Gandhi-Irwin Blog

Went over this evening and even more was gone! Tile demo in the kitchen The basement walls are almost gone! No more bathroom I can see all the way across the basement! No more deck

After the first day, I couldn't wait to go over and see what had already been done. The kitchen is GONE! Temporary protection down and appliances stored.

It took us ALL weekend, but we finally cleared out the basement and first floor completely. The "before" shots Laundry/mech room Basement playroom/guest room Basement playroom/guest room First Floor Living Room Dining Room Kitchen Backyard. The addition will be where the deck is

I decided to switch from doing FB posts to a blog, so that those who can't access it can see the progress of our house renovations. This first post will be the backstory and then I'll start with where we are. Most people know that we have been trying to do this project for years. I tried to do the drawings myself but finally realized earlier this year that I don't have time to do two jobs, I'm not a residential architect and really (if I'm being completely honest) I don't have the desire to detail out the project (I never liked drawing wall sections). I hired the wonderful Karen Conkey to take my design, provide feedback on the design and tweak it as required to meet code/zoning/FAR requirements. The drawings were finished and submitted for permit around the 4th of July. We slowly started purging the house earlier in the summer. After the drawings when to permit, Karen picked 3 contractors to bid on the project. I had a walk-through with them and they were...

We helped Saha make a valentine box at school. And then she got to play with friends some more before going home. She also got to dress up for school today.

When I went to pick up Saha today she was on timeout because her teacher had asked her three times to stop talking with her friend and sit down for circle time. Her best friend was on timeout too. Oh boy, just like me, but I didn't think it would start at such an early age!! She didn't look very happy that I saw her on timeout either.

November's big thing was out trip to Spain and Portugal (and Morocco) with my parents, Priya, and Mike. That's a whole other, extensive blog post that I don't have time for right now. Maybe in March, once I'm done (!) with my tests. For now, here's the rest of November (We spent 12 days in Europe so the rest of November went by pretty quickly) Being silly one day before school. "I'm wearing Mommy's hat!" My big girl can use scissors now! This girl is truly desi (Indian). I swear she eats all Indian food without fuss. Date night with mom. Fro-yo, yum! Sunday afternoon playground time with some school friends. Modern version of a merry-go-round. How many kids can we fit on a see saw? I'm driving Mommy's car!

Here are a few randoms from October. Nana and Nani went to Hawaii and sent this for Saha! Open house at the local fire station. Rocking out at Snallygaster, a local beer fest (Allen was there, too) I love you this much, dad!

So far behind with posts and so out of order, but better late than never! The past few Columbus Days, we have been going out of town for the weekend with some friends. It's an alternating mountains-beach-mountains-beach type thing and this year was the beach. We weren't able to go to the last beach one, so this was our first with this group at the beach. The weather was pretty good, got rainy the last day, but Allen and Alisa still managed to go in the water every day and Saha enjoyed it up until she got knocked over by a receding wave. You can tell she's a natural at the beach already! beach house nap time with dad More photos can be found here .

Today, on the way home from school (a three minute drive) this was the conversation Saha and I had. "Look, an airplane. (The lights of an airplane were visible in the sky) Airplanes go to the airport. We don't have an airplane at home." "That's right, we don't. I don't think that we even have any toy airplanes. Would you like a toy airplane for Christmas?" "No, I want an Elmo!" "Saha, you already have three Elmos. How many Elmos do you need?" "10!" "10 more or a total of 10?" (She thinks for a couple seconds) "10 MORE Elmos!"

A couple weeks ago, we headed up to NYC for Allen's 10-year reunion. It was mine, too, of sorts, since most of my friends are in that class, since that's the class that I started with. On the ride up, Saha had a seat-mate, Grandma! We dropped her off at Kyrsten's on the way up.    Napping in the car. We also stopped of at Ruchi's to meet new baby Preesha.  Aniju made a couple of good friends!   Union Square has some awesome playgrounds that definitely weren't there when we were in college. More Union Square awesome-ness. Oh Union Square Farmer's market, how I miss thee!   Yes, we spent a lot of time at the playground :-) We went before and after brunch. After brunch, Saha made a friend and wasn't too happy when it was time to go. Only in Washington Square Park :-) Reunion. Saha was running (literally) all day and actually fell asleep while she was eating dinner. She didn't nap at all on...