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.