Decy continued looking at houses through Saturday.  She has a short list of four, in this order:  (a) Pondok Indah house, (b) DaVinci house, (c) Cipete house, (d) Modern house.  We had to give them names just so I could keep them straight.  All houses are fresh, modern, and beautiful ... each carrying its own strengths, each its own weaknesses.

On Monday, Decy begins negotiations on the Pondok Indah house (pics posted).  Current asking rental price, $4,000/mo + tax.  Our allowance is $4,350/mo; we are still clarifying about the tax.

Decy has done an absolutely tremendous job over the last 2 weeks.  Its hard to move, and even more difficult to another country.  Even though Decy speaks Bahasa Indonesia, and Jakarta is her home town ... she has no experiences in the "expat relocation process" .... the time compression and stress is enormous ... school placement, house selection, and car purchases ... will all be done in a matter of weeks.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars in "decision making" all in less than a month ... a challenging task, for anybody ... and I can only help and guide her via telephone. 

We have to ensure the PI house meets security requirements, then ensure it has water purifier, backup electricity generators, yadi yadi yadi .. then after some price negotiations and ensuring the house has all we need ... we can lock down a deal and a move in date (all going well, enshahallah; God willing).

Next step after negotiations is finding temporary basic furniture (beds, couch, dinette) ... so we can "live" while Decy designs and has made our custom, hand carved, teak furniture.  The next few months will be near chaos ... but it should be both challenging and fun.  Decy says that she can furnish the house for US$10k .. I don't think so (not even in Jakarta).  But, I am confident that the result will be absolutely beautiful ... and far cheaper than what can be done in the US ... besides, I have some extra dollars tucked away in case she goes "over budget" ... so, I'm not sweating it.

What about the cars? Hmmm, no progress there. But, that is ok, we have some time as we have a company paid car and driver until at least 12-September.  Besides, I'm not too keen on forking out US$60k of my own money until I can touch and feel the cars.

What about me ... sorry ... my life is boring.  Went on the night hash on Friday ... a VERY small group, only about 10 ... when we normally run 25-30 at night. Many folks were still out on holidays.  What we were lacking in numbers, was made up in energy.  The US Marines let us run and circle up at their house. It was lots of fun - - - these guys and gals have a hard job, we need to show them respect ...

ciao ciao