18th November 2019
We were up bright and early as a potential customer was coming round to view our newly finished dresser. We had carried it inside the house to look better in natural light, and the garage was full of pieces in various stages of work.
The lady loved the piece, so we arranged to deliver it later that day.
Over the past few months we have noticed a slowdown in sales at the store. Many pieces have been languishing there for months, and as there is rent to pay for the space, the rewards have been really small.
Kelli took the decision to terminate her contract, but continue on a commission base plan, this gave us a presence but with a reduced expense. We decided to concentrate our efforts on selling more through Marketplace, and offer a delivery service.
This has started to bear fruit as there are many people who don’t have trucks, or the strength to carry stuff.
We also decided to sell more furniture as we find them, that is without any work from us.
This would include “project” pieces for others to finish. This would be good for cash flow, and allow us to concentrate on the things that we would enjoy working on.
We decided to put on Marketplace the dresser that we picked up yesterday. It was in good condition so it was a good opportunity to test out our idea. Sure enough before the evening was out we took a sale, high fives all round.
In the late afternoon we delivered the painted dresser to an address in Holland, a couple of miles from our home.
During the day I had tried to improve the fit of the lower drawer. This was one piece I hadn’t really been involved with, so there was limited time to do anything to make it perfect. The older dressers had drawers where the sides were made of cedar which is soft and wear away on the oak runners. After a time the drawer drops and it becomes difficult to close smoothly. In the past I have repaired the sides by bonding on a oak piece to the side panels, but I didn’t have the time to do this, so I did the best I could and let it go at that.
The couple were delighted with it, and it took pride of place in their new nursery.
I started work on the four free chairs we collected yesterday. Most of the frames were loose, so one by one I stripped them down and re-glued them. Two of them had some serious repairs to them which meant a bit more cosmetic work to make the look good again. One seat pad needed a bit of cleaning, which was set aside till another day.
Kelli has finished the painting on one of the renovation pieces he had taken on.
I had stripped the top back intending to stain and refinish it. The first attempt didn’t look that good, so I sanded it back to try again.
There is alway a potential problem removing a factory finish because some of the lacquers soak deeper into the wood than in other places. In veneers this is bad, solid timber is okay, it just means sanding harder.
The second attempt was better, but not perfect, but I didn’t want to sand any more in case I rubbed through, and ruin it.
Another Lifetime to go 