Here we are, just less than five months into this column, and there may actually be some construction on the horizon.

Some of you are probably thinking, "Wow, this guy has somehow talked his editors into letting him pull a Seinfeld -- writing a column about nothing and getting paid to do it."

Point taken ... But I have been writing about something, just not the actual construction. Which just goes to prove, nothing can be something, especially when it's eventually going to be something special, once something happens.

See that ... about 35 words about nothing. Beautiful.

Having said all of that, by the time you read this (and that's assuming you've either purchased this newspaper and are reading it at home on a sunny Sunday morning, or are "borrowing" it from the guy at the coffee shop), we'll be at our lot staring into a gaping hole where a bunch of poplars once stood.

Trevor, (Mannington Custom Homes, our builder. You know, Neo ... Try to keep up), joined us at our lot this week to make sure the guy in charge of clearing the trees knew which ones we wanted to keep and which were expendable.

He went to great lengths to make sure we were all singing from the same song sheet, and, while we were somewhat off key, we were N*SYNC, so to speak.

I now have great confidence that the dude with the backhoe will spare as many desirable trees as he can. And believe me, as we work on selling our current house, the last thing we need is to worry about driving up to our lot and seeing not so much a treed oasis, but a re-enactment of a clear-cutting operation in the B.C. interior.

Once the hole is dug, the basement boys will move in. I'll cover that in a more in-depth way once it begins, but I'd like to point out that once it begins, things will take shape very quickly, and that's where the excitement kicks in.

Now that we have a quote back from the lighting supplier, and it came in pretty close to our budget, we can talk more about our choices.

Let me start by saying we were quite impressed with the breadth of knowledge that Gwen at Superlite possesses. I'm not just talking about her ability to regurgitate product numbers of any light fixture, but her intuition on what will work in a given situation.

She took what could have been a nightmare of a selection process, and steered us in the right direction.

When we mentioned we were hoping to bring elements of the Craftsman design on the exterior of the home to the interior, she immediately pointed toward a line of fixtures from the Progress Lighting catalogue called -- fittingly enough -- the Arts and Crafts collection.

PERFECT BLEND

These fixtures are cast components with light honey art glass and mica accent panels complemented by the weathered bronze finish. They are the perfect blend of classic design and contemporary production.

Our favourite elements are the pendant lights that will hang over the island in the kitchen. We love the scale and shape of the glass, and the subtle light they cast.

Our second favourite fixture in the line is the close-to-ceiling model. We decided to go with a Mission-style coach light on the exterior. As for the
rest of the lighting package, we'll be looking at a mix of recessed pot lights and traditional close-to-ceiling lights, as well as an Arts and Crafts wall sconce at the entrance to the master suite.

Trevor's allowance for lighting fixtures was almost bang on, even though we upgraded to the Arts and Crafts line.

Lighting plays a key role in establishing mood, so we wanted to make sure we made sound choices. When we meet with a professional designer next week, we'll have something to draw colours and shapes from when choosing furniture and paint colours.

Lord knows the last thing anybody needs to see are colour or style selections made by a guy who has to ask if "this shirt goes with these pants."