And the beat goes on . . .

"All that noise, noise, noise, NOISE!"

- The Grinch

Air compressor, flooring nailer, air gun! That's the sounds of building a house, and personally I think we could all use a break from the constant pounding.

Progress continues on the timber frame. The flooring is almost done and it really looks beautiful. After much contemplation and many calls to our GC we were able to transition the floor from the living room into the bedroom without breaking up the run of the floor. We not only saved a lot of cash doing it our self, but beat the deadline for the kitchen installation. And although the noise was a little overwhelming at times, I think we can close the book on that chapter of this process!

The wood stove was delivered this week from a spa and stove shop in Lebanon. We commissioned the store to make a hearth pad as well, but the cut around the floor timber was backward and we had to re-order the piece. We can't use the stove anyway since the pipe isn't hooked up, so hopefully next week we will be enjoying a warm fire.

So now it's back to making decisions - Appliances! I'd love to put high end appliances into this beautiful kitchen, but I have this issue hanging over me - a BUDGET! I'm looking at the Frigidaire Gallery collection right now. The prices are good and I think they have all the features we will need for this kitchen. By the way, I'm always up for a little input from my friends, so let me know if you have any suggestions.

The kitchen cabinets are a shaker-style maple with a cognac finish. That was a BIG decision and took a great deal of time to put together. Our cabinet designer is Greg Chinn from the St. Robert's Lowes. Not only has he had to solve some pretty tough issues, but has been out to our house 3 times to measure and get ideas. We are now ready to pick out some granite for the counter tops, and will probably head to Springfield this week to pick out something from a granite yard. I have no idea what we're looking for, but like everything with this house so far, we'll know it when we see it!

So what's next? Finish the window trim and start installing interior doors. Lots of trim painting still left, but little by little we're knocking that out, too. To maintain our sanity we've booked a trip to St. Maarten for mid-March with our friends Mike and Delisa.

A well-deserved break!