Belly Baluster

When I arrived at the house this afternoon, there was a sample baluster sitting on the front porch for the little balcony off the upstairs front bedroom. This style of baluster is called a "belly baluster" for obvious reasons -- it looks like the profile of a pregnant woman (or beer-bellied man) -- and serves the dual purpose of adding some architectural interest while making a small balcony feel a little bigger. You can see some examples here.
I had asked for balusters with a twisty bit to match the twisty railings on the front porch and the stairs, but for reasons that are not entirely clear, the supplier only had non-twisty belly balusters, so he offered to twist them himself and dropped off this sample so I could see if I liked it. It looks pretty good, but since I can't tell from one sample how uniform the twisty bits will be, I suggested we have him twist half the balusters so we can alternate them with non-twisty ones. That should help hide any flaws, and will echo the alternating straight and twisty porch and stair railings.

Inside the house, it was pretty quiet. Rob had just left for a doctor's appointment, the electrician was installing the sconces in the master bath, and John and Brian were installing the shelves in the kitchen cabinets. John had also put up the final piece of crown molding, which had thankfully arrived in the correct color. Unfortunately, the filler piece that is supposed to go between the cabinets and the wall on the left was also white (instead of off-white, like the cabinets), so we'll have to wait for a replacement for that piece as well as a new door.
John told me that in Albania, it's considered bad luck for someone or something to receive too many compliments without any accompanying criticism, so he thought it was fortunate that we had this mis-matched door. He said when people come to our house, they'll say, "Oh, what a beautiful house! But what happened to that cabinet?" Since all the compliments we'll get from our guests, will be balanced out by comments about the door, we won't be inviting back luck to befall our house. Apparently you should also dress your children (if they are lacking in natural flaws) in dirty or ragged clothing for the same reason.

Speaking of white doors, the pocket door in the upstairs bathroom has been painted off-white to match the trim, and now has handles so it can be pulled open and closed.Before John left for the day, we discussed the design for the bench for the back porch. As usual, John sketched it out on a scrap of wood. It will have a hinged lid so we can store stuff inside (like gardening tools), which will be handy since we won't have a garage for a while.
The electrician told me that the floodlights he had installed on the back and side of the house were no good, so he took them down so we could return them and to get something else. That was frustrating to hear since we had already exchanged them once (the original models we picked didn't work with the way the house was wired), and I don't think Lowe's carries any other models that have the features/color that we wanted. We'll have to return them to Lowe's (which is a 20-minute drive from here) and find new ones somewhere else.

In happier news, the crew from Eco-nize Closets is scheduled to come tomorrow morning to outfit our walk-in closet with various built-in shelving, hanging bars, and drawers. Yay!