Richard's been gone again this week...with the camera. He's working on starting the renovation on our future apartment. We've had a lot of phone conversations this week about tiles, cabinets, plumbing, and stuff like that. It's hard to find a good English word to describe what we're doing. It's not really remodeling, building, or renovating in the American sense of those words. It's fixing up a place that is comparable to a shell...we need to redo some plumbing, drill the walls to put electrical wires in, lay flooring, etc. So just keep in mind that when we talk about renovating or remodeling, it's a little (actually, it's VERY) different here. I think what often makes this process so stressful is that things usually go wrong. For example, today was the first day of work, and we've already leaked into the place below us. Ahhh, let the drama begin. I guess we can't assume that whatever minimal work had been done previously (like waterproofing the bathrooms) was done too well. We're hoping this process won't be too stressful, but we'll see.
Anyways, I can't imagine how Richard is managing to do this all on his own. I wish I were there to help him, but we decided it was better that I stay here with Noah. The first few days without Richard were rough as Noah seemed to be getting over a bug, but today was tons better. It's also been extremely hot (we've already decided to buy AC for our next place), but today cooled down significantly with some rain. Hooray! We're looking forward to having Richard back in a few days since Noah kissing the phone just isn't the same as having daddy around! When Richard gets back, we'll be sure to post some pics of our future home!