A new home...temporarily

At last, I'm finally out of the hotel and have moved into what will be our home for the next year. All neat and tidy waiting for me, but very, very white. I can think of a few other colours that might be a little more practical in a rented property.

After a couple of hours of staring at white walls and unpacking my suitcases I was rescued by Wendy, who came round to take me for breakfast and to do a little shopping. So, 2 minutes after finishing my scrambled egg & bacon roll I was in WalMart picking out some loo-roll, air-freshener, toiletries, etc. I also got myself some fruit juice, Honey-Nut Cheerios & milk. With a couple of items of crockery I was good to go :-)

The week-end was frantic and not helped by the fact that the house doesn't appear on any SatNavs (they're called GPS's here) or maps (and definitely not on MapQuest or similar). This meant that on Saturday, Sunday & Monday I was fielding calls from lost delivery drivers who were expecting me to guide them in on the phone.

However, I got there in the end and the deliveries, etc. all panned out as planned:

Sat am - delivery of all the electronics (one laptop missing)
Sat pm - cable guy to hook up cable box (DVR), telephone & broadband
Sat pm - beds delivered and installed
Sat pm - missing laptop delivered

Sunday am - home theatre set-up
Sunday pm - wireless network set-up

Monday am - container delivered, assembly of furniture, etc.

All that's left is to unpack the 80 boxes of 'stuff' from the UK; job for Steph methinks. Especially since wherever I put things, she'll want to move them...

It was great to see the house slowly take shape. First with a few boxes of electronics, TV, etc. Then the beds, followed by getting all the TVs working. On Sunday everything - finally - was hooked up and I could play and watch DVDs, TV, etc. through the AV receiver (the room's too small so I have it set up as a 5.1 rather than a 7.1). And finally Monday, when I was able to unpack and have our furniture in situ, as well as a few possessions - Hannah's ornaments and cuddly toys, some of Steph's clothes...

A few small teething problems were sorted over the week: rear-left speaker didn't work, needed to buy and load Quicken and Microsoft Office. And most important need a crash course in Windows Vista - but have to say that it looks really good.

I now have something that's approaching a home and all that's required is my wife and two children :-)