Here's a closeup of the light. This thing was worth the wait. It's astounding.

Excellent! Does it have one of those sliding circular doors like some darkrooms? That would confuse them even more. That would help getting the gruel in, too.

Is that good or bad? I've never played it.

I wish.

And I deliver...

http://www.pnwx.com/Accessories/Dark...FRGASAodgGByMQ

Our dining room is very long and narrow, so we've got a sitting area at one end, shown here.

It's too bad that I got some glare, because the picture over the fireplace is way cool. It's an 1880s hand-colored print of a renaissance-era court scene. We put an emphasis light in the ceiling, so if you shut off all the lights and then shine that one on the painting, it's awesome.

The sconce lights are original, but the cherubs beneath them were our addition. The one on the right has not yet been put up, because I had a nail problem.

If you're sitting in the dining room sitting area, you can now see into the kitchen. This archway didn't exist before the remodel. We closed off an existing door on the other side of the room and added this arch so we could put in the breakfast peninsula.

Please pardon the paint cans in the window, as we're still getting the final touchups done.

Our kitchen is actually not that large. We went with semi-custom cherry cabinets and granite countertops, the latter of which will be shown in an upcoming closeup.

Our big decision was whether to go with one level of upper cabinets or two, putting the display level at the top. I'm glad we put the extra level in.

Our appliances are relatively basic, because we couldn't justify a need for the fancy ones. We don't do a lot of really involved stuff in the kitchen.

Here's the kitchen from the other direction. The doorway on the left goes down to the basement, and the doorway on the right is the old maid's stairs going to the second floor.

We put a 32" HDTV up on the wall. The HD box is underneath it, and we're still missing a little cabinet for it to go in, so that part looks a little rough right now.

I can't remember the term for the paint, but it's a two-tone layered paint. It looks pretty good in person, but it doesn't photograph well at all.

Finally we get to see the kitchen.

I like what they did. It looks like some quality work. I hope it will bring you many, many years of enjoyment. I'll bet you're incredibly happy to have the construction over with.

The granite is cool, even if I did have to battle the forces of evil to get it. It's an exotic Brazilian variegated material, and it's got tons of color. Some parts of it include a translucent black quartz that's really cool - kind of three-dimensional.

Any pics of the infamous backsplashes?

Here's a bigger view of the granite. The small picture doesn't quite do it justice.

Backsplashes coming up. We went with an irregular backsplash to give the kitchen that rugged Colorado look. If you look closely, you'll see a few spots on them that are almost perfectly round, and that's where the dynamite was inserted to get the granite quarried.

I also show the lights lit up on the display cabinets, and the itty-bitty chandeliers that hang over our breakfast bar.