Object of my affection

Its the tag season again.. and when it rains it pours.. Here I have 3 tags in the offing.. so you will be hearing a lot from me!! (yeah right.. like thats the only reason!). Anyway, I have decided to start with Dotmom's tag...She did a great job with it herself. I also read some other posts on the same topic, and I wondered what was the object of my affection?!
Would I write about the lovely (Kemp) pendant that has passed down generations.. from my grand mom's mom to her, to my mom and now to me. I string it with my little coral string necklace and wear it ever so often.. Its a lovely swan and looks so beautiful in its antiquity. But thats all I have to say about it.. Or would I write about the 300 books I left behind in India.. Books have always been the object of my affection. As I read Noon's post, I thought of the little oval plate (thattu) in my grand mom's house which my cousin (who is 11 yrs younger to me) and I still fight over every time we are there! I then thought of the wonderful paintings in my Granddad's place which I wanted, but he sold with the house! Or the boom box and oonjal (swing) that he gave away without consulting me first (I was all of 15 but I wanted all these things :P)
And then I remembered my conversation with DH yesterday and I had found it.. the object of my affection.. My house! In Chennai. Last night, DH was changing the desktop picture and I told him "Please put up the house picture, I want to look at it every time I boot up the computer!" And he did..
A few years back we moved back to India with the intention of staying on.. We had saved up some money and decided to buy a house in Chennai. We did all the research and started looking at apartments all around the IT Corridor. But we wanted a 4 bedroom apartment with loads of living space. We considered buying 2 adjacent apartments and joining them.. and made several architects come up with some interesting plans. But we were just not happy.
On one such occasion, we had visited an apartment in Medavakkam on the Velacherry - Tambaram road. When the time came to pick up the plan, I dropped out and DH proceeded along with my Uncle, checkbook in hand . We had given up trying to find the perfect home, and had almost decided to settle for this apartment. A couple of hours later still no trace of DH. I got a call.
"I have found it" he exclaimed
"What?" I said
"The perfect place.. there are so many trees in the colony, there is a reserved forest on one side and lake on the other, and farm lands on the third side.. In between is this beautiful colony of independent homes. It really is perfect"
"Oh great.. so come back and get me " I said
"No there is no time for that.. I am going to give them an advance for 2 plots. You can see it later"
This was a first, and I was literally stomping and fuming.. but he said that these were selling like hot cake, and he made an advance payment of Rs. 1 lakh.. and came home raving about the place. I on the other hand, sat there seething with anger! But I knew how important this was to DH. This was his first home and he was more particular than me for it to be perfect. So I let it go!
And we embarked on a tedious and bitter sweet journey of building a house. For the next 2 years, we thought of nothing but the house. After Nantu was born, we started construction, so as you can imagine for that first year we had only 2 things in our mind.. our new house and our new born child (not necessarily in that order!). Much of the time went in explaining and getting what we had in our mind from the contractors.. We wanted a separate living and a family.. an open plan, Kitchen Island, dry bathrooms. Basically things you take for granted here in the US, but explaining these concepts to the contractors in India is a nightmare! Anyway, after a lot of head butting and running around for the perfect materials (flooring, counter tops and bathroom fittings) we got there and completed the house of our dreams..

Unfortunately we chose to move back to the US a few months later.. (for reasons I can't begin to explain - that will take a whole new blog.). However the house beckons to me.. The house is a looming entity and I can't begin to describe what my feeling for it is.. I do know that I will go back someday and it awaits me silently in all its splendor.. I present to you.... The object of my affection!

I some how can't get the pictures in any particular order.. so forgive me!! I also do apologize for sounding so proud and materialistic... do bear with me just this once!! :) Thanks Dotmom for this lovely tag.
I tag Suma of Thinking Aloud
Rayshma
and my Namesake Preethi
All others who want to take it up are welcome to do so, I would love to read about all your objects of affection!