Our sense of the passing of time is completely warped by these last few weeks. The paint we thought would take three or four weeks has now been going on for almost three months. We're on Week #11 and there's now a little light at the end of the tunnel, but my goodness it's been a long tunnel. So much prepping, priming, touching up, and in all the rooms on almost all the surfaces. Now I see the process, I suppose it was naive to think it would only take three weeks. I thought that's what the painter told me, but I wonder if I dreamt that, or misheard. Or he was kidding? Anyway, 13 weeks seems much more realistic than 3. Paint holds up a lot of things. They can't fit light fittings, or instal hardware like taps and towel bars, or put up wallpaper, or add cabinet doors till it's done. But now, room by room, as the paint gets finished up, those other things are getting done. And by contrast they seem to work at warp speed. In the last week our bedroom, the bathroom

I would never have noticed the wonky lines around the kitchen cabinets. But of course Ash did. And once he didn't we just couldn't unsee them. The whole house is definitely not wonky. Inspections by structural engineers and City planners at every stage of slab pouring and steel construction have assured that. The drywall is surely not wonky. I saw the drywall guy - who our General Contractor described as 'artists' - with their spirit levels. The cabinets, too, were installed carefully with spirit levels in evidence and careful, minute adjustments being made. And yet somehow at the intersection of house, drywall, and cabinets, there are some off angles. Here are the builders, the house framer, the cabinet guy and someone to do with drywall looking at the wonkiness to try to figure it out. Here's the drywall guy re-doing the drywall, for that, apparently is the solution. We don't know how or why it happened but after much head scratching it is fixed.

During June the cabinetry went from sketches, to random looking pieces of wood, to actual installed cabinets. Worktops went on and sinks were installed.  Stair rails went in too, after some to-ing and fro-ing about our insistence that the stair rods go straight into the tread. Glad we stuck to our guns. Now painting and staining is about to commence so we had to make a big decision. When we started this journey our Pinterest was full of baltic birch, very washed out and skandi looking. But I've leaned more and more into colour and texture and richness and depth - and I just don't think you have have bleached out cabinets with that look. Ash dreads a honeyed, school gym floor hue though.  Our painter created three samples. No, to Ash's point, there aren't only three stains in the world. He intended these as a starting point and would willingly do more if we needed. But why make life complicated? One of these, I think, is just right. Can you guess which one? Hope we made

Cabinets are being finished, doors are being stained, walls are being painted and ooh! our beautiful floor has been re-sealed. We're starting to see these gorgeous glimpses of the finished house. Witness the glory of my all yellow pantry: The genius of our entryway cabinetry: ...which on the other side makes my dreamy office cabinetry (needs a little work but you can see how it's shaping up). These tall beauties: The laundry room floor: The beauty of our polished concrete floor:

It's all about the details at the moment. Since the house is long since framed and drywalled we have a lot more time and energy to dedicate to minor details like the precise distance between the slats on our roof and garage door, or exactly how the stair rods should go into the stair treads. These are the details we had never thought about before. We may now be at risk of over thinking them. The point at which Ash started debating between a gap of 1-1/2" versus 1-7/16" gap between the slats I had to call time.  Honestly, now the roof is done, I'm not sure any of these would have been the wrong choice. Or if we'd even notice if the carpenter used a different measurement altogether. But it felt like an important decision at the time. The debate about how to insert the stair rods into the treads was easier. We want them to look as slick and seamless as possible. The slickest and most seamless option will cost an extra $10 per stair rod, as it involves hand machining

Since we began the build, despite delays (shoring permits and windows being the most painful), the builder has maintained completion in July is feasible. Every week I ask him 'Are we still thinking we can move in in July?' and he sucks his teeth and says 'Yes', or 'No reason why not.' More recently he's taken to saying 'That's what we're shooting for', then listing the remaining jobs to get done, and then saying 'But yes, we should get there'. I have come to understand that this means that the house will be done in July. If by 'done' you mean it's weatherproof,  has finished floors, is painted, and has passed code. But. We won't have a fridge till August, nor an an oven till September - despite ordering them in August 2021. Supply chain and all that. We looked into ordering an alternative but the leadtime on pretty much any high end appliance is 18-24 months. We may keep an eye out for floor models. Or we may just live