Late this evening, as the sun was setting, Jeanine and I drove over to the conservation area surrounding the Weston Station Pond for a nice stroll in the woods. Jeanine recently discovered this area and was right to anticipate that I would enjoy it as well. Within the pond is an island that sustains a half dozen Blue Heron nests. There is no doubt a future post will document the occupants when I return with a telephoto lens. Also of photographic interest is the cutest of tiny bridges that we crossed on our ramble.

Having not set foot outside the house since I picked up Jeanine at the airport last week, I relieved my cabin fever with a quick excursion to the Sudbury River where I put my drone up for an aerial photograph. One of these days, I may venture into Boston for some drone shots over areas that would normally be too populated to safely fly over.

Jeanine believes we need to replace our foyer chandelier, or at the very least, paint it in preparation for the sale of our house. I have long put off this project because the ceiling is close to eighteen feet high where the fixture is hung. With my portion of the kitchen make-over all but done, I turned my attention to the construction of a platform from which I can work on the chandelier. The 16″x22″ platform is supported by an extension ladder on one side and indirectly by the floor of the balcony stairway of the second floor on the other. I am confident the platform would support double my weight, but I am not looking forward to standing on such a small surface while wrangling the bulky chandelier.

I spent the majority of the day remounting all the kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts leaving only the backsplash work to be completed. I finished just in time for the birthday dinner feast that Jeanine, Kyle, Maya and Bryce prepared for Kyle’s girlfriend, Klaida. She is two years younger than Kyle and the pair have been dating for some time now. In Jeanine’s words, she is a “peach” and we very much enjoyed getting to know her.

Nicolai and Maya worked together to give Kyle a haircut this afternoon. Maya clipped his hair into position and Nico used the shears and scissors to complete the grooming. Despite all the tragedy and hardship caused by the Coronavirus, I am thankful to have all the family back under one roof again and to watch as they support each other. It also makes my heart happy to see a family tradition of in-home hair cutting passing to the next generation. My mother used to cut my hair, I used to cut the kids hair, and now they are cutting each others. I have little doubt that they will do the same for their kids.

As of today, the kitchen is operational. I am waiting until the weekend to reinstall the cabinet doors and drawer fronts but that is not standing in the way of functionality at this point. This evening, I began installing the cement backer board on which the backsplash tile will be installed. Despite marketing claims printed right on the product, cement board is not “easy to cut.” Linear cuts can be achieved by scoring and snapping but openings for electrical outlets are much more challenging.

Our kitchen is almost back to full service. Today, our new countertops were installed; the main one, pictured above, the one in our drink bar area, and Jeanine’s kitchen desktop. After my last meeting of the day (Zooming from my office is now what my workdays look like), I installed the main and bar sink faucets and drains and fit the cabinets with under-mount LED lighting. I ordered new hinges for the cabinet doors and will install them on Sunday when the new hardware arrives. All that remains to complete the project is the installation of the backsplashes. If we can find someone available to do the work we will hire it out. If not, I will be dusting off my tile saw. Jeanine approved of my unsupervised choice of faucets. It can be activated by waving your hand in close proximity to the neck, a very nice feature at a time when we are trying to minimize contact with metal surfaces that are widely shared.

Apart but together. Nicolai returned home today and has joined Kyle in the music room where they have set up their respective computers on folding tables. Between them, I counted seven screens. Safe to assume they could run a small country from here. Meanwhile, Maya and Bryce have taken over the living room where each is working from a laptop while seated approximately 1/16 in. apart on the couch. I am at work in my study which has a line of sight (through glass-paned doors) into both rooms. Even though we are isolated from each other, I take comfort in having them close by. Jeanine has decided to return from Florida early and flies in this evening. She cites concerns over getting stranded there but I think she just wants to be near her babies at this time.

Now that I will be working from home for at least 2 weeks, I decided to optimize my home office for telecommuting. I normally work on my large iMac but the built-in video conferencing camera has very poor image quality. Instead, I use my laptop for that purpose. I set up proper lighting and a green screen using gear from my photo studio to enhance my telepresence. The later allows me to use my own photographs as virtual backgrounds when using the Zoom application favored by my company.

With help from Maya and her boyfriend Bryce, we completed the first finish coat on the kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts in less than two hours, significantly faster than the primer coat we did yesterday. To improve speed, I increased the bore diameter of the spray gun tip to allow the very viscous paint to flow with less resistance. I also built a mobility base for the pressure pot that feeds my spray gun saving me the effort and time of picking it up and putting it down hundreds of times.

Jeanine continues to enjoy Florida getting out of the house every day. I believe this picture was taken in the Everglades, where she encountered many birds and the occasional alligator on her kayak excursion.

In an effort to protect my family from the coronavirus, I have fitted each member with full-body hazmat suits and high-performance air filtration face masks. I then spray them down with a mixture of bleach and water to ensure they are disinfected. We do all of this inside a hermetically sealed area of the house we have provisioned as a virus-free zone.

Alternatively, it is possible that this is what I look like when spray painting kitchen cabinet doors in my shop. With invaluable assistance from Maya, we managed to prime all 44 components in under three hours. I think the finish coats will go on faster with some modifications to my HVLP spray gun that I am planning to make.

Like suits at the cleaners, I have fashioned a system for hanging the various cabinet doors and drawer fronts I plan to paint this weekend (this is only about 30 of the 44). Two open end teacup hooks on the non-visible edge of each piece suspend it from a wooden hanger. This will allow me to spray all surfaces in one pass and provide a convenient way to store them for drying.

Maya and her boyfriend, Bryce, are now subject to the CDC 14-day quarantine for travelers returning from Europe. They will spend that time with me on the home front. For that reason, I began working from home today so as not to risk carrying the virus into work should they have been exposed. After talking with Maya about the severe illness she experienced at the beginning of March (fever, chills, headache, body ache), I am convinced she already contracted and recovered from COVID-19. If that is the case, it is most likely that she is no longer contagious, a theory supported by the fact that Bryce, who only recently joined her in Amsterdam, has not become ill. Even so, and out of an abundance of caution, staying home seems like the most prudent course of action. I spent the bulk of the day in my home office and only crossed paths with the incarcerated couple when they came down for dinner. I have been maintaining a 6-foot distance from them for good measure and also out of fear of the strange things growing under their eyes.

Jeanine is now staying with friends in Delray Beach and sent this photo taken yesterday while she was out for a walk (on the beach). The image did not come with an explanation but I am going to guess that it is a coconut (water-soaked and sun-bleached) covered in mussels. The mussels could easily pass for butterflies on a quick inspection. She sounds like she is having a lovely time but I am guessing that I had the better day. I got to pick up Maya from the airport after her exhausting journey home from Europe. Accompanied by her boyfriend, the pair looked very relieved to be back in the US and ready for a good night’s sleep.