I arrived at the site a little later than usual due to bad traffic, and had back-to-back meetings scheduled all day. I took a few photos and then left to visit the stone fabricators to look at the layout on the granite.

The kitchen cabinets are complete except for the pressed tin panels and knobs, and just look gorgeous.

The color of these cabinets is so hard to define. I asked Jim what color they were and he said, “It’s easy. They’re reddish-green.” Yeah, like that makes sense, plus, they are really more of a reddish-yellowish-green.

The subtle green of the stain shows well here on my computer monitor, although it is hard to say how it will look on yours. The cabinets register as much less pink in real life, but it is almost impossible to say WHAT color they are. I will continue to call them green.

To get the color ideas for the house, I opened the elevations from the architect on my computer. Illustrator will open a CADD drawing although there are some issues to these files. However, I was able to use them well enough to color them in and simulate the finished look, somewhat.

Looking at this colored elevation and the photo below, you can see that it really does look like my original idea, although the real-life colors are much more subtle, especially the cabinets.

I will do another comparison later when the trim and tile are in and the granite has been installed, so we can see how close I came. One thing I did not anticipate in the above drawing—mostly because it is not in perspective—is the impact the counters will have.

At the time I did the sketch, we had planned to have tile counters. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked to granite and even more unfortunately, we found we liked a rather expensive and dramatic kind. When the counter tops go in, I am sure I will be giving huge sighs of relief that the cabinets are so subtle, because that granite is not!

The plasterers were there putting on our color coat and using what was left of our water. It was so low, that they had to use a pump to get it out of the tank, because when the water gets that low in the tank, the pressure pump doesn’t go on.

We think we know what happened with the upper well. The electrician seems to remember that the concrete contractor hit the conduit when digging the carport piers and disconnected the well. I am not sure whether this is real or whether I am having a false repressed memory, but I seem to remember that too. I faintly remember saying,“That’s not a problem if we get it hooked back up before the hot weather,” and promptly forgetting the whole thing.

Here is the fireplace from the dining room with the foam chimney on top. We put it back up to see what we did and didn’t like about it. We are still trying to decide whether we even want a chimney, but are going to try one more time. It’s odd how it actually looks OK in this photo, but in real life, not so great.

The trim is taking up so much room in the living room and dining room, it makes it very awkward to view the fireplace and make any judgments.