Burning Question/Sage Advice

For those of you eager to know the correct answer to my quiz (Mom), here it is:

These little bundles of sage are called "smudge sticks" and they were used by our builders to perform a ritual to rid the house of any negative energy. This tradition is based on Native American beliefs, and -- according to my friend Kristen -- it is quite common in New Mexico for people to do this before moving into a new house. Congratulations to the 62% (5) of you who picked the right answer.

Incidentally, when I was looking for a site to link to that explained what smudge sticks were, I came across this story. I hope both rituals were equally effective.

I stopped by the house this morning to settle a bathtub-related dispute (seriously!), and was impressed -- as usual -- with all the progress they had made since Thursday morning. The arches are back!
The sheathing is in place around most of the house and they cut a few window holes upstairs and covered them with plastic to let in some light.The county required us to install a 1-hour fire-rated wall along the north side of the house because it is less than 5 feet from the property line. This is unusual for single-family homes, but we have to follow the building codes. It was a real challenge for our architect, builder, and structural engineer to come up with a solution that would not only work with both the original and new parts of the house, but was green as well (especially in terms of insulation). Removing the exterior stucco made this a bit easier. The white panels you see here are a type of fire-resistant sheathing called GlasRoc that will play a key role in the fire-rated wall assembly.
I imagine you are curious to know what the story is behind the aforementioned 'bathtub-related dispute' -- it's not a phrase you see very often. We had decided to re-use the existing cast-iron tub from our original bathroom, and asked the builders to save it. I got an email from them today saying that the plans showed it as a tub with a factory-finished front, but that ours was actually a drop-in tub, so we would need to order some additional tile to finish the front. I responded that they should check again, because I was fairly certain our tub did NOT have a tile front when it was installed in our house. I knew the tub was still sitting in the middle of our house, so I went over to see for myself. I was flabbergasted to see that it did not have a finished front -- just a curved lip on the front edge. (It doesn't look too inviting at the moment, does it?)I searched through my photos and found one the home inspector took of the bathroom before we bought the house. It turns out we were both right. The tub does not have a front face, but that's how it was installed in the bathroom -- as is, with no tile -- possibly to provide a little extra legroom for the toilet...So I guess we still have to decide whether we want to install it the way it is or have them build a tile front for it in the new bathroom. sigh... So many decisions...