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. 

Chamber of Chaos, Week One

I’ve dubbed our former and (soon to be again) kitchen the “Chamber of Chaos”. Want to see why? (Are you sitting down? It’s not pretty, I warn you…)

Looking east; stove wall

I guess it never looks good when you tear out cabinets and appliances and layers of flooring in a 40-year-old kitchen. At lunchtime on the first day, they had all the cabinets out. That’s when I took these three pictures of the demolition progress. By the end of the day, all the flooring was gone too. 

Looking southwest into the family room and hall

It’s all just subfloor now. And whew! It gets so dirty and dusty in here. I’m sure we’re tracking stuff all over the house, although we use special old shoes in this area and change to clean sandals or slippers when we move into other areas. 

Looking NW at dining room/family room corner

In the days following these pictures, all the new ceiling can lights and the new electrical panel were installed. The pendant light fixtures are among the last things to be hung once we near the end of the process. We also had the plumbing roughed in this week. Next week they will frame and drywall the ceiling where those recessed fluorescents were and patch all the other holes and gaps caused by running new electrical wires and plumbing… you know, making it all nice in prep for flooring and painting down the road. 

We’re managing just fine meal-wise. For dinner we’ve had barbecued chicken sandwiches, ham sandwiches, meatloaf with vegetables and rolls, and we went out once. Tonight we’re going out again with family, and it will be a nice change. But can I just say again, what a filthy mess!!

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I had finished my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for Aqua July, but I realized that I’d never shown my Aqua/turquoise string blocks. So I do have something to share - 18 blocks that will finish at 6”. No plans yet for these string blocks. 

I also finished the binding on the Anne of Green Gables quilt this week. Let me show you the “glamour” shots - such as they are - of the finished quilt. I believe the finished measurements were 65x78”.  

The quilting, done on my Bernina 570QE (a domestic machine), was a series of loops and swirly hooks.

The story behind the quilt is in THIS blog post. 

The backing fabric was a lovely medium purple (I’m sure there’s a more precise name for it) floral. Plummy. Yeah, that sounds about right. 

The best part was giving it to my friend Ann on Tuesday after our Weight Watchers meeting. She loved it, and several of our friends gathered around and oooh’ed and aaah’ed. (Non-quilters are easily impressed, aren’t they?) hehehe. I got a couple great hugs out of it! 

The rest of my sewing week consisted of sewing letters on some identifying safety vests for my team of community landscape captains. Here is what *that* hot mess looks like.

There are twelve vests, each with the letters VSE. That stands for Vine Street East, the name of our condominium community. We felt it would be wise to have identifying garments of some kind as we go walking through front yards, which are common areas (not individual, private courtyards). 

Anyway, each black cotton letter was interfaced (stabilized) before sewing them on. I hope to get them done this weekend so that I can baste up some more quilts next week. 

I’ll leave you with a cute meme. I shared it a couple years ago, but I love it and always think of it when we have a miserably hot spell in the summer….

Have a lovely week, friends. 

Sewing for Sanity

Hey, isn’t one’s sanity a top “charity” goal we sewists have? It sure has been for me lately! 

This week I finished up my aqua and turquoise and teal color blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Once all my primary blocks for the month are done, I turn my focus to working on coin columns and crumb blocks. I only needed four more aqua blocks to fill out the 11-block column of crumbs I’ll make into a column quilt at the end of the year. I also sewed strips and chunks together to make an approximately 4” wide column that will join the other colored columns later. Two separate column quilts. 

Not exactly exciting stuff, but they’ll be fun and colorful when they join their friends. 

My big accomplishment for the week was quilting the Anne of Green Gables quilt. Here are a couple sneak peeks. Obviously, it still needs binding. 

I’ll get it bound this weekend with that dark purple fabric in the outer border. And then hopefully Ruby and I can get some glamour shots of it before I gift it on Tuesday. I’ll show finished pictures next week.

But for this week, I have been working on HOA stuff way too much while simultaneously trying to get the kitchen packed up for Monday’s tear out / demolition. We’re also trying to pack a couple boxes of stuff we can use during the six weeks of no kitchen. The refrigerator will move to the living room and the pantry will remain untouched (except for painting when the time comes). We will keep our microwave, coffee pot and toaster and some paper plates and plastic utensils out and set up the table to function as a counter and dining space once the dust clears. The demo will include removing the carpet, so we’ll be living on just the subfloor until the new flooring is installed a couple weeks after that. 

Today I’m pre-cooking some pork loins and taco meat for quick meal prep that we’ll be able to do in the coming weeks. We’re going to try yo limit eating out to 2 nights per week, and we know just where the healthy and relatively affordable meals can be found. Once per week it will be fast food and once per week it will be a restaurant. Yes, there is healthy fast food - have you ever had Chick-Fil-A’s chicken wrap? Or Noodles & Company’s Chicken Caesar salad or … 

Are you ready for some scary photos? I haven’t shown these before. They are the “before” pictures of our kitchen and family room. They’re from when we first moved in 4 months ago, but much of the stuff was never unpacked. It looks just as horrible and forlorn today. But with the demolition and construction in the coming weeks, it’s going to look even worse before it gets better. But it will get better - I have to keep reminding myself. 

First of the BEFORE pictures. Everything from the beam back to the wall will be ripped out, except the windows, of course.  The cabinets were of excellent quality when they were installed in the 1980 (I almost typed “1890”) original build. But they’re very dated and very worn up close. Oh, and yes - we have a fourth matching chair for the dinette set - it was just in another room for some reason. The set opens up (with a leaf that rises up from beneath) and will be used as a table/counter during the construction process. Then the set will go to Cousin Kim. 

The picture below shows the odd configuration of the upper cabinets. I will NOT miss those! The new refrigerator will go there eventually. 

And these recessed fluorescent lights? Gone, baby, gone! This will be sheetrocked, painted and replaced with 6-7 can lights. The new cabinets will go all the way up to the ceiling with no dust-catching gaps.

The stove is fairly new and will be kept, but the hood fan will be replaced. 

The pic below is just another angle. But the peninsula will be ripped out and replaced with a large island that will jut out into the dining area. Oh, and that dishwasher is prehistoric and will be replaced by a stainless steel Bosch. 

The view below is looking from the kitchen out into the dining/family room area. That beige carpeting - again, original to the 1980 build - will be replaced with vinyl plank flooring that looks and feels like hardwood. It will extend throughout the kitchen and family room and down the L-shaped hallway. Cat owners (inevitable hairballs) will understand and appreciate that!

Last view: looking from inside the kitchen work area, out. That’s an old, unworking trash compactor in the kitchen peninsula. What a colossal waste of space! The upper cabinets there will be repurposed to the garage. That new area will see the “desk” area raised to counter height and flipped. We’ll have floating maple shelves on the wall to house my cookie jar and Pyrex collection. 

That potted poinsettia is now living out in the courtyard during the spring, summer and fall. It’s currently very lush and green. It will come back indoors as the fall weather cools. Here’s hoping the cats will leave it alone! 

I suffered my first-ever migraine this week, complete with aura, flashing lights, light sensitivity, yadda yadda. Thought I was dying of a brain tumor or something (haha) until the doctor’s diagnosis put all the puzzle pieces together. It seems to be mostly passed now, with just some residual eye twitching. Likely stress-induced. Stress? I can’t imagine what is causing that (she said sarcastically).  But life goes on….. 

Have a good week, my friends!

Linking to Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Sewing Aqua and Friends

It’s hard to feel motivation to do much when you’re entering the second week of a 100-degree+ heat wave. Ask me how I know. I’ve felt like a slug. Yet I do manage to find time for HOA meetings indoors, (working outside for than 10 minutes at a time is nearly impossible), take naps, swim in the evenings, and do laundry in between naps. And I’ve been drinking lots of water and, if I’m being honest, new Diet Dr. Pepper with Coconut. Simple pleasures… 

But even though I’ve been Missing In Action from blogging for a couple of weeks, I have been sewing. What’s not to enjoy about sitting at my machine with a very green view out the window, the fan overhead whirring softly, good tunes playing in the background, and fun scraps lining up for their turn under the needle?! 

Here’s some proof that I’ve made progress with July’s Rainbow Scrap Color of the month, Aqua (and teal, and all the blue-greens):

Three Color Stix blocks:

One 16-patch star to finish at 12”:

And three Windmill blocks to finish at 8”:

And yes, I finally got my design wall up with the help of my friend Ruby. She also found a 100-yard roll of white flannel she had stored from her days as a home dec seamstress, and gifted it to me/us (our little sewing circle). 

It’s been so nice to have a design board again, even though space in the sewing room is at a premium. You may notice that there’s a quilt top lying on the table. 

The Anne of Green Gables top is ready to be basted, finally! That’s my primary job for today. Along with meeting another set of contractors to get a bid for resurfacing the irrigation ditch that runs through the condo property. Yeah, fun times…. But I digress. The Anne top measures 66x80”, and when finished will be a gift for my friend Ann. 

Since I’ve finally caught up on some serious sleeping, I may even have enough energy to cook something for dinner tonight! But if the energy is gone by supper time, there are always ingredients for sandwiches or salads.

And just to make this a more colorful post, here are some pictures of my little courtyard garden…

My echinacea (coneflower) is loving life. The rhubarb next to it, however, is being eaten alive. But the ground has been treated and the slugs and snails are history. But the plant will die back naturally in the heat anyway (for the season) and I will keep a closer eye on it next year. I’m finding that we’re having to deal with a lot more pests in this condo than in the old house - ants, snails, and wasps here at our place and other plant diseases in the trees and shrubs of the condo complex. And I’m learning a lot. 

I don’t think the petunias (clumps of green) are loving their too-shady spot, but everything else is happy enough. Begonias are real troopers for sun or shade. And the blackberry bush in the back corner - a cutting that I transplanted from the old house - is actually bearing fruit. Three whole berries so far, LOL, with three more on the way. But that’s OK. Our old bush started out that way, too. Next year it will grow and produce significantly more, and then by the third year, look out!!

The hydrangea is loving its life! The little plant in the white pot is a bell pepper plant. It seems to be doing well, too, although I don’t see any peppers yet. But there are buds. What is it waiting for??

And here’s Ringo the (cockatiel? Macau?) bird standing guard over the courtyard. My granddaughter Lauren and I painted it together years ago…

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Now, the rest of this post, which I’ll try to keep brief, is personal stuff that you can skip if you’re just here for the sewing. But I have to let some people (and my personal record) know what’s been going on. 

Bruce’s annual cat scan to check for cancer after his 2020 arm amputation came back in May showing an enlarged lymph node. This in itself doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but the doctor ordered a biopsy. The results said non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a very treatable cancer. Since the doctor herself is an oncology surgeon (who Bruce will continue to see annually), he was referred to an oncology specialist for the new cancer. He has had a series of three monthly blood tests (and treatment for slight anemia), and the specialist revised the diagnosis - CLL, or Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. It’s not the horrible acute leukemia, but a chronic type wherein the bone marrow is making cancerous white blood cells. It is verrrrry slow in progressing, thankfully, and some people have lived 30+ years with it. Since Bruce is 76 and relatively strong and healthy, and because CLL is relatively easy to control, this is likely something he can live out a normal life span with. But still. This is his third cancer. 

On a brighter note, as I may have mentioned before, we are in the process of making a VA (Veteran’s Administration) claim, and expect that due to his Agent Orange exposure in Viet Nam, he will be granted 100% disability. But that process will take months. 

The final news for this week is that our contractor let us know this week that it was time to make our lighting selections and the vent/fan selection for over the range. Wanna see the pendant lights? 

These will go over the kitchen island - not sure yet if we’ll need 2 or 3. But the MAIN news is that demolition begins a week from Monday, so I’ll be spending this week packing up the kitchen. Luckily, all the fancy dishes, rarely-used items and decorative items (cookie jars, Pyrex) were never unpacked from the move. So, I only have the basic pots, pans, dishes, glasses and silverware to do. And the pantry will stay the same, so that’s good. And I get to figure out meal prep with a refrigerator, microwave, toaster and barbecue only! I see a lot of dining out in our future for 4-6 weeks! Hey, in this heat, it sounds good to me!!

Linking up to Scrappy Saturday. 

Nothing Going On

Actually, there WAS a lot going on this week, and I’m exhausted. But it can all wait (including pictures, if I remember to take some) until next week. My only sewing was making some blue 6” crumb blocks and two blue (one light, one bright and dark) blue “coins” columns.

Anyway, all is well here and I will be back next week with a meaty and photo-laden post. At least that’s my goal! Today I’ll be making apricot jam, doing laundry and relaxing. 

Have a safe and Happy Independence Day for my friends in the U.S. 

String Fever

Just a short post this week. We’ve been busy finalizing details on the kitchen remodel, filling out forms for the Veterans Administration (VA) and planning a fun day with Bruce’s daughter Stacy and her five kids. We haven’t seen the grandkids since before we moved from the old house (3 months ago), so we’re really looking forward to a fun day today of playing, swimming, walking (and collecting pinecones), eating and getting some pictures with them. 

In sewing, this week was all about sewing string blocks from my blue scraps. The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for June is all the blues. 

Here were my blue strings at the beginning of the month. I should’ve taken them out of their piles and spread them out more for a better depiction of the quantity.

And here is the “after” picture with the 56 blocks (to finish at 6”) I made from them, plus the leftovers. 

I’ll use the 56 blocks to make a quilt that is 7 blocks across by 8 blocks down for a finished size of 42x48” - a good sized kid quilt. 

At our Weight Watchers workshop last Tuesday, someone said that MaryEllen (right, in pic below) and I (left in pic below) looked like twins with our curly gray hair. HA! So we had to have our pic taken. Of course, we look nothing alike (and I adore her!) Her hair is naturally curly and my curls come from a curling iron and wilt quickly in the heat! 

That’s all for this week! Next week I’ll be sharing some information I’ve been putting off for awhile (this is mentioned more to remind myself to write about it than to be coy). We’re still gathering information and will be ready to share by next week). Hint: we are *not* going into Witness Protection, hahaha!! Have a great week!