A very cute beginning and a stylish ending

We were quite sad over the loss of Mosa, and I was sure that it would be a long time before we added another cat to the household, even though most of the time there have been two here at once. L wanted to watch Joey to see if he was exhibiting signs of loneliness. She was a very special member of the family, despite her brief time with us, only 2 years.

So, I can't explain why, 8 days later, we spent a couple hours at the Humane Society, and ended up with Eiko.

She is a "torbie" - tortoiseshell torbie and she is 4 months old. She's very typical kitten, enthusiastic, jumping on everything, no concept of personal space (whiskers in nose, anyone?). She walked in and owned the place. When we got Joey, he hid for the first 3 days. She just figured - "Hey, cool pad? Where do I put my stuff? When's dinner?"

We are having a lot of fun with her, and she DOES own the house. If she jumps on your lap, you simply can't find the energy or discipline to get up and do all the grownup things you oughta.

Now, back to the house:

Fireplace insert installation (gas-powered) should happen on Dec. 23. That's cutting it close for the Christmas celebration here, but apparently, it's not complicated.

We got the custom Celtic tiles for the kitchen backsplash and they are GORGEOUS. They are lighter than I thought they would be, but that's perfectly OK. I love them.

This pix shows the countertop sample, a bisque piece to represent the background field tile, one of the accent tiles that will be installed about every 12 inches or so around the counter wall, and some small border tile that will tie everything together, along the bottom edge. We will probably also use a dark green "pinstripe" or border tile which I don't have a pix of yet. So excited!

Plan is for these to be installed next Monday !