Due to a number of mistakes both mine and the worktop manufacturers, we will finally get it look like it should and interface with the wood top perfectly.
At 10.00 Matt from Top of the World Granite arrived with his white van and tools.
I explained the history and what I wanted to see, and he explained how he was going to do it. I gave him the corian offcut and left him to it.
There was the sound of worktop being cut, but I tried to tune it out getting on with finishing the seat panels from the bench.
It was really warm making the polyurethane dry in half an hour, so I was able to complete them and reassemble the bench and posted on Marketplace.
This was a good excuse to have a long soak in the pool, I cracked open a can of hard cider as I floated round until I nodded off, what a lightweight.
It was a better day, the sun was shining, and we sold the dresser.
Kelli was working on the bench body whilst I was staining the seats, but I had to drive to Menards for more poly and other materials.
We had intended to use the paint that I had remixed, but when applied gave exactly the same result. I have no idea what is happening there, there must be something in formulation.
Regardless of that, she ended up painting it in a different colour, but I will have to return that tin once again.
We took a bike ride to see that derelict farmhouse again, there were no “Keep out” or “ No trespassing” of which there are many posted around us in Central Bay. We took the opportunity to ride up the driveway and take a closer look, and we weren’t shot at.
I did a bit more work on the pencil drawer for the Airia desk. I had to elongate a slot on the replacement drawer slide to suit the holes in the frame. I ordered some needle files from Amazon and they arrived half an hour after I found a set in the cupboard, then I remembered that I already had some, anyway you can never have enough needle files.
Early evening a van arrived to collect the dresser. The tall lad emerged and slinked over to me.
“I’ve come for the dresser my girlfriend asked me to collect” the tone of his voice reflected that he didn’t want to be here, although it looked like he didn’t want to be anywhere.
“Do the drawers work?” He asked instead of trying them. I demonstrated them in a typical furniture salesman way, pulling them out and then pushing them in.
Trying to get into his vehicle was tricky. I explained the best way to do it was to turn it on its back and slide it in. He then got on one end and i on the other. Unfortunately how he held it opposite to me meaning he would turn it one way and I the other. I redirected him and in it went.
Soon the dresser and Mr happy set off back to Muskegon, and I was relieved.
I just had to get out of the house. After another disturbed night I had to take out my anger and frustration, so what better way than to go for a bike ride. I headed out towards Saugatuck with the assist cranked up to see how fast it was going. I saw a serious cyclist ahead, serious being dressed in Lycra with wraparound visor. I used them as a pacer, gradually gaining speed and drawing closer, but they turned off the road so I saved them the humiliation of being overtaken by a old git on a heavy bike.
My route took me passed rows of pine trees, their scent in the early morning took me back to the German forests of my childhood, picking up cones to fuel the stove in the family cottage that we used to stay in for our holidays.
This was a calm moment when I could reduce speed and open my eyes. I passed, what seemed to be a derelict farmhouse, it must have been because the roof was missing shingles and the area around was wild and overgrown. “Oh to be twenty years younger and a few hundred thousand bucks richer”, I thought, “I could have done something with that”. On I cycled, crisscrossing the roads until I felt more relaxed and ready to join the real world again.
I wanted to work on the drawer I needed for my new desk, I had bought a replacement pair of slides, but I decided to strip the seats from the bench we collected yesterday instead.
Then we had a visit from Elaine who was back from her winter hibernation in Florida. She said she had a project for me and opened up a folder containing a number of photographs.
“I would like one of these” showing me a beautiful Swiss made piece, apparently they cost many thousand dollars each.
I started to salivate, this was a dream project.
She then showed me a picture of a piece that she had in her Florida home. “I would like to make this look like that” my heart sank a little.
It looked like a cheap piece of box store product. I suggested making a facade to mimic what the expensive piece had, but I would need lots more dimension in order to build it. So I made a sketch with all the areas that would need measurements, she was going to see if someone could do that for her.
I did love the original piece, and I would love to make one, maybe I could scale it and draw it up during the winter, this would be a great excuse to buy a loose tenon cutter.
Kelli got four and a half hours of sleep last night and I had a full day to appreciate it.
There was so much tension in the air it could have competed with a thunderstorm. Not the finest time, but we worked through it again.
I took another Turbo ride to buy some eggs, and yes, this time there were some.
A rushed breakfast because we had sold the tall dresser and there a few tweaks that needed doing.
Around midday a trades van turned, that confused me, but the chap was the one that bought the dresser.
Kelli had found another dresser in Zeeland, so we were dispatched to collect it.
It turned out to be a project piece that had been started many years ago and not finished.
It will take a bit of work , but the style is nice and should sell quickly.
There was also news that we, at last sold the two matching side tables. Kelli had repainted the fronts and lo and behold someone wanted them.
Then she found a free wooden bench in the town, again we went to collect, on the way back we stopped off at Menards to return the faulty paint. There was a bit of interrogation as Mr Paint Expert tried to probe as to why the paint had acted as it did. He went through a list of possible reasons, from using the correct primers, to the different surfaces that could have caused the problem.
I explained that we have painted hundreds of pieces of furniture with no paint problems, he then agreed to mix up a new batch, phew, that was nerve-racking.
I also got round to wiring in a dimmer into the bathroom, sometimes in the early hours the light it much too bright for sensitive eyes.
I was on the bike early hoping to buy some eggs from our nearby source. I set the kettle to boil, hoping it would be done by the time I got back. I set the controls on the bike to Turbo and set off. I was up to twenty miles an hour in no time, dodging the joggers and other bike riders. I reached the house in no time, but there were no eggs outside. My only option was to go to the corner shop which was in the opposite direction. Back on the bike, Turbo engaged and off. I sped round a corner and missed a runner by inches. I got to the shop, and panting heavily I found the organic eggs.
Staggering to the register, I handed over some crumpled notes and placed the carton in my saddle bag, and back home. I got into the door, just as the kettle was boiling, gosh it takes a long time to boil anything over here.
After breakfast on the deck we took a proper bike ride, to collect another Buddha. Kelli found this little green bald man quite close. We found the object wrapped in a plastic bag at an address with a Jesus poster in the garden, so with two religious characters in one house, one had to go, sorry Buddha.
I had to seal and finish eight drawer fronts ready for the new handles that were arriving in the late afternoon.
When they arrived they didn’t fit. The hole centres should have been two and a half inches but the ones that were delivered were two and three quarter inches. The specifications on Amazon stated two and a half, so it looks like some redrilling to do.
In the evening we met up with a couple of neighbours to go to a community get together, set up by a lady on the next street over. It was a chance to meet other people. It was interesting, I was a little left out at first, but as soon as they realised I was English all the differences between Americans and the Brits came out. We didn’t stay too long, Kelli needed time to chill our at home after a busy day.
Kelli was ready to do a painting marathon when she discovered the paint had been contaminated. When it was sprayed on to a flat surface it separated like there had been silicone or similar substances. That was annoying as I had only bought it last week, it will go back to Menards tomorrow.
We started work later than planned, but two dressers had to be painted, along with one set of drawers. The other set required staining black, and a top had to be waxoiled. This was quite an ambitious task, but we made it.
It was expected to rain today, but although the sky did come over dark nothing fell.
It is the anniversary of the first moon landing, I think I was in Newquay in Cornwall. I remember buying The Times because it had a colour supplement and the photographs in it were taken from a television screen, it was amazing.
There are many people over here don’t believe it ever happened. With so many people involved how could that be kept secret?
It was time to get some work done, all this fine weather is distracting us from selling furniture.
But first let’s take a bike ride, we been to see if there are any eggs available down the road.
So that where we went, and no, there were none, I did suggest going round the back where the chickens are and plucking them out, but Kelli didn’t like that idea. We finished our ride, and pulled out the furniture pieces that we wanted to get primed.
I had repair work to do, a lot, I had a top to strip, but first, let’s have some lunch.
I finished off the left overs washed down with a cup of hot tea. Kelli cannot understand how I can drink something hot when the weather is so hot, my answer is alway air conditioning. It is so chilly inside I have a tea to warm me up.
The cold tea they drink, and think it is “real” tea is misguided, and vile, there is nothing like hot tea to make the day complete.
Next there were plants to place in the garden and a treatment to spay on the lawn.
I removed the top from the tall dresser we had collected from Zeeland, the screws were difficult to turn, I had to work really hard to release. Once removed I set about stripping.
Now it was pool time. So I left everything and we both floated in the water. Once we’re were crinkled it was time to get out, we had furniture to work on. I needed something to eat, I fancied a banana, it was delicious.
There was a drive to Zeeland to collect a dresser, that started at ten bucks but ended being six because that was all I had on me, we should use that ploy more often.
We found the house with the dresser on the front porch. This meant carrying it down steps, but not before we removed all the drawers. Everything was loaded when Kelli noticed some sad looking plants by the roadside next to the trash bin. Normally when things are on the roadside they are not wanted, so Kelli messaged the dresser person to check that they were not wanted. After a few minutes, with no reply, she took an executive decision and we loaded them into the truck.
All of them needed water, the pots were dry as a bone.
As soon as we got home she soaked them with water. You could almost hear a sigh of relief from the plants as they absorbed the moisture.
We then went on a bike ride to the park, by the time we got back the plants had transformed, they had swelled up and looked happy again. We will keep them in our intensive care area for another day before finding them a permanent place in the garden.
We took a leisurely ride to the beach, considering it is such a short distance away we don’t get there much, but it was pleasant dipping our toes in the water.
I had a few jobs to do on some furniture pieces. Most of it was gluing down lifted veneers, I also made a start on one of the bullet riddled drawer fronts.
Later in the afternoon we had to go and collect a desk I had bought on Marketplace. I had been looking for one since we cleared out the spare room. I had found a Herman Miller Airia desk for three hundred bucks, when new they sell for two thousand four hundred, so I thought it a good deal. Okay the pencil drawer was missing, but I could make one, after all I have made twelve for the kitchen.
The pick up was a smart place out in the county side with a long driveway and immaculate front lawn, there was definitely some money here. The young chap met us and show us the desk, it was in great condition, the laminate top didn’t have a mark on it, apart from being drawerless it was perfect. He said it was missing when he bought it from the factory store, one can only imagine what happened to it.
It fitted perfectly into our truck, and once back we tried to get it into the room. There was a bit of struggle getting it though the doorway, in the end I took off two legs to get it through
Now I need to make a drawer, now I think I have some timber…….
It was a good day for having friends over. It was sunny with the occasional gust of wind from the north west. There were a lot of things to do first, mainly getting the provisions. So off to Aldi and the drudge of trolling the isles.
I shot off, as I usually do to get the stuff we get every week, dog food, coconut and almond milk, those things. Once loaded, we headed back to the corner shop to get things Aldi didn’t have. After that we had to borrow a fold away table from Kelli’s brother Matt. Once that was loaded into the truck we finally drove home.
I did work outside to tidy the place up, cutting the grass, rearranging the deck furniture and erecting the table. Kelli was in the kitchen preparing the fillings for the tacos we planned to serve.
We even managed to fit in a bike ride. Just as we were leaving, two police trucks went screaming down South shore towards the big lake, sirens blaring. There was no way we could keep up even if we wanted to. As we peddled away we heard a siren coming from the lake, where a small launch was beating its way through the waves. We couldn’t keep up with that either.
There was just enough time to finish chopping up the vegetables when we got home, the wine and beers were chilling, we were ready for the onslaught.
It was a great evening, Chris hadn’t been to our house before, so I gave him the thirty second tour. Morgan was her usual hyper self, for a little girl of ten she has the intelligence of an eighteen year old.
After four hours they had to leave, we were exhausted, we talked non-stop, and laughter, at our silly stories. Kelli did well, the food was great, and I didn’t drink too much, mainly because Jill drank most of it.
Another Lifetime to go 