We've gone from twiddling our thumbs while we wait for something (anything) to happen, to being overwhelmed by appointments, choices and bank meetings. Here's a play-by-play of our activities over the past week, as best as I can recollect, as it's all a blur:

• I called and set up appointments with our flooring, lighting, window and plumbing suppliers.

Here's a tip - allow for about two hours for each appointment if you're making two for the same day. We found ourselves rushing through our lighting date in order to get to our flooring appointment an hour late.

These are decisions best made after careful thought, not after feeling pressured to make a hasty choice. I can't imagine a worse feeling than touring the new home after fixtures are installed, only to find that the sight of them makes you want to scratch your own eyes out with razor blades and dry-heave until you pass out.

• Trevor (our builder) called me to politely and quietly point out that our deposit cheque written on our line of credit had bounced off of his desk and onto the floor.

After producing an Eminem-quality stream of profanities, I thanked Trevor for not tearing up our contract, and told him I would immediately "fix" the problem. A great way to kick things off. As it turns out, a "banking error" led to the confusion. I can't wait until the day that the bank makes an "error" that leads to Air Canada somehow paying our mortgage.

Oh wait, that actually happened. Long story short - we went in a couple of years ago to increase our mortgage payment to pay down more on the principal, and the end result was a corporate Air Canada account began paying our mortgage for us. Could explain a few things about their current financial position... Anywho, all is well now, and we are happily in debt.

• A diary of our lighting appointment: Arrived at Superlite, went through floor plan to see how many and what kind of fixtures we needed, and made selections. Now, we wait to see where the quote comes in at.
• Flooring: Met with flooring rep. She made a copy of our plan, indicated what type of flooring should go where, and set out to offering us choices based on our preferences.

We quickly narrowed things down to common maple hardwoods with a subtle stain in the kitchen/eating area, ceramic tile in the foyer, a quality ceramic-lookalike vinyl for the bathrooms and mudroom, and a hard-wearing saxony carpet everywhere else.

Again, we wait for the quote. But more on those meetings after we make our decisions.

• Windows: We met with Paul at Willmar to go over our window plan and make final decisions. Trevor joined us to make sure we were all on the same page on something as critical as the windows. He made some excellent suggestions to ensure we got what we wanted, and needed.

We made few changes from the original plan, which made things easier. We chose the Aristocrat grille design (see photo) and added another horizontal grille to the transom area to complete the Craftsman, double-hung look.

Paul had some good ideas relating to openers, suggesting certain windows open certain ways to maximize airflow.

Because we're in the process of preparing our house for sale this week, my wife suggested I postpone our plumbing appointment until after the selling hysteria dies down.

It's stressful enough to prepare for the sale of your home, without having to consider all of the new-home options at the same time. But, once our house sells we can focus on the future.