thoughtful touches for things you touch.

it's the bottom of the ninth. the end is near. we're dangerously close. there's nothing left but the crying. the fat lady is about to start warbling. yes, after finding witty ways to say it for what seems like months, we're officially in the final days of construction. the houses are almost* finished.

the final bits and pieces are coming together and every day there's a new surprise. most of which are shiny, smooth and smell like paint or sawdust.

one feature that's a family favourite already are the custom-made cabinets and vanities. the vanities are wrapped by a 3" thick border made of parallam, with the sinks placed on top.

in wood circles (where people, usually men, gather to talk about wood. ie: home depot) parallam is also known as timberstrand or lvl - laminated veneer lumber. it's commonly used for support beams and trusses because of its strength and resistance to bowing, twisting or shrinking.

it's not commonly used anywhere else. which is too bad because its actually quite pretty (wood circle note: the word 'pretty' is not often used in wood circles). we had it sanded smooth and given a high-gloss finish. so now in addition to being strong, straight and pretty, it'll be water proof.

not to be outdone, the cabinets themselves perform well in the "good-looking and useful" department, which is usually located adjacent to those wood circles we talked about before. they feature recessed finger grabs which were specially cut to fit your fingers like a glove. to tie the design in with the rest of the house we added an industrial metal backing in the recessed area.

moving out of the bathroom and into the closet, the folks in the wood circle are also excited about the closet and pantry doors. in keeping with our theme of reclaimed and interesting materials, we sourced vintage wood office doors from a downtown office renovation. we had them refinished and hung on industrial sliders that were sourced from the ufa. and you thought wood circles were just for city slickers.

up next we move in, forget about this blog, and spend our time in different circles that aren't so wood-related. and hopefully we get to do it with some cool new neighbours who love their house as much as we love ours.

*not to be confused with a commitment or firm date.