I felt like Cactus Jack after our visit to the house Thursday night: "And it turned out nice, again..."

OK, there's proof, I'm old.

If I'm quoting Cactus Jack - like Abe Simpson's "aaaand another thing..." - it means I'm officially on the downward side of the hill.

Despite unending concern over our choice of stain for the cabinets, and our hundreds of other choices that could have meant a design catastrophe, the house is looking fantastic.

The painters finished up Wednesday, and they did an amazing job. The white lacquer on the trim creates crisp, clean lines.

We chose Behr paint for the walls and ceiling because it received top marks in the most recent Consumer Reports magazine. Our colours - Delta Fog on the walls and Metal Tone for the ceilings - pull in grey and green for a warm but subtle look.

The warm colour contrasts dramatically with the white trim, but also blends perfectly with the Early American stain colour of our Superior Millwork cabinets from Gateway Kitchen and Bath.

Speaking of the latter, the cabinets were installed late Thursday. The aforementioned stain colour looks better than we'd hoped.

As I've said before about finished products, you never know what you're going to get, especially when you've been looking at a small sample for the past three months.

I'll have photos of them next week, once all of the handles are installed and the dust is cleaned off. I want to do them justice.

Elsewhere on the home:

• The angular support brackets were installed under the soffits at the gable ends, completing the Craftsman look on the exterior. Trevor had his carpenter use cedar four-by-fours to create the brackets. We were originally going to paint those white, but the colour matches nicely with the pressure-treated wood on the porch and railings, so we're going to leave them au naturel.
• The high-efficiency furnace has been installed, and about half of the ductwork has been completed in the basement.
• The hot-water tank has also been dropped off, and is ready for installation.
• All of the fixtures and sinks for the bathrooms have been dropped off.
• The first layer of mud has been set in place in the foyer in preparation for the ceramic tile.
• The rest of the flooring is scheduled to be installed Monday and Tuesday.
• It looked like the stucco contractor was getting set up to do the finish layer Thursday night. We should see the finished colour and pointing early this week. It should be a beehive of activity in the house this week, as the flooring, bath fixtures and lights are all installed, at about the same time.
• Oh, and I'll say it again - I hate packing. Luckily, we were able to get most of the hard stuff done early, although there are always going to surprises up to the last minute. By the time you read this, we'll be out of our old house and waiting to get into the new. We're down to six sleeps, for those counting at home.