all in a day's work.

We had a long, but productive day today. About to have dinner, but here's the quick run down:

We went down to Gardenstate Soapstone and chose our actual slabs for our kitchen counter top. One is honestly more beautiful than the next, but we knew almost immediately when we saw this one. They had oiled down the stone for us previously so this time they just sprayed it with some water so we could get an approximation of the veining. When I uploaded this photo tonight, it made me laugh because you can see our reflection. Anyway I'm really enthused about our soapstone-- one more (big) decision down!

Another decision we have ahead of us is floor stain. We would like to go on the darker side, but not too dark or too red. Our neighbors recently did a large remodel; we loved their floors and they were kind enough to let us stop by today to have another look, with our fan deck in hand. Here is their adorable daughter (our new floor designer!) posing with our fan deck. We're currently between "English Chestnut" or "red Mahogany". Ironically of the two, "English Chestnut" appears more red. Anthony and Alan (our builders) said they can put a portion of each on the floor when the time comes (soon!) to help us decide.

Alan and Anthony were at the house today starting at 7am-- hanging doors and working on the trim. They were still at work when we stopped back at the house at 5pm. Here's one of the windows all trimmed out. It looks amazing....

And here are two of the doors-- this is in our master bathroom....

It's incredible how quickly things are moving at this point. Tomorrow (sunday!) the spackle guy will be back to complete the kitchen because on Monday our kitchen cabinet install will begin. Alan said he expects that Jay (from gardenstate) will come up around Wednesday of this week to template for the soapstone-- meanwhile they'll continue to install trim and the tile guys will start soon. My head is just spinning with it all... and M. and I are trying to focus in on replacing the things in the claim which were highly depreciated-- everything from mattresses and furniture to a vacuum, television, artwork....

The plan is five weeks from tonight we'll be home. I have to pinch myself to believe it at times.....