Author: peterb51

15th July 2023

Today we had to deliver Greer’s old bed that has been used by the dogs to sleep on. It dominated the spare bedroom and we wanted it to use for an office. The problem we had was the size. Being a Queen, the box spring and mattress was five foot wide, too wide to fit in our truck. Kelli had asked around if there was a trailer what we could hitch up to the truck, then realising that although we had a tow bar there wasn’t a ball hook to attach anything too. There was the option of renting a van but at over sixty bucks for the day it was ruled out.

In the end we asked Kelli’s mum if we could borrow her van. A van over here is a vehicle that the old grannies or very large ladies drive, they are big and wide with lots of space in the back, and so is the van.

I knew we couldn’t get the box spring inside, so that would have to be tied to the roof rack.

This was challenging because there was no hard surface to tie down to, so it took for ages to get it secured. Then it was the time to get the mattress inside. Even though it was flexible,up to a point, it was like pushing a rhino up an elephant’s arse.

Inch by inch we pushed and pulled until it was inside, and we could close the back door.

The journey ahead to Allendale was twenty five miles away, I was hopeful that my rope tying was good enough.

We edged our way out of Holland, Kelli adjusted the wing mirror so I could monitor the box springs movement.

She kept the speed down, I could see there was movement, I warned her that if the steering became light we were airborne.

In the end we arrived without incident, and we unloaded everything, the mattress slid out the back like a birthed calf, much to my annoyance, I was hoping Greer and Dylan would have the same difficulty that we had.

Then we headed back, there was a customer due to collect our latest dresser. That all went well, and they left happy with the dresser in their truck, just what we like to see.

14th July 2023

Kelli had a doctors appointment in Zeeland again. We got there fifteen minutes early so we went to Goodwill (the place where products go to die).

Whilst she navigated the clothes isles I checked out the furniture section that took exactly thirty seconds. The rest of the time I scanned the rows of CD’s, DVD’s and books but without my glasses, which is a little difficult. I even tried to stand at a distance which was better, but then the writing was so small I still couldn’t read it.

Kelli’s session contained a selections of limb pulling and bone cracking, her pain threshold is quite low, so the noises were very prolific.

Once that was over and my ears readjusted we drove back, collecting some items that she bought and collected from people’s porches.

Later a lady brought over a dresser that looked like it survived a gun battle.

Several drawers had some very bad veneer damage.

She had made contact with us several weeks ago asking if we could help her repaint her kitchen. This was not something we wanted to take on, so we passed on it. Winding forward, with low sales I suggested that we contact her again and suggest we brought the doors and drawers back and sprayed them. So we made the suggestion to her which she was open too, but then she asked about refurbishing a dresser.

So now we have it in the garage waiting for a flash of inspiration, with a promise of fresh peaches and blackberries when we deliver it, it will be a work of art.

13th July 2023

Bright and early the grout man arrived. We, however we’re not so bright, Kelli could not get off to sleep which affected me, collectively we were numb and tired.

He got on mixing his stuff, I set up things to work outside. This was all before breakfast, would you believe? I managed to make a coffee so I could stand upright.

Within half an hour he was done, and off, I went inside to view the finished results.

All along the row that sat next to some existing tiles on the wall, he had to cut to fit, were all chipped. The grouting really highlighted this fault, and we were not impressed.

We sat and ate our breakfast, I was seething, this was unacceptable and I intended to get it fixed.

I decided to cycle to the tile store which was about four miles away. I thought the cool air would calm my anger.

I arrived at the store, walking to the back where the administration desk was positioned.

“We have a problem” I announced, and showed the lady pictures I had taken, showing the damaged tiles.

“Oh” she uttered, “I’m not sure what can be done to stop these tiles from chipping” her voice slipped into a dull and bored drone.

“It’s a characteristic of this tile, normally we would grind the edge to smooth out the chip”.

“ it’s a shame he didn’t do it, wasn’t it?” I threw in my winning hand.

“ Well I will check if there is anything that can be done and let you know, have a nice day”.

“Have a nice day?” I thought, “bugger that, I still have the balance to pay” I felt smug to have that leverage.

Once I got back, I had drawer fronts to strip.

We also sold a dresser and the pair of white side tables.

A chap turned up, excited at what we did, he made me an offer, I countered, and he agreed, DONE!

The tile man called Kelli saying he would be over shortly.

I was still stripping drawers when he arrived, I sensed he was a bit pissed, but what the heck?.

I showed him what we didn’t like.

“ Oh that’s a problem with those kinda tiles, I don’t think I can improve on that” he confessed.

“Well something has to be done, we can’t live with that” I replied.

“All I can do is to cut more tiles and see how they turn out” he said reluctantly.

He off loaded his saw, setting it up in a “I don’t think this will work” kind of manner.

He grabbed a couple of tiles and adjusted the saw to the correct width.

He handed me the first sample, it was chipped, but not as bad as the ones he had fitted.

“ I think I can improve that if I rub it on my diamond stone” I said taking it from him.

A few rubs and there was a bit more improvement, I showed it to Kelli, we both suggested that it should be turned so that the good side is on the top.

“ If thats what you want” tile man responded.

So that’s what he did, and the end result was

Acceptable. Off he went, and about twenty seconds later the invoice for the balance hit my email inbox.

If I’m honest, I think I would have done a better job, our tile man, a professional of twenty five years did not inspire much confidence.

There have been a number of issues with this kitchen project.

1. The tap had the wrong colour nozzle

2. The corian top dimension was out by 1/4” against the wood top.

3. The wood top was bowed.

4. Chipped tiles.

The only thing that wasn’t a disaster were the doors and drawers, and that was my responsibility. Result!

12th July 2023

Up with the lark, earlier than usual, the reason, the tile man was coming between eight and eight-thirty.

Sure enough it was between that time. I didn’t even have time to eat my breakfast.

I brought in the two lengths of copper that we wanted to trim the top edge of the tile. He looked at it for, what seemed ages. “ Mmm, we might have a problem”, not something I want a professional to say.

“ There needs to be cut-outs to allow the adhesive to flow through” he explained.

“ I could drill holes if you like” I replied.

So off I went to do just that.

It did not go well. The drill threw up a large burr that was not desirable, that was rejected. Next was a notch using tin snips, but that distorted the material. My last attempt was cutting a vee with the bandsaw, that worked the best.

So I was in charge of that part whilst the tile man did his job.

It took a while to agree how the tiles were to be set, I had one idea that I thought we had agreed on, but Kelli had a different one.

Now we were trying to agree whilst the tile man stood back waiting for agreement. He kept saying “I’m just here to work” which annoyed us, he seemed to be in a rush, I’m surprised that he even turned his engine off.

Once that was reached, (and it was my idea that won) he could start work.

The result worked, just what we wanted, however tomorrow will be another early start as the tile man returns to grout.

11th July 2023

“Hurry up and finish your coffee, there’s a free dresser on the Beeline road” Kelli announced.

I had just enjoyed a egg toasted sandwich and fresh nectarines, and was calmly sipping my Columbia blend when the peace was shattered.

Fortunately all I had to do was put on shoes, so slurping down the remanence we headed for the truck.

The dynamic duo were on the road.

When we arrived there were two items waiting on the roadside, one was a desk the other the dresser. We examined both, and I’m sure if we could have, we would have taken both, but with the current lack of interest in side tables, we just took the dresser.

Next on the agenda was booking my flight back to the UK. Normally I would have booked online, but because I had a flight credit I had to call. I was passed to “an expert” dealing with this. What happened next was the hardest thing I’ve had to do, even going to the dentist was better.

I knew from the moment she opened her mouth I was doomed. I think American Airlines hire non English speakers to man these phones.

This lady was Mexican, it took forty minutes to book the flight, with me not understanding what she said and her no hearing me, it was a constant back and forth of confusion. I was exhausted, bathed in perspiration, I had to rest afterwards, but it got done, and booked for October.

I had to get out and do some machining of some side panels, to improve and lighten the visuals, I must have had a blunt cutter as it started to burn its way through, so a new cutter was needed.

10th July 2023

There was a good bike ride this morning, a good eight miler. We went to the cemetery to water the flowers on Dave’s grave. It’s a cool place his grave is next to a row of mature maple trees, he always liked to be in the shade.

Next stop was Kelli’s mums to plant the daisy plant. A lady from the church had just dug over the patch but she just dug in the crab grass instead of pulling it out, shoddy worker.

Then it was back to finish the dresser.

The pool was calling us, we couldn’t refuse.

After that it was planting our things and a good watering all round.

The AC is working well keeping the house temperature at 67 F which to me feels so cold, but during the winter the heating is set at the same, and that is comfortable, I can’t get my head around that.

9th July 2023

A morning of shopping and a trip to Plato’s Closet for Kelli to sell more stuff.

Whilst we were waiting for the clothes to be sorted we drove to Lowes to see what plants they had to offer. We were looking for ground cover, but they had nothing. Kelli’s mum wanted us to find a daisy plant for her dust bowl. That’s what we managed find, and a couple of colourful ones for our garden.

It’s amazing how quickly time goes when you’re having fun, and although shopping is certainly not my idea of fun.

We wanted to get the dresser we started yesterday primed, and a soak in the pool was a delight.

The bummer was the cantilevered umbrella broke. The cord that runs from the winder must have snapped. I looked on YouTube and found a tutorial on replacing the cord, so a quick look on Amazon to find it, and order. Now I have to wait until Tuesday till it arrives.

8th July 2023

Hurrah! We sold the first furniture of the month. Yes, there is someone out there.

We finally finished the mid century pieces by refinishing the top and fronts in a darker stain.

We took pictures, and Kelli posted it, shortly after there was some activity.

At around seven in the evening two cars turned up, and out jumped a family. Immediately their two girls rushed over and started pulling open the drawers much to their parent’s annoyance.

I had cleaned the inside of the drawers with a beeswax polish, so it smelled good.

The guy tried all the drawers and was happy.

They handed over the money, and with a bit of car moving I helped load the heavy dresser into the back of their vehicle.

That was a huge relief, there were times when we thought the market for refinished furniture was over, and we would die hungry and impoverished, but there is some hope. We still have two pairs of side tables available, and two more dressers to work on.

We had a short bike ride dropping in to see our friends George and Kathy, he is a builder of interesting houses, and often asked me for my opinion over things he’s doing, I think he is being polite, because he has great taste.

Then it was back to the ranch to get some work done.

7th July 2023

We went on a bike ride to Castle Point another private enclave of property close to Lake Michigan. A lot of these are holiday homes or rentals and they go to great lengths to keep them exclusive. At least this doesn’t have a security gate like Point West has, but there is an air of “keeping the riff raff out” that I don’t like.

After that we had to collect two dressers from the north side, these will need a bit of work, but should look good eventually.

We had planned to take pictures of the finished mid century pieces, but Kelli wasn’t happy with the wood colour. It was a pale veneer that a bit too yellowy, so I mixed up some finish with a dark walnut stain to tone it down a bit. Now we’ll wait to see how it dried.

6th July 2023

I had a dental appointment this morning, well I had two, one to clean and the other to remove roots from a tooth that broke off five years ago. I was not looking forward to either of them. Kelli dropped me at the surgery and I made my way into the building. It’s a square box with no interesting features, spec build near a shopping mall. I entered the darkened glass door an greeted by the receptionist, an Asian girl with a nose ring and a silver stud on her cheek. She booked me in and I sat waiting my turn. On the television screen they were showing a typical home improvement program, all glitz and white teeth.

I was called through to have my teeth cleaned.

It was a toughest session I had there, I could feel the tartare being scraped off, I could feel the blood flowing, I was glad when that was over. Next I was led to another room to have the extraction done. There was concern that my blood pressure was higher than they liked, but what I had just experienced it wasn’t surprising. After a few attempts it was low enough for the to proceed, damn it!. I was hoping for a further delay.

What happened next was surreal, the dentist gave me an injection that hit immediately, not the usual fifteen minute, the whole process took less than a minute, including the injection.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“Yep, all done, have a nice day” and he was gone, and so was my tooth fragment.

I spent the rest of the day with a gauze pad in my mouth, but very little pain.

I rested a bit in the afternoon, as I was advised, but managed to cut the front lawn, I’m British, I need to get back to normal quickly.