I've received several e-mails on the home-theatre portion of our building project since mentioning the Monster Cable last week.

Most have asked what system we're going to be running.

We have a Denon 1601 digital receiver, and a 24-inch Toshiba flat screen TV at the moment. We'll likely upgrade to a 32-inch Toshiba because our new living room is quite a bit bigger.

I'm looking at a few choices for speaker systems.

Definitive Technology makes a kick-butt system called ProCinema Series. It's one of the top-rated surround-sound-in-a-box kits. I also have my eye on an Infinity set, and there's an Acoustic Research system that has received top marks from the reviewers.

My favourite electronics Web sites, in no particular order:

• For home theatre planning: Dolby.com
• For unsponsored consumer reviews: audioreview.com
• I've also signed up for the unbiased reviews at ConsumerReports.org. It's the best $24 US I've ever spent. They cover everything from electronics, to cars, to paint choices.
• If you're glossing over at this point, you'll be able to relate to the following:

If my wife feels restless at bedtime, she gets me to talk speaker specs to help her fall asleep.

Rosanne: "Tell me again why it's so important to have the same kind of speaker for the fronts and the centre."

John: "Well, they say you should timbre-match the speakers so that when the sound transitions from one speaker to the next, the shift is seamless."

Rosanne: "Hmmm. Yawn. Seamless... Go on..."

John: "Speaker placement is critically important, especially for the front three. The left-front, right-front and centre channel speakers should all be at about the same height. It's one of the keys to creating the perfect soundstage."

Rosanne: "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ..."

John: "Of course, the receiver plays an integral role in creating effective stereo imaging. Our Denon is designed to drive a system like the ProCinemas.

It will be able to adeptly handle the violent but poetic building lobby shootout in The Matrix, the reality stretching worm-hole scene in Contact, and the rocking power chords from Bryan Adams: Live at the Budokan."

Rosanne: "Zzzzzz S gurgle S zzzzzzzzzzz."

It appears I blamed the Land Titles Office for more of the delay in securing our mortgage than they deserved. Barry Effler, from the LTO, dropped me an e-mail to explain they had it in their hands for only 10 days.

While the normal time to complete is 3.6 days, Barry explained, it certainly didn't take three weeks. Rightly so. I guess the blame needs to be extended to our bank, and perhaps, our lawyer's office. I await their e-mails of rebuttal next week.

The drywallers got going this week. All of the drywall has been installed and the taping has begun. With the speed at which they work, not to mention the stilts they use to reach the ceiling, it must have looked like Cirque du Soleil in there.

All of the rooms are defined with the drywall in place. Some look bigger than before, while others seemed to have shrunk. It's a strange phenomenon.

We dropped off our paint colour choices at the painter's house and await his colour match choices. Hopefully, he will be able to come up with something close to what we're looking for.

By this time next week we should be looking at painted walls. I'll be screaming like Ned Flanders did after he installed his purple drapes.