Author: peterb51

7th March 2023

Today we did something that we haven’t done for two years, that was buying food from a store. We had got used to buying on line and getting it delivered.

We needed to do this as part of Kelli’s healing journey, and it went well apart from costing too much.

The rest of the day was preparing the two dresser for collection. There are always faults that seem to appear even though a ton of filler has covered nearly every surface.

Late afternoon the customer arrived with a trailer hitched to a powerful SUV. He managed to reverse the trailer and up the driveway with skill, or luck, but we hauled the pieces off the trolleys and on to the bed of the trailer without incident.

We had already started on the next piece, a solid cabinet that I had already stripped the top, now it was the turn of the drawers fronts.

Kelli decided that she wanted the solid doors changed to a wood frame and wire mesh centre, similar to one we did recently.

So more pressure on me, on top of the kitchen units that I’ve started.

6th March 2023

I went to buy the materials for the kitchen units that I have to build. After the meeting last Friday it became clear that the only person who could make them to my satisfaction was me. I know I could make them the cheapest, but more importantly they had to blend in with the existing cabinets.

I loaded the truck with three half sheets of three quarter ply and strips of softwood, and I couldn’t wait to get started.

Meanwhile Kelli was making some final touches to the matching dressers ready for the pictures and posting.

In between the showers we dragged both outside and did the deed.

Within a couple of hours the activity started.

We had four people ready to come and collect, the first in line had to wait until her husband came home, poor guy.

5th March 2023

It was like a spring day, the sun was shining and the birds were going crazy.

There is a woodpecker that knocks away for hours at a time, poor thing, that must hurt.

We were moving closer to finishing the matching dressers. I am working on the tops, Kelli was in charge of final paint and assembly.

I started to look at the large two door cabinet that we picked up a few days ago. Under a terrible paint job is solid oak top, drawers and doors. I managed to remove the top and within an hour it was stripped of paint. I had to remove my coat as I was sweating in the new slightly warmer temperature.

Later we took the hounds for a walk checking the progress of the new house that replaced one that Kelli rented for a short time.

The importance of eight hours is important to many, although getting up early to travel for business has tamed me and made me immune. So waking up at five thirty to use the bathroom is not a big deal for me.Not so for Kelli, every hour is precious for her. Her hearing is turned on to the max all the time, so every grunt I make can be a wake up call for her, not to mention the guy across the street that starts his Jeep at six fifteen and let’s it run before leaving at six thirty.

This can be a recipe for a bad day, if she cannot get back to sleep, it effects her totally.

4th March 2023

I thought it was going to be a quiet day but Kelli had other ideas. She had found another free piece of furniture.

“Where is it?” I asked

“Just outside Holland? Was the answer.

“How far outside Holland “ I inquired

“Hudsonville “

“What again! Is the town giving stuff away week?”

So that is where we went.

The address was a new development, so new the paint was still wet.

The two pieces were in the garage, they had been in the chaps bedroom as a kid, then past to his children, but as they grew up they wanted new stuff, so hence they needed to be disposed of.

As we carried the large dresser out to the truck, I caught sight of some shelving in his garage full of vinyl albums. I have never seen so many outside a record shop.

They were his father’s collection but these were only half of it, his brother had the other.

I alway thought I had a lot, but they dwarfed mine by a mile.

We headed back with our treasure, these pieces had a story behind them which is good to pass on.

A customer turned up to collect the small buffet, we had written her off because she stopped replying to Kelli’s messages, it was good to see the piece disappear on the back of her Jeep.

3rd March 2023

The storm that was forecast today didn’t happen, which was a relief, I expect someone got it east of the state, so commiserations to them.

We had a meeting with Stacy our interior designer to continue our planning for the remodelled kitchen.

She handed me the quotations for the worktop, which was what I expected, but shocked at price for the wooden top. That was over three and a half grand, almost the same as the larger Corian surfaces, I guess we might have to think about that some more.

I might make the two new cabinets and all the drawers and fronts myself. That was driven by the horrendous price of five hundred dollars a door.

This was what I feared would happen, but I might have to bite the bullet and get started.

After the meeting, Kelli had agreed to pick up another free piece of furniture from the north side. This was a heavy beast of a cabinet, very rustic with mock metal straps, this will be an interesting project.

2nd March 2023

There is another threat of impending snow storms heading our way, oh bloody great.

I don’t like these long winters, I’m used to an awful January and a wet February, but then the daffodils break through to announce spring. Over here the poor little shoots don’t know what is happening. One minute the sun is shining, next a foot of snow has been dumped on top of them.

The lady came to collect the side tables, it was a relief to get those out, but now the garage is stacked out with drawers. The two dressers we got free from Hudsonville have been stripped bare and sanded. There were dents and scratches all over the top and drawer fronts, it looked like chains had been dragged across in some sort of S&M ritual, I don’t know what they get up to in Hudsonville, but they certainly take it out on their furniture.

1st March 2023

My mood was a little melancholy because I should have been on a plane heading for the UK. Sometimes I would look up in the sky and see the vapour trails of planes heading off to the Atlantic, that was always my reminder that England was only seven hours away.

There was some sad news from a neighbour that his wife’s father had died. We used to see him walking with his frame around the area. The shock was he was ten years younger than I, but looked a lot older.

We had a few chores to do, first going to Aldi to buy some fish that got delivered incorrectly, and to Menards to buy some plastic pads for the bottom of the side tables, then it was back to the garage to finish off the small buffet and fit the tops to the side tables.

It was a pleasant sunny day, out in the garden the are signs of life appearing above the soil.

I am excited to see how many of my English Bluebell will flower that I planted last autumn.

We finished the small buffet and the two side tables, these were a little disappointment, because whoever made them was not very good, and there is only so much one can do. At least the tops were good.

28th February 2023

I had an appointment at the dentist for a cleaning. Last time it was a gentle affair with water jets and syringes, but this time it was scrapers and muscles. It is also an expensive visit because they threw in a couple of X-rays as well.

I paid with tears in my eyes, and it wasn’t from the treatment, but there is more dental work to come, oh ya!

Straight from there we drove back to Hudsonville to collect the other dresser.

We had already started working on the other. First to go was the ugly handles, then repairs to the drawer guides, a plastic part that sometimes falls off or gets broken, then the removal of the top.

We had a customer arrive to collect the large dresser that we did nothing to other that a clean and polish.

Getting it into her SUV was a challenge, because it was bloody heavy, anyway it was a good month end sale.

27th February 2023

I have had enough of the Michigan winter.

Today is dull with rain and we’re supposed to drive to Hudsonville to collect a free dresser, or possibly two.

The drive was unpleasant, the constant rain on the windscreen drowned out the voice on the GPS, but we found the place and reversed right up to the garage. There were the two pieces waiting, I knew instantly that we wouldn’t get them both into the truck. We have managed to load a number of pieces before, but these were quite large.

We loaded the long dresser and attempted to fit the other but there was no chance. We agreed to return tomorrow to collect the other one.

Once we were back home we offloaded it and it wasn’t a bad piece. Once the handles are replaced, and the top stripped and refinished it will be unrecognisable.

Kelli had a few things to paint, there were the two side tables that the customer wanted white, not the white we painted the other piece she bought, this had to be whiter.

This meant a trip to the local paint specialist to buy a “white” paint.

The assistant helped to narrow down the selection from Chantilly Lace, rabid foam and zombie puss, finally settling on “white” from the uninspired range.

Before we closed down for the night, I applied another coat of poly on the side table tops, then it was into my comfy clothes and a restful evening.

26th February 2023

The sun was a welcome surprise today, it was still cold, but somehow it felt like spring was just around the corner and then a thousand miles north.

Getting the big dresser out of the thick was the first order of the day, and boy was it heavy.

We managed to get it out and then lowered it or the ground allowing us to remove the drawers. This made it a bit easier to manoeuvre it on on to a trolley.

Kelli had the brilliant idea to clean it up, touch up some minor scrapes and sell it like it was.

So with a cloth and some scratch cover she set about tarting it up.

Once that was done we took pictures and it went on to Marketplace, it later sold, not a bad return.

We also sold the long white dresser that was short of two pulls, fortunately the Amazon van came just after midday with the extras.

A young chap turned up to collect it in the early evening. He said that he intended to paint it black to match the decor of his room.

Kelli almost collapsed with the shock, but he bought it, and can do what he wants to with it.