The bathroom vanity tops look wonderful. The tile is unglazed, solid porcelain so the tile setters were able to grind down tiles to create bullnose around the sink and on the counter edge. It really looks lovely—very clean and simple.

We are in the process of picking knobs for this bath and the other one. In the running are a couple of classic, round knobs in chrome and a very modern, clean, chrome, bow-shaped pull. Jim will come on Friday and help me decide which to use.

This is the Steamist steam machine for the shower. I am so looking forward to having steam in the shower. It is the best thing for aches and pains and also for curing a cold.

Unfortunately, the machine must live in my linen closet, taking up a whole lot of room. I tried so hard to get it installed inside the bench or in the mechanical closet, but no go. If there ends up being room in the utility closet I am going to be mighty pissed!

Nearly a year ago, I bought a laundry sink and cabinet from Ikea, just like the one in the barn, for our laundry room. Kai has started putting it together so the plumbers can plumb it in.

This is the most fabulous sink ever—18" deep and 18-gage stainless to boot. Plus, it has a slanted, corrugated front side to act as a washboard. The sink, faucet and cabinet all come to about $270 +/-, including door pulls. Amazing—and better than anything you can get for three times the price.

Our very old U.S.P.S. oak letter-sorting desk will go next to it as a laundry folding table. I got that desk years ago when the postal service got rid of the oak tables and put in metal ones. It has served as a sewing table, then laundry sorting table for many, many years and will continue to work in the new house too.

We finally got our third and hopefully final water heater in the barn. This one—a very expensive on-demand Takagi—had to be installed because my addition of air-conditioning to the barn changed the Title 24 calculations.

We will bring one of the previous two water heaters back to our old house to install instead of the one we currently have and Janver will buy back the other one.

I keep thinking I already posted a photo of this but can’t find it in the archives. Anyway, we finally got the awning up a year after the Grand Birthday Fête. It was worth waiting for because of the pleasant space it creates. Also, the cottage is so much cooler on hot days with this shade on the south side. The dry-run with the blue tarps was probably a good thing because it helped us figure out exactly how to make it.

The concrete in front of the garage door is supposed to be a drive-up apron but instead was poured as a stoop. The contractor is supposed to be fixing that—finally—this coming week. Once that is complete, we will put out our little patio table and some plants in pots and make this a really nice space.