnu set the tree. Ed and ravi started to cook after that - both made awesome chicken and ravi claimed his was best :)

Just before going to bed, both of us were really tired. Dhevi decided to work from home and Ed took sick day off. Well...Ravi was happy. For Ed and ravi, Monday was spent mostly in unpacking and the back breaking work of decorating the front of the house. Ed went up in the roof and found it is impossible to put the light hooks on the shingles. So he got done and borrowed a ladder from the neighbour and started putting the lights in front of the garage. It came out OK.

We are almost set, except for Ed's office and buying few small things for home.

Move(rs)

Ed woke up early and doing some small fixes the movers called. They said they are outside the old house waiting for him. They were supposed to come there in the afternoon. Aparently the move they had to do earlier was cancelled and they showed up earlier. That threw our entireplanning off. Ed drove to the old house and let them move the already packed boxes and the furnitures while he filled in the empty boxes. Even with three people and Ed also working withthem, the total move took more than 4 hours. In the meantime the furniture guys delivered and setup the furnitures at the new home while Dhevi was overseeing it. While the movers were unloading the stuff the comcast guy showed up ( the appointment was for 4:00 to 6:00 but he showed up at 2:00 PM. Talk about punctuality ). He hooked up the cable and Ed has to do a self installation for the internet. While all this is happening Giri uncle and Shankar showed up and brought food with them. So finally Ed had his first meal of the day at 2:30 PM.

Inky Pinky Key Rekey

Friday Ed went to work and Dhevi went for the doctor's checkup. After that she has to go back to the new house to get the locks rekeyed. The locksmith is supposed to comeat 12:00 to 1:00 PM but he didn't. So she missed a chandelier delivery. She has to make so many calls to have it rescheduled. We went to Sizzle India for dinner and from there we went to the new home to get ready for the busy next day.

New Home

We were not regular with our blogs for a while, and that is with the reason. We were busy with the process of buying a home. The search itself was a slow, sometimes painful and sometimes enlighting process. Dhevi will look at the listings from the realtor and mark those things which are interesting and send it for my review. If we both like something we will ask the realtor for a show. You after a while looking at so many homes from the listings everything looks the same! Out of all the houses we have seen one stood out and we ended up buying it. Today we closed the deal. We are moving to the new house this week end.



Another part of our story is getting things for the new house. We signed the contract two months ago and ever since we were visiting furniture shops, online sites for all the things we need. I guess we put in lot of time and energy in finding the things for the new home than finding the house itself. We have only a week left for Christmas and we have to set up the home and do all the decorations for Christmas. Everything went according to the plan except one thing. We started the whole home buying process to surprise our parents when they visit us this holiday season. But because of the Indian bureaucracy mom couldn't get the No Objection Certificate from the Government ( Can you imagine? even to get your passport to need approval from the Director of Education and believe me that is not an easy task. As much as we love india, these are the things that evoke an unpleasant feeling about the whole system. ). Anyway we hope they will enjoy the house when they visit us during summer of next year.

Meanwhile we have a housefull of friends visiting us this holiday season. This week end Vishnu, Renuka, Giri Uncle's family and Ravi. Next week end Niha Samyu and Family and Amma, Suchi and Palani will be here from East coast. Annamalai may visit us from west coast. Raghu and family from Columbus for the Christmas weekend. Shiva and Sheeba family, Anand and Geetha family, Giri uncle family, Srini and Sudha family will be joining us for the Christmas Eve dinner.