3 Weeks Down!
We have now moved past the 3 week mark here. The good news overrides the bad so I guess that puts us in the money!
Good news:
- Our shipment apparently arrived on Saturday (though we should get confirmation today) which mean we should have our container delivered by the end of the week. A full week before we thought we would have it!
- The house is almost ready: This past week, all but one room was painted (the one room we are waiting to paint until we can figure out what color nicely blends Ellery's hot pink and lime green bedding with Jones' Chocolate brown and white striped bedding). It may be futile to wait, White may be the answer! In addition, the aircon (that's short for air conditioner here!) in the master bathroom was installed and today the other two aircons will be installed. We hired a custodial service to re-grout, shine marble, clean screens, power wash driveway, and all other things that needed to be done for us to be happy. The house seriously sparkles now and we are excited to get into it. The blackout drapes for the master are hung, the fence across the lanai is completed (though the stain and sealer are not quite done yet). It's been a busy week, but very productive!
- We finally were able to connect our US HSBC (it's an international bank for those who are not familiar) accounts to our Philippine HSBC accounts we had from our last stint here. This will make transferring money here very easy. The fees we pay to our local bank and the ATM's here are outrageous, so this solves that problem!
Bad news:
- After a few weeks, the effects of the move are hitting the kids, which makes it exhausting for everyone. Jones, the easiest child we have potty-trained, keeps having accidents. Ellery gets sad occasionally and feels no one likes her and Aleah cries at the slightest thing. I am not saying they are miserable, just moments of stress we can see. Curt and I are hanging in there. The house and coordinating all the details have distracted us a lot from missing people. Every day is a long list of to do's. Just marking one off the list creates two more things to do after...it will be endless for a few more weeks, I believe.
- Ellery had a cold for a few days and recovered. Jones caught the cold and it turned to croup. He's doing much better. We kept him home Friday from school, but I think today he is ok to return.
I wanted to include a few pics of the house so you can see the progress. Many of you may not have seen it at all before we left, so it will all be new to you.
- This is the front of the house as you walk in from the gate. (almost all houses have 6-8ft walls and gates around them, even though you are in a gated village...who knows...)
- The owner keeps putting new plants in the garden. Saturday we arrived to see the two new palms on the front stoop...the pink pots rock! Another thing on the list...re-pot the palms!
- This is the driveway on the left side of the house. You can see Aleah, and Ellery if you look closely, Ron, our driver and our dog, Aso). We pick him once a week and bring him to the house to play for a bit.
- Standing from the siding glass door, this is the view of our stairs as well as a peek into our loft. We took a chandelier down on the main floor and replaced it with a flat fixture so we can make what was the dining room, into the family room. Our family room furniture would not fit right in the current place the family room is located, so we are switching things around!
- This is our master bath. We added the light fixture and the aircon on Saturday. I couldn't handle being in the bathroom blow drying my hair with no aircon! I agree, I am spoiled!
- Did I mention the kitchen now shines? Forget the hole in the wall where the aircon will go, the short cabinets that will not hold my dishes and the fact that there still isn't a refrigerator, but still! The marble is now shiny and the sink the original color! Curt complains about the small tiles on the back splash, it drives him nuts. I don't care, I have a kitchen I can cook in (well, when I feel like it!).
- Here are all the new curtains in the master bedroom. Oh, and the new paint. It's a very light blue, so you may not see it too well in the photo.
I have another blog brewing, so keep your eyes peeled. Have a great week everyone!
Julie
Good news:
- Our shipment apparently arrived on Saturday (though we should get confirmation today) which mean we should have our container delivered by the end of the week. A full week before we thought we would have it!
- The house is almost ready: This past week, all but one room was painted (the one room we are waiting to paint until we can figure out what color nicely blends Ellery's hot pink and lime green bedding with Jones' Chocolate brown and white striped bedding). It may be futile to wait, White may be the answer! In addition, the aircon (that's short for air conditioner here!) in the master bathroom was installed and today the other two aircons will be installed. We hired a custodial service to re-grout, shine marble, clean screens, power wash driveway, and all other things that needed to be done for us to be happy. The house seriously sparkles now and we are excited to get into it. The blackout drapes for the master are hung, the fence across the lanai is completed (though the stain and sealer are not quite done yet). It's been a busy week, but very productive!
- We finally were able to connect our US HSBC (it's an international bank for those who are not familiar) accounts to our Philippine HSBC accounts we had from our last stint here. This will make transferring money here very easy. The fees we pay to our local bank and the ATM's here are outrageous, so this solves that problem!
Bad news:
- After a few weeks, the effects of the move are hitting the kids, which makes it exhausting for everyone. Jones, the easiest child we have potty-trained, keeps having accidents. Ellery gets sad occasionally and feels no one likes her and Aleah cries at the slightest thing. I am not saying they are miserable, just moments of stress we can see. Curt and I are hanging in there. The house and coordinating all the details have distracted us a lot from missing people. Every day is a long list of to do's. Just marking one off the list creates two more things to do after...it will be endless for a few more weeks, I believe.
- Ellery had a cold for a few days and recovered. Jones caught the cold and it turned to croup. He's doing much better. We kept him home Friday from school, but I think today he is ok to return.
I wanted to include a few pics of the house so you can see the progress. Many of you may not have seen it at all before we left, so it will all be new to you.
- This is the front of the house as you walk in from the gate. (almost all houses have 6-8ft walls and gates around them, even though you are in a gated village...who knows...)
- The owner keeps putting new plants in the garden. Saturday we arrived to see the two new palms on the front stoop...the pink pots rock! Another thing on the list...re-pot the palms!
- This is the driveway on the left side of the house. You can see Aleah, and Ellery if you look closely, Ron, our driver and our dog, Aso). We pick him once a week and bring him to the house to play for a bit.
- Standing from the siding glass door, this is the view of our stairs as well as a peek into our loft. We took a chandelier down on the main floor and replaced it with a flat fixture so we can make what was the dining room, into the family room. Our family room furniture would not fit right in the current place the family room is located, so we are switching things around!
- This is our master bath. We added the light fixture and the aircon on Saturday. I couldn't handle being in the bathroom blow drying my hair with no aircon! I agree, I am spoiled!
- Did I mention the kitchen now shines? Forget the hole in the wall where the aircon will go, the short cabinets that will not hold my dishes and the fact that there still isn't a refrigerator, but still! The marble is now shiny and the sink the original color! Curt complains about the small tiles on the back splash, it drives him nuts. I don't care, I have a kitchen I can cook in (well, when I feel like it!).
- Here are all the new curtains in the master bedroom. Oh, and the new paint. It's a very light blue, so you may not see it too well in the photo.I have another blog brewing, so keep your eyes peeled. Have a great week everyone!
Julie
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