On the 22nd trip to Minneapolis, I picked up a U-Haul trailer last night; loaded it this morning and raced (well, 60 mph into a stiff headwind—only 20 mpg) to New Hope, deposited a first load of household furniture and boxes of books, in order to join Caleb and Robert at the house, for what proved to be yet another 3-hour marathon standing in the relative cold—planning kitchen cabinetry.  Brrrr!  We all were frozen and stiff by the end. This extensive consultation—down to the 1/8”, in terms of cabinet design and placement, is necessary to avoid errors in construction.

Speaking of which, the house looks completely studded inside now—air ducts are in place, lots of plumbing visible as well.  Hurrah!  The air ducts below will be hidden behind ceiling plaster, in the soffit of the dropped ceiling.  Clever idea from the “Not so big” movement.

The outside is a different matter.  Could the front of this house possibly get any more derelict looking?  Within a few weeks hopefully the house will be ‘wrapped’ and then covered with a thick new wall.  The scaffolding is already up.

I capped off the very long day by driving to Burnsville, where I found a better porcelain tile for the entryway.  Can’t wait to see it in diagonal layout that Marc recommends.

Spending all day in the house made me pine for a warm space.  It has been so cold these past few weeks that the guys covered the north wall with plastic to keep out some of the breeze from this very drafty house.  No one will cheer more than they when the new walls go up and the house is sealed.