Author: peterb51

26th May 2023

We took a drive down to Saugatuck, Kelli wanted to buy some plants for her vegetable garden. It was a glorious sunny day, although the breeze was cool. She also wanted to visit the book store where she worked part time before the pandemic. It had moved to a spot in the main downtown, unfortunately the owner, was not there, but we did have the chance to look around. I like Saugatuck,it has a cool seaside vibe about it, and when the sun is out it’s even better with the fancy shops, bars and restaurants. I miss that Kelli doesn’t work there anymore, I used to enjoy going to the cafe for a drink and a cake, oh what memories.

Having selected the plants we headed back to do some jobs.

Whilst I was putting the finishing touches to the white dresser, Kelli was busy planting her new vegetables.

We also managed to plant a number of strawberry plants in the long box I made last week. Of course I got distracted and started helping tidying up the flower beds and collecting leaves from the pebbles surrounding the deck. That had been bugging me for a while, now I can rest easy.

I had a visit from the guy I refinished a table for a couple of years ago, he wanted a chair repaired, he intends to bring it round sometime soon.

25th May 2023

The bike ride was chilly around the chain wheel on our morning ride. We raced from shaded to sunny area in order to make it bearable. It’s that time of the year when the temperature fluctuates wildly from cool to hot in a matter of half an hour. However it’s wonderful to be able to do it again, so we will put up with it.

I decided to make some changes to the width of the sink unit doors this meant dis-assembling them and inserting an extra slat, fortunately with this design this can be done easily.

I went to Menards in the late afternoon to get some bags of dirt and mulch, well it’s a holiday weekend and if I leave it till Saturday or Sunday everything will have gone.

I also got some small paving stones that I can now put under the fire pit so that it doesn’t burn a hole in the deck.

Kelli finished the dresser that we got free during the week, it was quite a state when we started but it has been transformed.

24th May 2023

It was breakfast, and then a bike ride to Kollen park, and it looked good. We passed an angler who had just landed a big fish, not something Kelli likes to see, even though we now eat fish.

All the lawns on the way were being attended to, and bulk deliveries of mulch were happening everywhere.

Back at the ranch there were jobs to do. May has been a light month for sales, I have been wrapped up on the kitchen build, leaving little time for anything else, and our output has suffered.

We received handle samples this morning, this left us with a choice of satin nickel, dark nickel, and the original oil rubbed bronze. We whittled it down to satin nickel and oil rubbed bronze.

In the end we settled on the bronze, because they were less obvious and I liked the way it aged, with the handle area showing the bronze slightly brighter.

So the final step in the revamped kitchen agreed, now the painful task of ordering and paying for them. At least it will guarantee work for some five year olds in India.

We finally sold the dark dresser with the ash top to a couple with a couple of young children and another on the way. They were happy with it, haggling with the price, but we settled on a compromise and the drove away happy, we were happy with the sale.

23rd May 2023

Kelli wanted to get her bike checked out. She had complained about a pain in her tail bone after the ride yesterday.

I was the lucky one to load the bike into the truck. It is a heavy bugger, it almost gave me the same back injury.

We arrived at the bike shop, it’s like walking into another world, a place of shiny derailleurs and Lycra. The sales assistant was tall and lean, not an ounce of unnecessary fat, he knew his way around an allen key. He called the bike technician over, he was the expert who could diagnose Kelli’s problem and make the necessary adjustments.

He lifted the bike out of the truck with no problem, as if it was made of plastic, one grunt and it was out. I looked in amazement, and felt totally unmanly. Kelli made the comment that it was alway easier to unload it, that failed to make me feel better.

A few minutes of intensive surgery and we were out the door, and once again I had to lift the thing into the truck again, my back will get better soon.

Next we had to return to Nature’s Market to return some organic cashew yogurt that we purchased yesterday. Kelli was making our breakfast smoothie when she noticed mould on the inside of the carton. Putting that aside she opened the other one. Peeling back the aluminium foil seal, there was mould on that one as well. That was a huge disappointment, but what was more alarming was I had made a evening snack, previously with the yogurt. I hadn’t noticed the contamination when I poured it into the bowls and added the fruit on top, for all we know the mould was included in the snack, and could be the reason why we didn’t sleep that well. It might also explain why I had dreams about giant mushrooms.

22nd May 2023

Oh the sun, the sun, the glorious sun is shining down, ideal for spending time in a supermarket.

For the last three weeks Kelli has been buying the saddest, close to death potted flowers in Aldi. There is usually, this time of year, a display close to the entrance, the weakest collection of flowers in the whole of Holland.

“Mother” Kelli has made it her mission to give as many pots of flowers a home. She cannot bare to leave them all dry and wilted, and she has threatened to buy the lot. It’s only that we would starve to death that stops her doing that.

She gives them a good soak and soon they are revived and looking good again. It certainly brightens up the driveway at a fraction of the cost of buying from a garden centre.

Well we got that over with and stopped at Natures Market, a store of expensive things that don’t contain anything bad. We loaded up a couple of bags and headed home.

Breakfast was a sad and sorry sight, there was nothing left, I even had to pinch off the dodgy parts of the bread before I could have toast.

In other countries food parcels would be dropped to us, normally Kelli can find something at the bottom of the fridge and turn it into a meal, but not this time.

That is why once we’ve bought the food, we are back in heaven again. The fridge is full and we are looking forward to another six days of nourishment.

I had ambitions to do lots today, but we were late getting back. I got the bikes out of hibernation and fitted the batteries ready for the first ride of the year. It was glorious, we rode down to the beach where bulldozers were levelling the sand ready for the late spring rush.

Riding back I remembered the pain in my arse that I got last year, same place, only hurts when I cough. But that will soon be forgotten once everything toughens up, or remains numb for the rest of the summer.

I did a test fit of the pull out spice rack, and it seemed to work okay, a bit of tweaking and it’s a good un.

Inspired by an idea given to me by my sister Nicola, for growing strawberries. She planned to grow then in hanging baskets, but I decided to go a little bigger. I had timber planks left over from building the composter, so I made and eight foot window box to hang on the fence. This should be large enough to transplant all the plants that have self set themselves around the bed that I thought would contain them. This will free up the bed to be used for growing more vegetables.

21st May 2023

I finally started the assembly of the spice drawer, and you really need two pairs of hands one set to guide the bars into the holes, the other to position the shelf, needless to say there was fun to be had.

I did get it together and with an arrangement of clamps set it aside to dry.

There was another lunch at Kelli’s mothers, this time Greer and Dylan joined us. It was the usual family session talking about people and events that I knew nothing about, but somehow it was fun.

Afterwards because it was late, I didn’t feel like doing stuff in the garage, instead I made a start of de-weeding the garden. A satisfying task, but endless. I had Kelli jumping up and down shouting, “ That’s not a weed!”.

I have to devote more time to keeping the garden tidy, although I don’t know or remember the name of the plants, I do like a good display and order in the plots.

20th May 2023

Today was delivery and collection day.

The two dressers had to be delivered to the north side.

We had to negotiate the traffic chaos cause by a line of traffic ones blocking one lane, with no one working there. The drive took us past wooded areas and into a pleasant collection of houses. The one we wanted had a steep driveway, which would make a great ski jump in winter. It took a bit of effort, and a potential nose bleed, but we made it.

The two dressers were destined for a daughter’s bedroom, and as they had more daughters, I hope they might want more dressers in the future.

Then it was off to collect another project piece.

This was priced a little higher that I would like, but the condition wasn’t bad, it needs a bit of love and imagination, but that’s Kelli’s department.

When we finally got back, I started on more pieces for the kitchen. All the parts for the pullout spice rack were ready for assembly.

I did a bit of work on the pantry unit and fitted one of the fronts, but as we have no handles yet the only method of opening it is a loop of string, not very stylish.

19th May 2023

A bit of a late start today, I wanted to finish the lower drawer of the new larder cabinet. There was also the lazy Susan that needed the doors removed and new ones fitted. Well one out of two isn’t bad. Unfortunately the hinges for that didn’t open wide enough, so back on to Amazon for the correct ones.

Kelli was busy on the latest dresser, but she wasn’t into it. It must be the phase of the moon that was reducing our efficiency.

We loaded up the truck with the two matching dressers ready for tomorrow’s delivery.

The one job that went without hitch was replacing the rear windscreen wiper. The old one had corroded and the plastic became brittle. I found one on EBay and it arrived in a couple of days, now bring on the rain!

18th May 2023

First day in shorts, a day in the seventies, fantastic.

We had to return to Menards because the wood glue was not in the bag when we got home yesterday. My wife was the packer, it was on the receipt, and I looked in the back of the car, but it was not there.

I returned in the hope that I could get a credit, instead I didn’t get anything. They checked the surveillance cameras and confirmed that it was put into the bag, so they had no comeback, and I was out of pocket.

We debated what had happened, and concluded that it must have fallen out of the bag and was left in the trolley, and as I put the thing away it must have been my fault.

That meant I had to buy it all over again, along with a few other things I didn’t really need, but that’s life.

We stopped back at the garden centre to pick up some ground cover plants, as we have plenty of that to cover.

Then finally it was back home to do some kitchen work.

17th May 2023

I fitted the cabinet that replaced the dishwasher, it went better than I expected. Now there all the drawers with new fronts to replace.

We went to see our designer to discuss the trim colour for the top of the tiles. This, I thought would be simple, a plain white capping, low profile, job done, but no, it turned into a drama.

Kelli did not like the painted aluminium extruded part, she wanted a copper strip to reflect the copper sink. Of course no-one make a copper edge trim, so where do we go from here? We looked through all the samples, tried a variety of different edging but none met with approval, so her task is to find a metal supplier/fabricator who could custom make some.

I bought a new sander whilst I was at Menards picking up some aluminium rod for the spice rack, the sanders we have are not very powerful and takes a lot of work to sand anything, now we have the equivalent of a V8 muscle car at our fingertips.