More shopping—we start with a couple landscaping stone places, then back to Tile by Design.  Last night we exercised our pricey imaginations at sumptuous feast of possibilities.  Today we return to reality, as we find intriguing and inexpensive solutions for the floors in the bathrooms.  I just wish the most attractive tile were not made in China.  We’re trying to buy locally.

Then to the main business—what turned out to be a five-hour meeting at SALA.  Many items on the agenda: we opt for an open porch (underneath—piers instead of a concrete wall); ruminate about choices in insulation; decide on the elements of the walkways and steps—concrete products from Rochester, pavers from Nebraska; sketch out the procedures and cost for green certification—I ask for a definite schedule of a time and costs to be invested therein.  Quite a fatiguing kind of meeting for the uninitiated, but we are all on the same page in wanting to make this house very special. I sense some pressure on Linda and me to make decisions, but our architect and builder are too kindly to hold our feet to the fire.