the cinelli sounds super sweet. i could see how painful it could be to dismantle it.
when i was shopping for a steel 'cross frame for my wife, i found the crosscheck frameset for 400 from
www.webcyclery.com. that seemed like the best deal i could find online and without bugging my friends that work at shops to give me the hookup. webcyclery used to also carry the il pompino's and spot ss 'cross frames as well, but i'm not sure if they still do. they're also super nice guys. they carry great stuff too.
i ended up getting her a soma doublecross, since she definitely wanted gears and i liked the geometry for her specific size a bit better than her size of surly. they were cheapest from
www.bikemania.biz. they're like 379 frame and fork... sweet deal.