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