My mom and grandma left yesterday. It's like a ghost town here. Keane seems to be doing okay, though, since his playmates have disappeared (they snuck away before he woke up). His Great Grandmother taught him how to play Patty Cake. He got so that he would "write a K " on his palm with his finger and roll that dough right up. He insisted on playing it almost every day, multiple times a day, and Great Grandma would quiz him on all his new words, claiming it was easier in the morning when he was "fresh".
We have had some good news, as of late. I think I asked for some prayer concerning our new house's kitchen. I need to explain this process a little better. We have chosen a house building group. They supply the architects and the contractors. It's not exactly pre-fab but almost. All houses are built with cinder blocks, not wood. First we had to decide on the style of house, that we chose from their catelog, then we met with the representative, and then we met with the architect (signing some contracts in between). We could get out of the contract if we couldn't find a piece of land, but we found one and signed all the contracts for that as well, it's ours! That was quite an event, sitting in the city office being read the contract in German and then having it translated into English. Having the offical get really ticked at the secretary for losing a piece of the contract and watching her eyes flare and her hand emerge on her hip, slamming of phones....oh boy.
Now we have to decide on a kitchen, so that the builders know where to put things, is my best guess. Can you tell I was born with a hammer in my hand? Anyway we went and got an estimate for a kitchen at a chain furniture store. That's how it works here. In fact, when people move, they take their kitchen's with them. We were blessed to have this apartment come with a kitchen-side story. Anyway, we sat down with the kitchen department rep. and told her what we wanted, mid to high grade quality and it was over our budget by about 2,000 smackers. Not good. John had decided on 7,000 without the fridge. This is where my REALLY good news comes in, but let's take intermission for a picture.
This is Keane with his first Popsicle, homemade.We visited another kitchen, mum and pop store, independent and all those other good things. At the place before, we didn't even figure in certain appliances that we wanted. Well, what a blessing!!! This other builder offered us everything we wanted, including the color of the cabinets and the counter color that I wanted (I'm modeling one in Natural Home that I found), with two gas burners, a big ol' IKEA style ceramic sink, table/bar, dish washer, and FRIDGE for 8,000. John had planned 7,000, but assumed we would be buying the fridge separately for 1,000. Yeah!!!!!! The only appliances we own are a stove (which we'll use) and a thousand year old refrigerator from India (yeah- that'll be going downstairs).
John has been doing everything in threes (he is my thorough guy), so he still plans to visit another store to get an estimate, just in case, but at least we have the plan figured out and are one step closer to signing the final blueprints. We better hope we get it right, or it'll cost A LOT to change it. Continue to pray. We might have to pay an extra 3,000 to change the style of the roof, according to city regulations. That is not something we want to pay, not for something so stupid. We are appealing to the city next week.
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