Field trip

This afternoon Matt and I went on a field trip to pick out the granite slabs that will go in our kitchen and master bathroom. Since I'm not good at visualizing how the final product is going to look, these parts of the building process (selecting exterior materials, flooring, countertops and cabinets, etc.) are a little stressful for me. But today was fun.

Here's what we ended up choosing:

Gallo Napoleone, above, for the kitchen (this picture makes it look more eggplant-colored than it is in real life) ...


... and Gallo Ornamental, above, for the master bathroom (this picture is not of our actual slab; I took it from a website).

When we got back to the counters/cabinet place we even picked out our cabinets and cabinet hardware, and meanwhile the vinyl was going up on the house. So it feels like things are really moving along after a slowish start.

Yesterday Kate (who shall henceforth be referred to as Kaitlin -- maybe I'll explain later) and I met at the new house to run along the fence that's in the backyard, which separates our neighborhood from another one. I have been really hopeful that somewhere down the line it connects to the greenway trails of the town next door.

Well, it might, but our initial efforts to find out were ruined by a slew of backyard privacy fences and areas of deep, soft sand. I still want to explore a fence route, but yesterday was not the day. It was so hot and our legs were tired from a hard track practice the night before. After 14 fairly miserable minutes we gave up and got back on the road, ran to the fitness center for water, and then headed back to the house.

Still a decent run, though. They're always better with company!