Day 425 Little and Large

6th October 2018

We offloaded the dresser, and I cleaned it down and sanded the finish off the top surface. A couple of the drawers needed a bit of repair, so I used the last drops of glue to fix them. We were also down on our most useful material, Bondo. All that was left in the tin was a lump of thick stuff, not any use for anything.

After finishing the work on the dresser, Kelli had found another old desk that could provide another two side tables. These are always a quick seller so we set off to collect it. The place was on the other side of Lake Macatawa deep in the woods. As we drove up, and I got out of the truck I was struck by a strong small of wine and damp soil. This came from four large oak barrels stacked in the yard. The trees provided shade and held the dampness from the previous days rain.

A tall guy came to the door, and led us down into the basement. This was a typical man cave, a large flat screen television, and large couches. The place had a smell of dog piss, or worse.

The desk was set in a separate room and looked to be similar to the one we got recently. It also came from Detroit and was made in the forties. We just got it into the truck and made our way back, stopping off at Lowes to get some supplies.

“Can we go to Aldi to get a few things?” Kelli suggested. Food shopping is my idea of hell, but as a “good” husband I relented.

A “few things” quickly turns into a lot of things, trolley soon buckling under the weight. To make the experience more tolerant I counted the number of big people. The place is full of them, it’s not that the store is heaving with shoppers, there are very few, but they are big, and they take up all the space. The doors are difficult to open because they suck up all the air. My mind then wanders to what their beds are like, and whether the floors are reinforced. Kelli shouts at me for being disrespectful, but that’s how my mind works, I look for problems to solve.

When we got back we off-loaded the shopping and supplies, I decided to dismantle the desk whilst still in the truck. The desk was made of oak, but had been painted in a wood grain effect paint. After removing the obvious screws I discovered the pedestals were held on by screws from the top, I can’t believe it was manufactured that way. This required special care and a crow bar to remove. Now the restoration begins.