I had my own space for the day. Kelli was going shopping with Greer so I had the garage all to myself. I was playing my old git’s music at full volume, it was great.
However what I had to do was not fun. There were two chairs that had to be sanded, so the sore thumbs were hurting at the end of the day.
The news was all about the run offs in Georgia, fortunately it was won by a candidate who could string a sentence together compared with an ex football star who couldn’t.
The state of American politics is bad, the Republican Party is full of weirdos and slimeballs, and worst of all, they still support Trump.
It was disclosed yesterday that his business has been found guilty of tax evasion and false accounting. That master criminal has not yet been implicated when it was obvious that he has the final say in every business decision.
Anyone else would be in prison in a shot, two levels of law in this country.
We finished another dresser, dragging it inside to take pictures.
It was quite a present day, we were able to have the garage door open. This was just as well because Kelli had a lot of spraying to do.
I released all the clamps from the small top I had laid up yesterday. For some reason there were a few bumps in the veneer that I was able to flatten out with a hot iron, so I manage to rescue it.
Then it was down to stripping the last two drawers for the long mid century dresser that we had already sold.
If the pain of doing that wasn’t enough there were the dining chairs.
I have sanded three of the six, and the split on my thumb was making it difficult.
It was a grim reminder that this is the season when the liquid bandage bottle is in permanent view.
We sold the cane chair that we picked up from the side of the road. A lady arrived at 10.30am to view it, and after a brilliant sales pitch from Kelli, she handed over the readies.
The rest of the day was a blur, so much seemed to be done. We picked up a small dresser from our storage unit, swapping it for the heavy coffee table. This would keep Kelli busy, while I did some repairs to the dresser we painted yesterday. I had a number of drawers to polyurethane, so our dining table doubled as a drying surface.
I finally got round to gluing a veneer to a small side table top. It had been laying around for a week and I kept catching it, damaging the edges of the veneer. So it was brilliant to get that done.
We have a possible commission for stripping more chairs. The daughter of the people we are painting the dining chairs has four that she wants taken back to raw wood and lacquered.
Kelli fired off a quotation, that was higher that the dining chairs, and that was met with a positive result.
After a sleepless night we both didn’t feel like hosting Greer’s birthday cake fest.
What sleep we had was wholly inadequate, but a commitment is a commitment.
We were given numbers for the family gathering that meant we had to make some snacks as a prequel to the cake cutting.
As the time ticked away we waited for the hordes to descend. The expectation of twelve bodied ended up as six, so a anticlimax to say the least. The snacks were delicious and quickly eaten, and I cut the cake exceptionally large. For some reason the usual slice size is so thin that it’s difficult to know that you’ve eaten anything.
The group then broke up and we crashed out for the rest of the evening, although I spent a couple of hours masking two chairs ready for sanding.
I felt better after doing that, as it wasn’t a totally wasted day.
Today we drove to collect a glass topped coffee table minus the glass, I guess that was why it was free. It was a heavy beast, and I’m not sure what we are going to do with it.
I know, let’s get a piece of glass cut!
It was another cold day, and I’m fed up with it already. I can imaging there is someone in Africa who is fed up with it being hot all the time, so it’s all about geography.
We did stuff in the garage, fitting the top to the sofa table, second coat of paint to the stools and Kelli primed the first of the mid century dressers.
In the evening we dressed the skinny Christmas tree, the first time the decorations did not include Greer’s and Cameron’s. Fortunately the tree looks fine.
My wife on the other hand, and she will be the first to remind me, is the best.
On two occasions today my skills were tested and I failed dismally.
The first example concerned two metal stools that were offered free, in the description it mentioned that they had been used outside.
“ Oh you don’t want those, they will be covered in rust” I said, without seeing the pictures.
When we arrived at the address they were standing by the garage, and they looked in good condition.
They were a classic design that I have seen in furniture design books, and although not originals they should sell easily.
We stopped off at Menards to get some spray paint for the stools, and on the way back, there was the next example where I crashed and burned.
On the way back home we traveled through a part of town that had its trash collection today.
“Watch out for furniture set out by the bins”
Kelli said, I groaned, as I usually do, and no sooner as the groan ended we passed a cane chair with a tatty cushion on it.
“I could sell that”,she said.
“ looked a bit crap, I bet it was broken” was my feeble excuse.
We traveled a bit further along the road, with Kelli going on about how popular the cane style is, and how much we could get for it.
Then I spoke the fatal words “ well if you think you could do something with it, go and get it”
Within five feet of me telling her this, she had turned the truck around and was heading back.
She pulled into the driveway and I tried to make room in the back for it.
Kelli went up to the chair and removed the seat and threw that on the ground as I grabbed the now cushionless chair and pushed it into the back of our vehicle.
We sped back with our spoils, Kelli wanted to get started as soon as she could.
And she did, the cane chair was cleaned and posted on Marketplace before it dried.
The stools took a little longer. A quick repaint and some pictures and those two were posted.
Now we wait for the activity to start.
We finally finished the sofa table, these usually fly out the stores, time will tell if the same applies to garages.
I got my social security card today, now I’m another step closer to being incorporated into the American machine, not sure how I feel about that.
It was a day of two halves, crap and just over crap.
We did have a lady collect the two repainted side tables, she thrust money into Kelli’s hand and loaded them into her spankingly clean truck.
The other side tables were to be viewed by someone else, but when she turned up she was fussing around then announced that the colour wouldn’t go with her room, so she passed on them.
I made a start on the dining chairs trying to make some masks out of Aldi paper bags. I carefully measured the rods and cut out small circles but each time they didn’t fit properly, I ended up using lots of small strips of masking tape.
There was also a lot of stripping of the mid century dressers and I finally re-assembled the drawer that was bowed.
It was a busy day, first we had an appointment with our interior designer to look at corian samples for the work surfaces for our kitchen remodel. I had already gone through this before when I re-did the kitchen in my cottage, but it was something different for Kelli.
We left with a number of samples to check out.
Then it was back to her mothers to off load a furniture piece we had been driving around in the back of the truck for several days. Then off to Hamilton to collect another dresser taking it back to mothers to then exchange for a mid century piece we’ve had there for a few weeks.
We needed to collect it because there was a buyer waiting to snap it up. They were coming to look over the two pieces we now had in the garage.
I went through the options we could offer them, dependent on what they wanted to spend. As it happened, they wanted the full Monty of stripping tops and drawer fronts, re-staining and finishing, to be done by Christmas if possible.
Kelli painted the sofa table frame and I washed of the oxalic acid from the top, the black circle had disappeared, great result.
It was also the end of my sad attempt to grow a beard. I shaved my last one off in 1985, and this time I kept it going for three weeks.
The growth on my chin was white, not grey, it made me look like a hillbilly, or a mountain goat, anyway it was removed, and I’m back to being a refined Englishman.
Kelli decided that she was going to repaint the black side tables. There was no interest in them as they were, and even the local goth community had not awakened to them yet.
I had just finished another pair of side tables, so we are stacked out with them at the moment.
We pulled the sofa table out of the car, and removed all the stickers from it, then we could see the condition of it.
I set about scraping the top, it was oak, and looked in good condition. I was getting excited until I saw the reason why it was painted in the first place, a large black water ring.
I finished sanding and mixed up a strong solution of oxalic acid, applying it with a crusty old brush. You can see the stain lighten as the acid does it’s job.
We took pictures of the two pairs of side tables outside, and Kelli posted both on Marketplace, and blow me down, the ones she repainted, sold straight away.
A quick trip down to the post office to send off some gifts for the family, I’m not sure why we do it as it cost three times the value of the contents.
We dragged the dogs around the lagoon, it was a while since we did it last. Poor Dharma is struggling, but we had a support that loops under her tummy and I carry her weight.
Just after midday the couple arrived with the six dining chairs. There is a lot of preparation ahead, but it will be a good little earner.
The ply piece I bonded into the side panel worked a treat, I was then able to cut in a piece of veneer to finish it off.
There was another job that I had put off for a year, checking the outside Christmas lights.
They have stayed in the cupboard for twelve months. I attempted to use them last year but they did not illuminate. At the time I couldn’t be bothered to find out which lamps were faulty.
I wrestled with one of the strings checking each bulb with a magnifying glass, removing the dead ones. With a pile of twenty duds, I then went through the other two strings selecting bulbs to replace them. Finally with everyone replaced I plugged it in, absolutely nothing, I cursed. That was it, I threw it back on the floor and called it a day.
Another Lifetime to go 