Ninety Percent

The kitchen is ninety percent finished! That’s a great number in a kitchen remodel when it includes running water! More about the remodel later in the post. But come to think of it, 90% a good number for our post-Covid recovery as well. We finally tested as negative a couple days ago, after two weeks of yuck. Bruce still has a lingering cough and I have a bit of congestion, and we are both working to build back our general stamina. But it’s good to feel good again!

Since I completed all my orange scrappy blocks for August in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I focused on sewing up some 16-patch blocks for the It’s a Jungle Out There quilt. But when I say “focused”, it was a pitiful showing, because it seems the universe conspired to keep me out of the sewing room for all but one afternoon this week. I was either still feeling yucky, or had an HOA budget meeting to attend (by phone as I was still contagious at that point), or the contractors were noisily doing their respective things. 

Anyway, here is the mess of blocks, pinned up on the design board. 

Rather than explain the layout I’m doing, I’ll show you a quick sketch of my plan. The panel with sashing and 48 blocks will make a quilt that’s approximately 60x76”, a good size for a lap quilt to be gifted.

Last week I had 20 blocks remaining to sew. This week I matched up fabrics and strip cut all the remaining pieces for those blocks. That took more time than the sewing!

But I did get four more blocks sewn and have four more in various stages. One good afternoon should see these finished! 

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This week was the Big Week that really saw the kitchen come together. So on Monday morning, the cabinet guys were back to attach the final upper cabinets on top of the quartz countertop for the appliance station. 

In the afternoon on Monday, the tile guys came and set the tile for the backsplash. Then on Tuesday, they grouted and cleaned them and installed the window ledge. Note that there is uninterrupted tile; no outlets. I’ll explain that momentarily.

On Wednesday, the electricians were here all day to install the light switches, install the under-the-cabinet LED light strips and plug-ins, and hang the pendant lights. The electrical plug-in strips are mounted behind the lights under the cabinets. In the area around the sink and stove, there are actually nine outlets that you can’t see! When they were done, this is what it looked like.

Please excuse all the cleaning supplies and other junk in these pictures. Cleaning things during a remodel is a constant process. 

We also ordered three flush-mount lights in this same style as the pendants to use in the entryway and down our L-shaped hall. That was a last-minute addition, but we’re considering them an additional project, not part of the kitchen/dining remodel.  They’ll take a week or two to get here.

There are also three electrical outlets on the island; one on each side closer to the working end of the island, and one at the other (seating) end of the island to plug in vacuums and the like.

Thursday was a three-ring circus. The window coverings company came by at 9:30 to give us a bid for the plantation shutters for the three big dining area windows, and a shade for the smaller window over the kitchen sink. The electrician also arrived to install one LED light that he’d broken the day before. Then the plumber arrived and the window people left. So, the electrician and the plumber worked side by side. The electrician finished up and left. The plumber installed the dishwasher, the garbage disposal, and the faucet. But the faucet wouldn’t stop leaking, so we opted for a new one. So the plumber went to the plumbing supply place to get a faucet. He texted me three pix and I picked the one I liked, and he headed back. Meanwhile, Lowe’s came by with the new refrigerator and stove and hauled out the old ones. 

The appliance guys installed the refrigerator to the plumber’s awaiting lines. But they couldn’t install the stove because the 220v plug wasn’t finished. So…. The electrician had to come back (Friday morning) to do that. 

So here’s what it looked like at that point. 

Running water! That’s what I’ve missed most in the kitchen during this remodel. The fan and vent hood still needs to be attached. That and the painting and window coverings are the ten percent we’re waiting on. The painting and hood will happen next week. 

On Friday, the six dining chairs and the coffee table were delivered, and we ate dinner in the new kitchen for the first time. 

The refrigerator sticks out too fat in my opinion, but I guess we’ll have to live with that. I had no idea what a behemoth it was! They had to take the doors off to get it in the house. There is still ample room, though, to walk by.

So, that was my week. When the remodel is totally complete after the shutter installation, I’ll do a separate post with before-and-after photos of the kitchen and dining/family room area. 

Have a great week!

When is a Summer Cold NOT a Summer Cold?

Answer: when it’s Covid-19. Seriously, Bruce and I have Covid. We naturally cancelled our usual Sunday gathering last weekend (that includes Cousin Kim and friend Ruby) because weren’t feeling well and didn’t want to pass on our “colds”. Ruby came by later on Sunday and dropped off (literally dropped off on our doorstep, then ran!) a couple Covid tests. We chuckled - until we used them and found out we were both positive. Oy! We’ve wracked our brains - such as they are  - to try to figure out where we were exposed, to no avail. 

And so began a week of missed friends, family, meetings and appointments. The painters were rescheduled and will come in two weeks to do the kitchen/family room painting after Labor Day instead of before the countertop installation. The countertops in the kitchen renovation were installed on Friday, and I’ll have photos later on in the post. Bruce had to reschedule appointments at the Veteran’s Administration, I missed HOA Board meetings and Weight Watchers, and we had to reschedule our appointment with the window treatment people. But we got in lots of naps, and the kitties loved having Mom and Dad around 24/7. Needy little buggers!

We’re still testing positive as of today, but we’re hopeful that we can begin with a clean bill of health by Monday. I’ll spare you the descriptions of misery and boredom, except to say that we never lost our sense of taste or smell. And while I didn’t even feel like sewing much, I did do some. We also watched a fair bit of TV (the DNC) and I read and played video games. 

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Here is the little bit of sewing that I got done over the course of a Verrrrry.Loooong.Weeeek. I had enough orange scraps to make eight 6.5” scrap blocks and one column (only partially shown) of strips to finish out my orange blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge’s August color.

So, for the last week of the month (what? how did that happen?), I’ll get to focus on my African and batik fabric blocks. I did get six of those sewn this week too. 

I’ve sewn 28 blocks of the 48 total I’ll need to surround the jungle animal print I’ve shown the last couple weeks. Maybe by next week I can start bringing the parts together into a top. On the other hand, the week after is good too, hehe. 

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And here are the progress shots of the kitchen with quartz countertops installed. The two installers knew we were sick, but didn’t care as long as we stayed away, which we did. It only took them a little over 2.5 hours to install everything. Here are the pix in no special order (because Blogger does as it da** pleases):

Above: The island. Electrical outlets still to be wired in. I’ll spend the next couple days (depending on my energy level) cleaning out the drawers and making a list of dividers (etc) to pick up at IKEA. It’ll be substantially cheaper that way rather than ordering from the cabinet makers!

The shelves and cabinets will have LED lighting strips added when the finish electrical work is done. 

Above: the cabinet guys will be back on Monday to install the beverage station/microwave cabinets on the wall above the counter here.

Yeah, it still looks pretty rough in here with the staining on the walls left over from where the old Formica backsplash was. Our new tiles will be installed next week! In the meantime, you can see the light veining in the quartz, and the double stainless undermount sink in place. 

A closeup of the island top. 

The seating will go around this end of the island. We’ll fit 4-5 comfortably and could probably squeeze in six if necessary. The six chairs (and refrigerator and stove) all get delivered next week. 

The paint will be white on the ceiling and a creamy white on the walls, except for the accent wall in the family room area, which will be Sherwin Williams Baize Green. To me, green is a neutral.  We’ll see how it all comes together. If I hate it, paint is easy to change! 

So, stay healthy my friends. This variation of Covid is highly contagious. They’re still working on the Fall 2024 vaccine, so hopefully this variant will be covered. 

Where’s the Tiger? And Kitchen Remodel Week of Waiting

Our kitchen remodel continues. We knew from the timeline given to us before the project started that this past week would be the one with little to nothing happening. The quartz countertop templates were made the previous week, and their construction is in process. Next week we’ll have painters here Monday through Thursday, and the countertops installed Friday. But this week they only installed the cabinet hardware and most of the crown molding. 

The new refrigerator will slide in here (above). We’ll meet with a designer next Wednesday to measure three of the four kitchen/dining area windows for shutters. The fourth window, a deep ledge for plants over the kitchen sink is a wait-and-see item for me. Depending how the winter sun behaves through this window when it’s low in the sky, I may eventually put a valance there. But for now, nothing. 

Obviously, the island doesn’t have the countertop yet, but it does have the hardware! These drawers will be handy for pots and pans, Tupperware and other things. It will be nice to have an abundance of storage!

The sink will go into the big hole in the above photo, and the pull-out drawer - adjacent to where the stove will be - houses two lower spice shelves and three containers to house bigger cooking utensils, like spatulas, wooden spoons, and the like. 

The bracing at this end of the island will support the rounded quartz countertop/table. We did go out furniture shopping again this week and bought six swivel counter-height chairs. They, along with a new coffee table for the family room, will be delivered on the 30th. We are well and truly closing in on an end-of-the-month finish!

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I enjoyed spending time this week sewing some orange string blocks in keeping with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge’s color of the month. I sewed 16 blocks at 6 ½” (unfinished size).

Next week I’ll be working on crumb blocks and a scrappy orange coin column. 

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And where did that pesky tiger on this jungle panel go? Hopefully, back to Asia where he belongs. But do you see his outlined ears peeking out? I thought it wouldn’t bother me, but it did. 

So, another little fabric patch will be added there. Here it’s just pinned in place, but it will work well. I used more Dean Russo fabric that I found in my stash that matched perfectly. It probably came from the same fabric line.

It was my friend Wanda who mentioned “ghost block”, which perfectly articulated the patch idea I was mulling over. And with that help, I did actually sew patches in checkerboard fashion, and then added and subtracted a bit here and there. It was a fun exercise in camouflage. 

Other than that, not much else is new. Bruce had a cold this week that I think he passed it to me. Ugh, summer colds. But it’s not serious, of course, although we felt it best to stay away from the swimming pool this week. Summer is waning, and I’m ready. How about you?

Waning Chaos - Kitchen Remodel Week Three

This week saw significant progress in our kitchen remodel project, and I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge’s weekly party during Orange August. 

Last week I did do a blog post (see Chamber of Chaos Week Two, here), but I didn’t link up to the RSC because all my sewing was the wrong color! But this week I corrected all that. In addition to the remodeling progress, I got some quality sewing time in, and I have so much to share. I had another migraine mid-week, and I’m beginning to wonder if it might be related to the dust and noise (in addition to or instead of the stress) of the remodel. Time and my MRI on Monday will tell…

Where to start? Let’s see… how about I share my orange sewing first. I started with three Color Sticks blocks, 9.5” unfinished size.

They’re so fun and easy! Next up were five windmill blocks, 8.5” each:

My black and white scraps had nearly outgrown their drawer, so I’ve been using them as the background fabric for the windmills. I’ll need to use them again next year with another block style to keep them under control. 

I also sewed two of Julie’s 16-patch stars. I love these blocks!

My new project this week was starting blocks for a quilt that I plan to make and give to my doctor. He’s been my primary care physician since 1983, when I moved to Utah 41 years ago. I’ve been dreading the day when he retired, but as he’s five years older than me, I knew it was coming soon. Over the years Dr, Vogeler delivered my daughter Megan, and we’ve talked often about Africa (he’s been there 6 times; me - only once) and gardening. To him I am “Cath” and to me he is “Doug”. So, I decided to make him an African-inspired quilt containing African fabrics. 

So I channeled my Inner Wanda (Hansen) and began sewing 16-patch checkerboard blocks using African fabrics and batiks. After sewing a dozen or so, I remembered an African-themed fabric panel I had, so I decided to include that. Here is a rough idea of what I’ve got so far.

Does anyone see the problem? No, it’s not the size of the panel (the artist is Dean Russo and this “It’s a Jungle Out There” panel is a collage of some of his creature paintings) or the creative piecing I’ll have to do to eventually finish this top in an eventual 60x72”-ish size. It’s this: there is a tiger among the animals, and there are no tigers in Africa. Why didn’t I notice that before I bought the panel about 4 years ago? Dang! Why did they do that?!? Why didn’t they put a cheetah or gorilla there, both of which he’s painted? I’m so frustrated! Maybe I can piece something over it. Or …??  Any ideas? 

Aaaanyway, I’m going to continue to work on this. I may have some fabric that works with this line that I can use to make some changes (she said, not really believing it even as she typed it…).

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So, on Wednesday, our new maple kitchen cabinets were delivered. Here they are, boxed up.

On Thursday morning bright and early, the cabinet crew arrived and began installation. The following pictures are from the end of the day. The installers will be back on Tuesday to add the door handles/drawer pulls and mount the crown molding. There are no countertops yet, although on Friday the templates were made by the counter people.

Below: this is where the stove and fan/hood will go. Remember that our stovetop was cracked when the demolition crew dropped an old cabinet on it? The replacement part was ordered, but then cancelled when they realized it would cost nearly a thousand dollars just to install it. So instead we were given a credit of $1000 to buy a new range. So we purchased a new range and refrigerator this week. They’ll both be delivered on August 29, a day before the appliance installers will come to button everything up. 

Alfie and Darla are busy inspecting the cabinets. 

Once everything is painted and the remodel is complete, we’ll have new shutters installed in all the kitchen/family room windows except the one over the sink. That has a deep window ledge and a good outside eave overhang, and my plants will look great and thrive there. 

The picture above shows where the refrigerator will go, and the dishwasher next to it on the left. 

Above: Once the countertops are installed, the upper cabinets (coffee/appliance station) will be installed in that blank wall space. For now, they’re still boxed up and sitting next to the crated new dishwasher in the dining/family room area.

The photo below shows the pantry wall. I decided that two shelves looked better than three crowded shelves. My cookie jar collection - at least some of it - will be displayed there. 

And that’s it for this week’s tour. The only thing happening next week will be the above-mentioned cabinet hardware and molding installation. But that will give us time to rest and recover and clean up all the dust that is EVERYWHERE.

Have a good week, friends! 

Chamber of Chaos, Week Two

I can’t tell you how happy I am that this week is mostly in the rear-view mirror. It was loud, dusty and messy, hot, confusing, and even painful. Here’s a brief recap.

On Monday, our housekeeper came. We had her focus on the “back half” (bedrooms and bathrooms) of the condo, because the front half, as you know, is undergoing remodeling and renovation. We paid her the usual amount for half the time (we all have budgets that rely on a steady income), and she’ll make the time up on the other end of the remodel when we can start putting things back together again. While she was cleaning, the drywall crew (and painting later on) were busy in the kitchen. They framed in and covered up the recessed hole where the former fluorescent lighting had been and patched all the holes from the electrical, plumbing and HVAC location moves.

On Tuesday, they hung plastic sheeting and began mudding and sanding and sanding and sanding. Ugh. I’m not sure how much of the dust is inhibited by the plastic, but the air conditioner was going (100 degrees+ outside) and spread it around anyway.  

Also on Tuesday, my friend Kris came over after Weight Watchers (she’s actually our coach), and we spent the afternoon together basting a baptism quilt she’d made for one of her grandkids. And then I quilted it while she watched. When that was done, we went for a walk around the condo community to see the pool and the creek. 

We had a pleasant surprise that evening when we learned that the flooring guys, who were not scheduled until next week, would be able to install the flooring on Wednesday. YAY! We were already so sick of walking around on filthy subfloors. 

So on Wednesday, the flooring crew arrived and got the entire floor of the kitchen, family room and hallway done. We had to hang out wherever they were not working, so that meant some time for us in the living room, then in the bedroom where we had access to a bathroom, etc etc.  All day. And it was loud. 

That evening I went out to a dinner with some girlfriends from the community here and wore a white cotton summer dress. I teasingly told them that it was really a bright pink dress covered in lots of white dust! On Thursday, I went to our monthly card game with my Weight Watcher girlfriends, and it was Bruce’s turn to go out to dinner away from the construction mess!

So, the picture above shows the new flooring after the first couple rounds of cleaning (there have been four rounds so far). That’s the new dishwasher in its crate sitting there because where else is it going to go?!? Hehehe. Once Bruce changed the furnace filter on Thursday, the dust really seemed to minimize, and we were really able to begin deeper cleaning. 

The flooring is SPC, which is a step above LPV (luxury plank vinyl) and below hardwood. SPC stands for stone polymer core, which just means that the core layer of the board is a mix of stone and plastic, as opposed to just plastic in LPV.  SPC is harder and more durable than LPV, with a longer lifespan. The top layer is vinyl that looks and feels like wood. We love it so far. 

Next week will see the cabinet installation. It won’t start until Wednesday or Thursday, but we welcome the break in the interim. I believe the worst of the chaos is over. At least I hope so! 

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Bruce had an appointment with his oncologist this week. The news was good. His blood tests over the last couple months have shown that his CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) is very stable. No chemo is needed at present. He will go back quarterly for monitoring blood tests, and that’s all that’s required until or unless something changes. They did double up his iron intake requirements to keep him feeling well.

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I was out on the condo property one evening this week, trimming some bushes with my friend and mentor Karen. I was trimming some dead interior growth off a tall bush near a vinyl fence, and I got stung on my face (right cheek) by a wasp. Oh my, that was eye-wateringly painful! It became red, swollen and numb like I’d been to the dentist.  I went home, showered and took some Advil and Tylenol and went to bed. It was only the next morning - when everything was fine except a little lump that I could feel -  that I remembered I could’ve taken some Benadryl. Oh well. The next evening I went out with my wasp spray (we’d found the wasp nest in a hole in the fence) and sprayed the hell out of it, Rambo-style. THAT felt good!

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I did do some sewing this week; three blocks that were in the wrong color. So I’ll wait until next month to show them. This morning Bruce and I are going swimming. Right now, in fact. Then this afternoon I want to go to Sherwin Williams to pick up some paint chips for the family room area. Then I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon sewing to my hearts content! 

Life is good. Messy, but good.