Selamat Hari Raya and Eid Mubarak, everybody. It’s been a heck of a few months since I embarked on an overambitious home improvement project. The bricks began to fly in July with the demo crew, and it has been non-stop since then.

I’m adding a two-story addition to the back of my house, more or less doubling the amount of living space, while making repairs to the existing portion. The upshot is I had to move the family out. We’re renting a duplex (or semi-D as they call them here) down the block, living out of a few suitcases. I’d tell you a sob story about how all five kids are forced to sleep cuddled together on mattresses pushed together on the floor of one room, but who am I kidding? They preferred to sleep that way in the old place too. The plan was to be back in the new house for Ramadan – that date came and went, and by the time we started fasting it was pretty clear we wouldn’t be in for the holidays either. Mom is coming to visit in mid-November, so here’s hoping the house, if not complete, is at least livable by then. In the meantime, we are celebrating the holidays in the duplex, in which these pictures were taken.

[You can check out a flickr set of the house project if you like.]