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.

Although I am doing the spray painting of cabinet doors and drawer fronts for our kitchen makeover project, I have hired someone to do the painting of the cabinet face frames, kitchen trim, and walls. When I returned from work today, I found that everything had been primed and it looks like the final coats of paint could be finished by the end of the week.

Jeanine visited Dry Tortuga National Park today almost 5 years to the day since I was there. As did I, she opted to fly in on a seaplane rather than take the ferry which was fully booked by the time she went to sign up. I rather like her aerial photograph of the island and Fort Jefferson better than the ones I took while there. Allowed to learn at her own pace in calm seas, she reports a newfound interest in snorkeling, an activity which we can both share in the future.

Before painting all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts from the kitchen, they need to be degreased and deglossed. This dreaded process takes about 10 minutes for each panel and took me the better part of the day for all 44. I split it up into three shifts and did a little shopping and food preparation (microwaving a frozen dinner) in between. I am very glad to have this task behind me.

Jeanine made it to Key West today where she rented a bike and toured the city. Next, she heads back to the mainland where she will be staying with close friends in Del Ray Beach. I had a productive day working on the kitchen getting all the base cabinetry ready for painting. Tomorrow I hope to get started on priming all the doors and drawer fronts.

Jeanine is enjoying her time in the Florida keys. Today she shared this photo of the pelicans which seem to have taken over this dock. I worked rather late at the office and was so exhausted when I got home, I decided to give myself a break from the kitchen make-over and just relaxed before turning in early.

In order to save money, the builders of our house did not put hardwood flooring under our kitchen cabinets. The result is that they sit 3/4″ lower than normal, a big problem for proper fit of our dishwasher and trash compactor. Making matters worse, the floor in the kitchen is not level. Its height changes by 7/8″ over the counter’s 21-foot run. To correct both of these problems, I had to remove all the base cabinets, install a proper height base and reinstall them.

This evening the focus of our kitchen make-over project was the backsplash. It is composed of tiny tiles that had to be removed one at a time. I used a hammer to coax them out without hitting them so hard as to cause damage to the underlying wall. I completed the task by midnight and got a great upper body workout for my trouble.

Maya shared this very lovely photo from the Netherlands. For the moment her study abroad program has not been canceled although that seems to be the trend in other European countries. We hope her semester abroad experience will not be diminished by the coronavirus pandemic. She had to cancel her plans to visit Italy but we are hoping she may find her way to Belgium or Sweeden where we have friends and relatives.

This morning I drove Jeanine to Logan Airport at 4:30 am for her flight to Florida where she will be spending the next two weeks kicking off her three-month sabbatical decompression tour. While chatting on the ride into Boston it occurred to me that I should give her my National Parks annual pass. After picking up her rental car she made a beeline to the Everglades and shared her close encounters with the local wildlife before continuing on to the Florida Keys. I believe her first destination is Islamorada.

Day 1 of our kitchen makeover. I removed all cabinet doors, drawer fronts, and associated hardware. I took a still photo after each door was removed and combined the sequence into a time-lapse video. I stopped after the first tier because it was taking too long. As it stands, all 44 doors and drawer fronts have been removed. By far the most tedious part of the job comes next; cleaning and sanding. I will try to do this in small batches over many days.

With Jeanine set to begin her sabbatical travel next week, I am getting ready for the kitchen makeover I will be doing while she is away. We renovated the kitchen when we moved in over 16 years ago and kitchen fashion has changed since then. In order to ready the house for sale, I will be painting much of the existing cabinetry a very light gray. In the coming weeks, you will no doubt hear about other elements of the project. Today I constructed a painting booth within my workshop. I will be using an HVLP sprayer to make quick work of the 44 doors and drawer fronts I need to paint. Doing so requires a dust-free area and some method of containing the overspray. I used 2mm polyethylene to fashion walls and leftover house wrap for the floors of my make-shift 8’x18′ paint booth. Access is by way of a flap door at the front and ventilation will be through the sliding patio doors at the back.

I apologize for the number of food shots posted this week but between work and helping Jeanine with photography for her book, I have had little time for anything else. I took this photo earlier in the week and am now wondering what came of the subject which I would very much like to sample.

Food photography for Jeanine’s book continued this evening. This was the most difficult shot yet; not because of the lighting or composition but rather the anticipation of the meal.

More food photography for Jeanine’s book this evening after a long day at work. The camera work took no more than a few minutes. Setting up the shot, however, took a very long time. I wish my mother was here. She has an eye for still life composition that neither Jeanine or I can come close to. Jeanine’s self-imposed deadline has her cranking away down the home stretch.

As has been the case in the last two presidential primary elections, Jeanine and I voted for different candidates. Even so, we are very much aligned on what we want in a president and I have no doubt we will be voting for the same person in November. We were a little disappointed that only one of our children took advantage of this opportunity to vote. I am confident that this situation will be rectified in the national election.

One of Jeanine’s first goals while on sabbatical is to complete her memoir cookbook. To that end, she has asked me to help out with the food photography which I am more than happy to do. The job pays extremely well; all the cookies you can eat!

This evening we dined with the boys at the French restaurant, Colettes to celebrate the start of Jeanine’s sabbatical. It was great to catch up with them and to discuss our respective thoughts on candidates for next week’s primary election in Massachusetts. Kyle reported on his new job and the difficulty in saying goodbye to his current colleagues. Nicolai who has not been all that thrilled with his master’s degree coursework at Lesley is now in a class with a teacher he admires and it sounds like he is having fun. We missed not sharing the meal with Maya, especially knowing that she is suffering from the flu which she contracted from her roommate.