Progress to date

The construction has been humming along. Now that the framing is complete, the roof is on, and the windows are in, there is really not quite so much to see. But in the last three weeks, all the rough electrical has been installed, the low-voltage electrical has been installed (this is the home-theater, cable/telephone/internet wiring, etc.), and the HVAC ducting has been installed. So the walls are now ready to seal up and the finishing work is ready to begin. Drywalling will start next week. So we are really making a lot of progress!

Our architect and his wife (who is also our lighting designer) were away this past week. During that time we had a key key critical problem come up. Our electrician was questioning the lights spec'd for the undercabinet lighting in the kitchen, and we had to make a decision whether to change the choice that our lighting designer had selected or not. I won't bore you with all the details, but it turns out that the lights chosen (Smedmarks) are manufactured in Sweden, and their website isn't that good. Typically when choosing undercabinet lighting, you don't care so much about the looks of the lights, because they are typically hidden under a lip in the cabinets and you don't see them. Our cabinets are completely flat, and you will see them, so the looks are important.

Fortunately, one of my friends at work is Swedish, so we had an 11 PM Skype-enabled conference call to the factory the other night to ask questions of the factory. I followed that up with a call to the US factory, who answered a bunch of questions, and also pointed me to the local rep whom I contacted. It turned out that the local rep was quite familiar with my project, having been the one who our lighting designer was consulting with, and was able to answer any remaining questions. In turn I called my contractor, and explained to him why the electrician's original concerns shouldn't be of concern and why these were the lights we had to choose, and everything was all set. Phew! Now I understand more about the lights than I really wanted to, but I'm glad I do.

I've got several bids out to lighting companies, as our electrician is going to allow us to buy the fixtures ourselves (which will save us a little bit of money in that we won't have to pay his markup and then our contractor's profit/overhead). I expect to have to buy them next week. In the meantime, our bank balances are getting smaller... it'll be time to borrow money soon.

Here is a pointer to more pics.