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.