Now that we've reached the finishing stage, progress is marked in smaller steps.

Obviously, the structural aspect of construction is more dramatic than the finishing, but the devil's in the details.

The drywallers finished their work off this week, leaving smooth and straight walls behind.

You want to talk artistic expression - drywallers should have their work displayed in the Louvre. To be able to make seams and screwholes disappear, while maintaining a square and straight wall, is impressive.

If you've ever tried to finish drywall, you probably understand. Let's just say the phrase "the trim will cover it" doesn't really apply to drywall.

The insulated garage door was installed, as was the opener and associated wiring. It's the Stockton model in the thermal door line, which has a grilled window bank on the top panel to mimic the Craftsman look in the rest of the windows.

It appears the exterior finisher was busy this week. He installed all of the fascia, soffits and eavestrough. He also finished off the openings in the screen porch with low-maintenance aluminum. It looks fantastic.

I was able to talk our painter into going with Behr Premium Plus paint from Home Depot for the interior. We've been using Behr for the past few years in our existing house, and have loved how easily it goes on, the consistency of the colours, and the excellent wearability.

It didn't hurt that the most recent issue of Consumer Reports magazine rated Behr Premium Plus the top paint across the board in all categories.

It received the full red circle of excellence in: hiding, mildew, and stains, and was rated tops in all tinting levels. It won in all three tested gloss levels: flat, low-lustre and semi-gloss.

The Depot brand is also one of the cheaper options, which doesn't hurt our overall bottom line.

Speaker-shopping success

My speaker-shopping mission was a success. I met with Dave Kakenmaster, the Canadian rep for Definitive Technology, at Advance Electronics Saturday afternoon. Talk about a knowledgeable resource.

Dave spent a lot of time with me going over the finer points of the Def Tech line - namely the incredible imaging and sonic quality produced by the ProCinema series.

I chose the ProCinema 80 system with the ProCenter 100 centre channel. I tried it out with Fleetwood Mac's The Dance DVD, and it blew me away. The subwoofer perfectly recreated Mick's thick kickdrum sound, and the harmonies created by Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham produced chills. It was a totally engrossing experience.

We ordered our appliances Wednesday night. We're going with Maytag for the fridge and dishwasher. The latter is the cool, three-rack system which enables pot and pan washing. Anything that makes dishwashing easier gets two thumbs up from me.

We like the Whirlpool line for the free-standing and wall ovens.

The moment I'm anticipating the most over the next couple of weeks is the arrival of the cabinets for the kitchen. The area is quite bare right now, and the cabinets will complete the look of the entire public area.

Trevor says there's a decent chance that he can get us in on or near Sept. 15 - the day we have to be out of our current house. That is a full month ahead of the original possession date, and it would be a tremendous accomplishment. Your results may vary, but it proves that a three and a half month build time is conceivable.