D2

In the end I acceded to the designers choices for dining room furniture. I cut built-ins (and their hardware) throughout the living room (bookshelves, media console, room divider panels), the dining room (a cabinet on the west wall), and the bedrooms (benches against the windows). I also vetoed a $2k floor lamp (indefensible, especially when I have one), $2200 on four throw pillows (what, are they made from bespoke weaving?), and furniture for the bedroom's sitting area (I'll furnish this myself later without a, er, $1200 hand-tufted rug I didn't care for). Outside of the millwork, did this save any money? Well, maybe $10k. That's not nothing!

Will I regret my choices in time? Maybe. I have come to the conclusion that there was no way this process wasn't going to result in some choices that I'm just not jazzed about. I don't love their end tables, for example, but who loves an end table? The whole point in hiring designers was to make someone else carry the cognitive load of choosing every tile, every knob, every item of furniture. Will these end tables hold up a lamp, a glass, a magazine? Good enough.

This hard part is over. There will be other hard parts.

Part of me still wants to just buy things from IKEA, probably the same part that wants to be a 90s yuppie. I may yet do so for some items, like the aforementioned bedroom sitting area and bookshelves. They also have my favourite plates so far.

I don't regret the giving away of my furniture but is notable in the end that I am replacing some pieces 1:1.

In theory the millwork is "deferred" instead of "declined". Will I call up my contractor in two years' time to build in a bookcase, construct a cabinet, redo the interior of the office closet, and put up some walnut-veneer MDF panelling? Today I am doubtful about the whole kit and caboodle but some of those items are genuinely quite interesting so maybe.

One way I justified the cost to myself was hoping that NewMegaCorp stock price recovers and the imminent refresher grant is generous in number of units if not current book value.

As I promised the contractor, I annotated the electrical diagram prepared by the designers with part numbers from my preferred electrical supplier (LeGrand, specifically their "Adorne" series).

This was more work than I anticipated.

Then I thought I'd do a nice thing and printed off a hard copy for tomorrow. This was a mistake, the black and white printer produced output that is both too small (it really ought to be 11x17" for legibility) and dithered into illegibility (because my annotations are in red).

Oh well, there are like three print shops within a five minute walk from the apartment if for some reason they can't produce their own printout. Personally, I'll use my iPad to go over it with them.

The buckle on the belt I wear most days has broken. The pin that runs through the belt and secures the, er, shackle(?) and retains the tongue just snapped at both ends, revealing the pin has become bent from the hundreds of bucklings etc.

I guess I need a new leather belt. I don't need it to keep my pants up but it does help with stopping the waistband from rolling over.

My criteria: full grain leather, 1.5" width, some kind of dark brown, ideally bronze hardware (patina-ed brass or "gunmetal" OK in a pinch, no silver/nickel).

Some notes: Popov Leather does a lot of promo (seen them even in my FB ads), but only offers nickel hardware. Roots still makes their leather goods in Canada and has a surprisingly competitive price. JB Leather Supply will let you customize the hardware.

This is silly, surely there's still some place in town that can offer me such a product in person.