Acharya Family Weblog

We have a very large invasive tree– a Norway Maple, which blocks all light coming down into the ground. Being native plants aficionados, we wanted some hardy plants under it. So, we planted a few asters, violets, and a couple other plants. I just finished mulching the area. We’ll see if they survive!! I’ll have some pics later.

Update: here are some pictures– from the door out to the sidewalk.

After much dithering, we decided to put in a new floor in our study next week. It’s going to cost us a pretty penny, but I think it’s worth it because the existing “carpet” is really ugly and nasty. The new floor should brighten up the room considerably.

We still don’t have a sofa yet. We’ve budgeted $100 for this and we almost scored a nice one for free, but we were just a bit late. If you have any sofas you’re willing to part with, let me know!

UPDATE: Here is a picture of our new flooring. No more cat allergies from the grotty carpet!

We should be done with the move from Hasbrouck to our new place by
Sunday or Monday night. Thanks Gilles, for your help!

Our house is coming together nicely, thanks to some moving help from Elton and Ram (and Meg, when I was out). We’re about 98% done. I will still need some dishes and clothes up at Hasbrouck until 31 May, because that is when my GCA contract is up. My final GCA on call is May 15.

Charlotte had her midwife appointment this morning and Junior is looking quite healthy indeed! The midwife said that Charlotte’s cervix is softening and Junior has descended. That means that Charlotte is in the late side of the pregnancy. Though our due date is June 7, the pregnancy term is May 17, next week.

It took us a while, but here are some choice photos from the house.

The picture above is out dining room. The picture to the right is the sparse guest room, with a comfortable futon! Right below here is a picture of our baby-to-be’s room. Our lawnmower is to our right!

To our right and below, we have a very spacious and 1970s style kitchen. It’s gigantic! Bottom left, is the back porch of the house; bottom center is our spacious yard with bird feeders.

So far, we’ve cleaned the basement and most of the kitchen, painted, changed the locks, oiled some of the lovely wooden furniture left in the house and rejiggered the compost bins. We’ve also had to deal with some of the garbage that the previous owners have left. Some of the outstanding issues include whether we want to redo the study a bit and to refloor the kitchen. All in all, we’re in excellent shape to be able to move into the house. We have plenty of time to do it, assuming our little one doesn’t arrive earlier than scheduled.

Thanks to Marie, we’ve got a picture of the back of our house to show you. Gilles and I are standing on the rock patio and Govind is in the garden. We’ve been too busy cleaning and fixing small things to take pictures yet. We’ll take a picture of the baby’s room once we’ve got some furniture in it.

Inside pics very soon!!

It looks like we’ll be in possession of our beautiful new house in about one week. Once we have it in place, we’ll post some pictures of the interior.

We have spent a few hundred dollars on the dining set (table and accessories) that was already in the house, plus two used futons. The dining set, in particular, is a beautiful old-style set with the right amount of wear and tear. Our two futons were real steals, especially our new king size futon that looks brand new, but we got for only about $150. The retail on that is at least $500! Also from the house seller, we scored up a couple of nice desks and a dresser for junior (our temporary name for the baby).

Finally, Annette, over here at Hasbrouck, gave us some wonderful baby stuff. We’ve managed (thank goodness) to not spend anything on baby stuff yet, but I’m sure that will change soon since we’re in the market for cloth diapers.

Here is a link to a few scant pictures of our house in the Fall Creek neighborhood of Ithaca:

http://www.acharya03.org/weblog/ournewhouse.pdf.

So, another big change in our life– we are now homeowners. We will be moving into a gorgeous (pictures to come soon) old house in downtown Ithaca. The house was built in 1900 and it has all wood floors and a gigantic old style kitchen. We’re looking forward to this new place!

We’ve joined the house hunting market in the past few days, attempting to move from our wonderful, but a bit isolated grad student apartment, to a house near the Ithaca Commons. We love Hasbrouck (the Cornell grad housing place we live) a lot, but we’re more of the non-car types, so we’re ready for a change. We’ll let you know how the process unfolds.

In case you’re wondering, this is our kitchen. It is really small and we’re standing at the apartment entrance as we’re taking the picture. It’s pretty small!!