Where to begin

So, I haven't made a blog post in FOREVER!!! Things have been so busy.

Recently, I spent a month in England for work and when I came home, I was moved into my new house. It's lovely. Not to say there haven't been a few hiccups here and there. Hopefully we are done with that and can get settled in.

Currently, we are waiting on our cabinet people to deliver our cabinet. We made our first deposit 4 months ago and were supposed to have cabinets in 6-8 weeks. We will definitely be asking for a discount when they finally are delivered.

Here are some pictures of where we are now.

Shamefully overdue post

Right... So, I haven't blogged since the beginning of January. Things have just been crazy busy...

Where do I begin?

The house is coming along really well. They are supposed to be putting in the windows and exterior doors this week and by the end of the week, our main contractor should be handing over our house. After that, we begin the finishing works like plumbing, electricity, tiling, painting, cabinetry, etc. Perhaps if things go well, we will be ready to move in by July. We'll see. Either way, it's pretty exciting.

Our weekends have been spent shopping for our finishings. Sinks, toilets, water taps, doors, tiles, light fixtures. It's amazing how much you take for granted when you move into a place that is already finished. However, it's been a really fun process.

Other areas in life...
Work is going well for both of us, though we have been rather busy...

Other than work and house stuff, we don't really have much to report...

Thankfully things are beginning to cool off and temperatures in my office are hovering in the upper 70's rather than the 80's. This is a VERY welcome break and has made my daily runs more enjoyable as well.

I'm working my way up to a 10k for Thanksgiving, which we will be celebrating in the U.S. I am looking forward to seeing everyone.

Here are some updated pictures of the house for your enjoyment. :-)

The first is the house from the street.
Next is the upstairs family room looking from the back terrace to the front of the house.
Next is one of the extra bedrooms.
Next looking from the laundry room through the kitchen into the living/dining room.
Finally, a picture of the back yard from the ground floor back terrace.

Blogging slacker

Wow,

I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I have written anything. I guess you can tell that life has been a bit busy around here...

It's officially summer here in Mauritius and that means it's officially warm. Celebrating Christmas and New Years in shorts and flip flops is definately not what I am used to. It isn't all bad, but it will definatley take some getting used to. Baking holidays goodies just isn't as much fun when your kitchen is about 82 degrees (28 C) before you start.

The holidays here are a bit funny. Christmas decorations do go up, but usually only about a week before Christmas. This year I noticed more festive behavior than last, so hopefully they are getting the hang of it and every year will be better.

New Years tends to be the big event here. At midnight fireworks go off everywhere and for a long time. Good luck trying to sleep. Unless of course, you are my husband. I honestly don't know how he sleeps through that. The other crazy thing is that in Mauritius, the law requires you to be paid a 13th month at the end of the year. So essentially, in December, you get paid doule what you usually get. Interesting idea... The problem is that people go out and spend his money and for some reason the grocery stores don't understand that demand goes up, so if you go to the store on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th of January, you will likely not find much. No bread, no eggs... the produce is all icky and growing mold. You get the picture. And yes, I mean this literally.

Other than that life has just been cruising along. We are making good progress on our house and I think that by the end of the week, they will likely be ready to cast the slab for the first floor. It's amazing to see how quickly they move... Shown here are some pictures of the ground floor with walls up to where the windows begin. I can't wait to have it done!

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

I'll try to be more consistent this year. :-)