Lucky Dogs

Some surprises are good. We got two good ones this week.

First came the final selection of the granite. Our selection list had been to use the same type of granite in both the master bedroom and the tack room. Lucky dogs, huh?

Then Lynn Hammerschmidt and I went to the vendor's warehouse to pick the final slabs. While there, Lynn noted a partial slab that would coordinate with the wall colors picked for the master. Normally, it would be a more expensive style than what was on the selection list. With the current economy, Lynn saw an opportunity. She negotiated it to the same price as the selection.

Then there's the molding. In design, we'd chosen a tray ceiling with rope lighting and two rows of crown molding for extra impact in the living room. That came in this week and adds a very nice touch to the room. Molding also was installed on the kitchen cabinets. There the Hammerschmidt team did a great job, feathering the molding in to meet the slope of the open ceiling. The real surprise was molding in the tack room. We'd chosen relatively inexpensive cabinets due to it's utilitarian nature. I'd completely missed that these came with crown molding, too. Wow. Yet again, Lucky Dogs, huh?

Living Room	Kitchen	Tack Room

In other progress, exterior paint was going on and we finalized interior paint selections. With John and Sean, we picked out proportions for a keystone layout that goes over the living room door from the entry foyer. And we finalized selection of pulls in the Kitchen.

There was one less pleasant surprise. It came as we were sketching layouts of the living room mantle with John and Sean. As we measured their proportions on the wall, it turned out there's one electrical box that's a wee bit close to the fireplace, and would get covered by the mantle. This is one of those times where I'm glad we hired a builder, and can let him figure out how this particular bit of sausage making will be accomplished. Lucky dogs, huh?