Better late than never.

Lots of great work going on at the house today. And while I know Ian would love a post devoted solely to the beautiful window sills he installed today on the interior, his thunder has been stolen by a recent Ballard Designs catalog (don't worry Ian, I'll do a post on the windows next week).

No clue why I ever started getting this particular catalog, but I'm pretty sure Jeff curses the day that glossy paged periodical of delight hit our doorstep. Something in me just won't stand for the idea of simply tossing it to the wind. Each page must be given ample time for my eyes to dance around with excitement. And low and behold, mine eyes caught sight of this beloveth last night:

Oooooooooooooooooooooh how I love you, let me count the ways. This cabinet does so resemble that of my very own dining room built-in's...except for one thing:

Those two side-by-side drawers have my heart going pitter patter. As soon as I saw it, I slammed closed the cover as quickly as I had fallen for it and told myself "ENOUGH WOMAN! Your cabinetry is already in the works. Just be happy you are getting cabinets at all." So glad I gave myself that pep talk and awoke this morning with a jaunt out of bed to the phone to immediately call the cabinet maker and beg and plead for tiny side by side drawers. "But STOP. You are being ridiculous. Yours will practically already look like this minus side-by-side drawers. Just be happy you are getting purrty shelves for display." Said cabinet maker came for a meeting with the architect this morning, I kept my mouth shut. "Good job me" I tell myself. The cabinet maker leaves, I call cabinet maker and beg and plead for aforementioned side-by-side drawers. HE AGREES!

Now, the upper 'hutch portion' of my built-in's is already complete, so finagling these drawers in will mean compromising on the dimension of space between each shelf (basically meaning he'll be inserting the drawers into the already fixed 12" shelf space, so the first shelf will only be 8" off the drawers vs 12" as planned). But how perfect are those tiny drawers??????????????????????? Ballard sells them with silverware separators in them. I'll keep mine open since I'm still waiting on my mother to part with her beautiful silver I hope she someday passes down to me. In the meantime, I shall refer to these as my "Drawers of my Favorite Things" and place only my precious entertaining treasures in them. Can't wait to meet you tiny drawers:-)

Quick recap of the day, interior crew was here trimming out the windows and exterior crew was here siding away. There are now 3 completely finished sides of the house, 3 sides remain with final siding and trim details to be wrapped up (yes, we have a 6 sided house). They hope to be done siding the house on Monday!!!!

I have all of my bids in for paint and concrete and have made my decisions. I have decided to have a separate crew of painters do the exterior of the house (vs one crew doing both interior and exterior) in an effort to get both projects done faster. I have confirmed Indy Painting for the exterior and they will begin work on the 23rd (which means the garage will need to be completely sided and roofed by then...the next job for the exterior crew after they finish siding on Monday/Tuesday). We have also confirmed A.Pietig Concrete for the work we need done on the back of the house (footings for deck, new back stoop and sidewalk to garage). They are confirmed to begin work on the 16th. Now WHERE are those cabinets???

Have a spectacular weekend!