It’s often the little things that get a girl like me excited. I’ve always thought this a fortunate trait, since the big things don’t come around as frequently. (Really, the bent can only go up once, and how many times will I marry John or get a new puppy?)

These days I’m finding joy in the framed walls for the small spaces: the pantry, laundry, linen closet, coat closets, cooking area, powder room, and our master closet (which is bigger than I thought!). It’s a whole lot easier to envision a space when it’s actually visible, even if it’s just outlined in 2x4s.

We’ve gone from standing in our vacant lot and imagining what our house might look like, to seeing it in broad strokes, and now the details are starting to fill in. It’s kind of like zooming in on an area using Google Earth.

Right now, we’re at that stage where it seems as though nothing is really changing. But it is… albeit slowly. Three weeks have managed to slip by since my last update. These are the bigger little things that have happened:

1. All of the interior walls on the main floor have been framed, though we’re still deciding whether to add one between the staircases and the great room.

2. Roofers have started our shingles. They’ve gotten as far as they can until some metal trim arrives and we sort out the stain on the soffit (a decision that is tied in with our siding).

3. John has been attaching electrical boxes for light switches after numerous discussions between us about where to put them. I’m hopeful our experience with many screwy switches in the houses we’ve shared is serving us well.

4. After some comical moments that had us balancing on scrap lumber to determine the ideal height of the hearth so it can also serve as seating, John built the frame for the base of the fireplace.

5. We’ve started shopping for appliances and we’re now wrestling with the type of stove we’ll buy. I’ve been pining for a groovy gas stove, but we’re stumped by how to vent a range hood based on the planned location of the cooking area – it’s directly below the loft without direct access to an exterior wall. Friends are recommending an induction stove for a few reasons, including that it can be vented through the HRV system. This would also free up island space because we could put the microwave over the stove. Oh, the pros, the cons, the needs and wants…

6. We’ve added to our siding sample collection… I believe we’re a sunny day away from making a decision. We narrowed our choices again after looking at them at dusk, and – progress – we’ve agreed on the profile at least. Yes, there’s a new green in the mix.

7. John has had many conversations and meetings to set up more next steps, including window installation (end of May), our septic field (early June), and the concrete for our basement floor (as soon as we can get it after the load restrictions on the road end on May 31).

8. Finally, we’re working on putting some healthy habits back into our life. The past many months we’ve been living on a fairly steady diet of nachos, red wine, and five seasons’ worth of Suits. (OK, I’m mostly responsible for the empty wine bottles, and I won’t be sharing a photo of those). But now that the days aren’t quite as exhausting – for now, at least – and we’ve reached the end of our TV binge, it seems like a good time to get a better grip on this so-called “year of hell.”

The surest way to calm down is a trip out to the house to just be. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I took my first really good look from inside the house out at the open water. I may have gasped.

Our views are definitely not a little thing.