Perfect timing

My cell phone rang while Arnold was nailing up paneling on the flanks of the kitchen Tuesday.

Finally, it was the people who measure for kitchen cabinets, who only come on down through the Keys when they've amassed a number of projects.

They were wondering if it would be a problem if they stopped by Wednesday morning. Not at all!

Arnold had to cope with some tricky angles on the right flank, where the wall has to accommodate the stairway -- but he can do the geometry in his head, and pine seems like putty in his hands.

At one point, trying to get one board to butt up against another, he simply drove in a nail and -- actually I'm not sure what he did to bring the boards into instant alignment, but Mr. B turned to me and said, "Did you see that?"

I did, and it was one more goodie from Arnold's bag of tricks.