As we were in the midst of the final, frantic push to finish Butterfly House in time for moving weekend, I had to fly to New York for work. As I geared up for my trip I became totally stressed about being away during such a critical time. But once I was in the air jetting east, I realized that the travel was a good thing. Forced to let go of control, I had no choice but to place my trust in the contractor and his subs, and focus on my day job. I’m sure if I had stayed in town, I would have been completely unproductive at work, and tempted to be at the house all day–and probably accomplish nothing more than getting in the way.

A couple reports came in from the superintendent on Tuesday–things were going well. But then radio silence. I imagined the worst. There was SO MUCH to be done this week. When I last saw the house on Monday, there were no countertops, no plumbing fixtures, no appliances, no bedroom cabinet, no tile on the walls in the kitchen; only half of the light fixtures were in; the painters had barely finished prep inside (nothing inside had actually been painted).

But apparently, the crew kicked some serious ass this week. As I headed home from New York, Lev was on his way back up to Calistoga from San Francisco. And thank heavens for in-flight WiFi–photos from Lev have been rolling in. Looks like we’re in great shape!

So, from 36,000 feet, here’s the latest report.

We have a kitchen: Appliances are installed, tile is in place, countertops are set, and we have a sink & faucet. Jesse, the master cabinet installer, is still putting finishing touches on things, but it looks terrific:

Remember the knotty pine walls, and the dark feeling they gave to the living and dining rooms? Those walls are now bright white, and it’s going to make such a difference in the light quality:

The bedroom drawer/cabinet looks great, too. It looks a little funny on the bed side in this picture, but once the bed’s in place and the reading lamps are installed, I think it’s going to be brilliant. (The top cubby is for magazines/books, and the lower cubby has power and USB outlets in the back for charging phones & laptops overnight.)

Here’s the “boot bench” we added to the front porch:

The last pic for tonight is a little bit sad. With all the rain and wind we had this week, the beautiful maple tree has dropped almost all its leaves already. We barely had a chance to enjoy its spectacular fall color. Oh well, we’ll appreciate it that much more next year.