Drum roll....

Awesome, thrilled, incredible....you can use any "happy" adjective to describe how we feel about the timber frame.  Words won't do it justice, just pictures.

Appliances have been chosen

We contacted our kitchen designer through Directbuy and realized that they preferred having all the appliances picked out before designing the kitchen.  We already have the rangetop selected, but hadn't decided on anything else.  After lots of research, multiple trips to Olum's, Lowes and Sear's, we decided to go with mostly Kitchenaid appliances with the exception of Whirlpool refrigerator/freezer.  Here's a look at what we picked out....
Fridge/Freezer
Oven/microwave
Dishwasher
Still not sure on the hood we'd like for the rangetop, but we've heard good things about Vent-a-hood.  We're leaning towards a sink that is made by Blanko.  It's 80% solid granite which makes it very durable.  Our friends have a sink just like it and absolutely love it.  We've sent all our selections to the designer so we hope to hear from him soon on what he comes up with for our kitchen!

Basement walls are up!

Hooray, walls are up!!  The basement walls are all up.  When we went to check it out, we were amazed....with how big it is.  We knew what we were getting into but now that the walls are in, you get a better feeling of how big the rooms are.  We had a little surprise...our outdoor furniture storage area turned out to be a heated room by accident.  So now we have an extra room downstairs, just what we needed right?!  No worries though, Kaleb gets his playroom or maybe we get a workout room??  We have lots of time to decide. 

Timber Frame

We are now at the stage where we get to pick the stain for the timber frame.  Jesse Benedict brought us a lot of samples.  We narrowed it down to these two:

Kirk preferred the darker (Provincial) and I preferred the lighter (Golden Walnut).  So rather than pick either one, we had Jesse mix the two to make our own stain, that way we get the best of both worlds.  Won't be too much longer and it will be time to put the frame up... we can't wait!

Dome living

So the foundation floor has been poured and they have built us our own dome!  When we went up to check it out, it was nice and toasty in there.  Shouldn't be too long before the concrete has cured.  Now they are working on putting walls up....wow things have been really progressing.  Thanks to Mother Nature for giving us a great winter so far to build.  As much as we love to go skiing, it's nice to know that our house is right on track.  Ugh, now the task of getting in touch with the cabinet people so I can start designing the kitchen....that will definitely be a big task!