Hello Buddy,
Sorry for the long silence but we've been really occupied as I will try and explain. The house was started on Oct 27th and finished on Dec 9th. The work was done by 4 or 5 guys a day every day including the crew boss. They took 3 days off at New Year and a couple others during the building. As close as I can figure, the house contains 1860 sq ft. It has 540 on its second floor and 1320 on its first. The crew did all the work except for installing the glass and doing the electrical.
When they finished we started the clean up. Unfortunately they didn't clean as they went and we had everyone cleaning glass, sweeping, dumping, scraping, and what ever for four or five days. Then we had to get ready for the blessing. We had hoped to get nine monks which is the lucky number but there was another blessing that day. We were told five but that morning they said seven which was better. The night before about six ladies from the village came and started cooking and cooked all night. We started with 10 invitations and wound up expecting about 50 people. Don't ask what really happened then! The monks came and we had a nice ceremony. After they left, the village people had another ceremony for Sang, her mother, her daughter, and I. It was all very moving!
After we recuperated from all that, we started moving things from the old house to the new. Everything had to be cleaned and sorted and thought of where to put. We are still adjusting to that.... Then, I started painting the toilet and shower room ceiling and trim which had been left bare. It is just one thing after another! Tomorrow the electrician comes in to install the hot water heater in the shower and help us get a pump for better water pressure. The town water went off for three days and we were skipping showers.
I guess that kind of brings you up to date except for one thing and that would be the final pictures. Hopefully they will come this week. Until then.
My best wishes to you Kamaroh,
Barney
