As you can see by the illustration accompanying this column, we've actually received copies of our construction drawings.

It was a glorious moment.

I felt like the weathered explorer, who was ready to give up hope after years of searching, only to find the Dead Sea Scrolls at the 11th hour.

When we were leaving our designer's office, I held the rolled up drawings high above my head, and shouted, "We finally have them. It begins!"

Of course, the sandwich artists and patrons in Subway weren't impressed with my outburst, and called security on me.

Thanks to talented Sun graphic designer Andrew Pollreis giving it the Ted Turner treatment, we can get some idea of how it might look with a suitable colour scheme.

It's the first tangible evidence that our project is getting underway. After months of planning, consulting, and mostly, waiting, we have something concrete -- well, paper -- to grab onto.

Designer Angie Strike, of Strike Didur Associations, did a masterful job of taking our basic ideas and concepts and turning them into something spectacular.

Her intuitive knowledge of flow, proportion and dimension translated completely on our plan, as she created a 1,624-sq.-ft. layout that feels much bigger than it is.

It has all of the elements we were looking for -- an obvious Craftsman design with contemporary touches. From the front porch with stone-based supports to the angular support brackets, the front elevation is stunning and inviting while not going over the top.

Included in the pack of drawings are the specs for the foundation, the number and placement of the concrete piles, the rough-in locations for the plumbing and mechanical elements in the lower level, and the side elevations.

COMPARE APPLES WITH APPLES

Of course, we spent most of our time focusing on the front elevation and floor plan, as most of the terminology on the construction specs is Greek to us.

The next step is to hand off the drawings to our builder finalists, so they can prepare a much more detailed construction estimate with all of the specs in front of them.

We will be able to compare apples with apples this time, and be able to make a well-thought-out decision on who to go with.

They will likely take about two weeks to get to us with the final numbers. Once we have those back, we can inform the winning bidder and sign on the dotted line.

Based on that timeline, we'd be looking at a proposed possession date of Oct. 26, or thereabouts.

I guess we'll be having a Halloween Housewarming bash...

We'll also be giving two sets of drawings to the municipality for their approval. Once approved, we can actually begin the construction process.

Wow, hard to believe it's really happening. Building a house is one of those projects that takes such a major investment in energy and emotion that when it finally gets going, it's overwhelming.

Now, I'm not saying I'm getting verklempt, here, but the reaction is quite strong.

I can't imagine what it will feel like when the framing begins and the design comes to life in three dimensions.