This one is less expensive, but narrower wood pieces and more color variation. It has more gray and brown tones.
This one is more expensive. It is more uniform in color, with larger grain and wider boards. This one is a little more "blond" in color.
Grandma requested some video footage, so here it comes. We borrowed Stefan's mom's extra broadband modem, which seems to have solved our internet issues.
Kährs Gascony Oak is what we chose for the bedrooms. 
Höganäs Lavagne Black is the tile for the storage room and laundry room floors.
The family room now has a finished wall. The door seen here is a pocket door.
They are not quite done outside, but mostly.
Josefin was teaching Haylie to spackle, so she was working on all the nail heads.
Haylie went home sick from daycare on Thursday, with the stomach flu. She was sick all day but felt better in the evening. She gave us quite the show with her hula hoop.
She had me take pictures of her in action and then had to come and look each time. 
On Wednesday, Haylie and Stefan had the day off and went to the house to talk to the builders. 
The siding is on as well as the framing around the windows.
And of course, if someone is taking a picture, she has to be in it.
The builders were spraying up the insulation above the vaulted ceiling. 
After they were done with the insulation, they could sheetrock the ceiling too. Now everything is sheetrocked and ready to be painted. We are hiring a professional to do the ceilings, but we are doing the walls ourselves, with the help of Stefan's sister Josefin.
On Sunday last weekend, Haylie and I did some baking. We made cinnamon-raisin bread and I only had one loaf pan so the other half had to be rolls.
We have spent the past 2 weeks painting. Today we finished priming all the boards that will be white. I took a half day off work and Stefan's dad and I painted the rest while the builders were putting up the ones that were already painted. Tomorrow Josefin is going to start with the base coat of oil on the boards that will later be stained. So that is what we are going to be doing for the rest of the week. Tonight Stefan and his 2nd cousin Patrik drove our storage room door out to the house. Haylie has her H1N1 vaccine tomorrow, so I took the day off. We are going to visit her old daycare in the morning. She has really missed everybody there. Its only been 5 weeks, but she was worried today that the kids wouldn't remember her. 
We didn't do any trick or treating this year, but decorated a little. Haylie decorated the tables and the computer. Then we had worms and monster meat with magic potion for dinner. (Thai noodles with chicken and veggie wok, sprite with green food coloring for Haylie and Sour Apple liqueur for us, and candy eyeballs frozen in ice cubes.) And of course, anytime you turn off the lights and light candles it is spooky for a kid. Later her cousins came and trick or treated so we had a little Halloweenish anyway. 
Today Haylie slept until 8 AM and then had a nice relaxing morning with cartoons. I slept until 9:45 and then after we got ready, we went to the house to paint. Stefan's dad was with us and he and I painted while Stefan worked a little in the yard and had kid duty. 
She had a snack and did some watercolor painting and watched Dora for a while. Her mouth did not stop moving the entire time we were there. Man can that kid talk. After lunch, Stefan painted a couple boards and I went with Haylie out back and pushed her on the swing and cleared out some thorny stuff and wild roses that had grown near it since this spring.
Stefan built this frame to paint and dry boards on in the family room. We are priming the boards that are going to be white right now. Many hundreds of boards. This is just about all we have done in the past week. Stefan's sister Josefin had done some taping and spackling in the bedrooms. She is in Barcelona this weekend for a soccer game. Stefan's other two sisters, their families, and his mom and step-dad Göran are in Thailand now for 2 weeks for his step-dad's 60th birthday. We had to opt out because of the house and our Disney trip at Christmas. 
Here I am, painting in Haylie's room.
I had pasta salad, which Haylie later absconded with in lieu of her hot dog. I have actually forced myself to eat two hot dogs recently, but didn't enjoy them. Blah.
