Author: peterb51

18th December 2022

There was more snow to clear from the driveway, but we should be free from anymore for a couple of days.

This was another day not to travel too far, but we had plenty to keep us busy.

I made the decision and ordered the rechargeable snow blower, with more storms expected before Christmas I just hope it arrives before then.

I ventured out on my own to get some supplies from Menards, I have been used to driving in snow, but you can never underestimate American car drivers.

We get through a lot of bird seeds, because our colony of sparrows is very large, and very hungry. Sacks of bird food are often on my list of purchases.

We finished the small commode, or dresser after it took an age for the top to dry, but we brought it into the house to take pictures.

Once posted, the stream of scammers begin.

These come from all over the globe, Africa, China, India, and Russia. These are a pain in the arse, but finally we had some real interest so here’s hoping the person turns up.

17th December 2022

There was another two inches of snow on the driveway meaning more physical effort to clear it. I wanted to get it done as we had a customer coming to collect a dresser.

There are a number of work in progress pieces in the garage, but that did not stop Kelli buying a small desk. Her motives were genuine this time as she had pre-sold the matching side tables to the customer of the dresser.

It was made from solid maple, I gathered that as soon as I tried to lift it, it was heavy.

When we unloaded it from the truck, it almost seemed too good to take apart, but there is very little demand for desks and more for matching side tables.

Kelli had to return some clothes to Plato’s Closet, not a difficult task in itself, but it was made more complex by the price tag that had to remain attached to the garment.

Kelli, as alway, tore that out. The task remained how could this tag be reattached?

She had the components, the tag itself and two pieces of the plastic bit that is threaded though the garment.

“Could you glue these pieces together?” She asked.

These plastic pieces were about half a millimetre thick and made of a cheap plastic.

I had my doubts that it would bond, but I applied Superglue and that did not hold.

I then tried a soldering iron hoping to fuse it all together, but it was so thin it just melted.

Now with a slightly less material to work with I tried just to create a blob of glue on the end that would prevent it pulling through. I laid it on the back of a sheet of sand paper and dropped the glue on it, after squirting some accelerator everything had set hard.

However I now couldn’t separate the dried glue fro the sandpaper.

Kelli came up with the idea of trimming the paper and tucking it behind the garment label and putting a stitch through it. That not only hid the sandpaper but also retained the price tag.

Now it was just getting it though the return process.

As it was a Saturday, they were quite busy, and the ruse paid off. One day someone will discover the tag with the blob of glue on the sandpaper and wonder “what the heck?”

16th December 2022

The snow returned, about two inches fell overnight. The scene that greeted us was wonderful, full of Christmas imagery, but we know it will now drag on and become boring.

It snowed lightly most of the day, restricting what we could do in the garage. That was fine because we had to get ready for Steve Kubica’s Christmas party. Kelli needs a couple of hours, me about five minutes.

It was still snowing as we made our way to Saugatuck, the roads were okay but Kelli was taking it carful. It was a fun party, we missed last years, but this was good that she was strong enough to attend.

There were some interesting people, some we recognised from when we went there last, and the food was delicious. I had a few glasses of wine to keep me happy.

That came to abrupt conclusion when I fell asleep on the sofa once we got home.

15th December 2022

We surprisingly had someone wanting to buy the sofa table, but not until Kelli reduced the price. Fortunately it was a freebie, but there had been a lot of work on the top, stripping it back and refinishing it.

There was doubt that the colour was wrong, and I was more in favour of repainting than selling it cheap.

But I kept my cool and seethed quietly as I loaded it into the lady’s truck, I could see that it was new, so clearly she could have afforded the full price. My seething continued as she drove away. Sounding like a massive gas leak I had to calm myself down and tell myself that it was just furniture.

I spent a bit of time making two door frame for piece of shit 2, and repairing some damage to piece of shit 1.

Kelli was frustrated painting the small dresser. Areas of tannin leached through places that had been sanded even though sealers had been sprayed over it, so that something we have to deal with.

The tall dresser hasn’t attracted any interest leading to doubt about its colour. We had bought some unusual knobs for it, and Kelli wasn’t sure if those were turning people off, so she changed them to boring black.

That was posted on Marketplace, so we’ll see it that generates any buyers.

14th December 2022

From my vantage point on a stool in Starbucks, sipping my coffee I could watch all the cars lining up for the drive through. Most of the vehicles looked new and driven by youngsters, and I thought “ how can they afford them?”

It’s a fact that car prices have increased a lot in the last few years, with insurance being as expensive as it is, plus finance it must take out a lot from the monthly pay packet.

So how do they manage? Rent for even the smallest apartment is much more than a mortgage payment, but many can’t afford the deposit to get accepted, so they get in a spiral and with budgets stretched, the only answer is eating cheap food.

That is why there are new cars at all the drive throughs.

With all these, there is a explosion of new car washes, one has just opened next to Menards on a wonderful patch of grass that was just crying out to be dug up and turned into a large concrete slab. I guess the store needed the money. On another patch of grass opposite the car wash is another development, this is going to be storage units for Hollanders to store all the crap they no longer want but dare’t get rid of.

The landscape of the city is changing.

When I used to visit I never used to see a traffic jam, and there was always somewhere to park downtown, that is all different now.

The big corporations are busy recruiting the smart people from out of state, they need houses, and boy, are they springing up.

Green fields have gone and replaced with bland housing estates full of new cars.

It is amazing what a trip to Starbucks can do.

All the time I was pontificating, Kelli was at Plato’s with another three bags of clothes to sell, she returned with three bags of new stuff.

Then it was off to Zeeland for a doctors appointment, after some clicks and snaps she was back in shape, so we headed home.

Most of the day had gone, by the time we had gone to the post office and the corner shop, and had some soup leftovers, it was ready to start work.

I added to my workload by lifting down another furniture piece we shouldn’t have bought. We were seduced by the solid look of it’s oak construction, but little did we realise how bad the drawers were.

Now I have two bits of shit to polish.

13th December 2022

There was a risk that we would have two dressers finished on the same day. The top for dresser one was still tacky so we brought it into the house to dry off. That didn’t stop us from taking pictures though.

Kelli painted dresser two and we even got pictures of that one too.

I did some staining of tops, one for a small side table, and another of the dresser we collected yesterday.

This was not on my goals for the day, I should have been working on the piece of shit we got for a customer, but I needed to do some repair work first.

I am still convinced that I can polish this turd and get a decent price for it.

12th December 2022

It was our second meeting with our designer to discuss the renovation of our kitchen.

It is a lot different from when I did the kitchen in the cottage in Bradford on Avon, there I made all the decisions, but here I have to share the vision.

I think we are close to choosing the worktop colour and door design. That is a little different from what is generally available, so I may have to prototype one to see if it works.

Next on the agenda was a drive to Jenison to collect a small dresser with a badly stained wood top. It was a neat looking design that should come up smart.

We have a few projects in the garage, and Kelli was keen to get started, so before starting those we stopped off for lunch at the Way Cup cafe where I had a wheatless meal.

The spray gun was primed as soon as we got home, and dresser number one soon changed colour including staining the top. Then it was on with dresser two.

I needed to repair the bottom drawer, the metal guide rail was missing and this is essential to the smooth running of it.

I made a pair out of wood, and bonded them to the underside of the drawer bottom, this worked a treat.

11th December 2022

Well the bloody wheat embargo did not work.

Kelli couldn’t get to sleep, and when she did drop off my grunting woke her up and she could not drop off again. That of course woke me and kept me awake.

I ended up sleeping on the sofa, not a bad thing, at least we both slept for the rest of the night.

We had a number of things to do, so we needed the rest to get through the day.

First we had to deliver the second mid century dresser, I had to quickly wax the top to make it smooth, and then we loaded it into the truck.

A few minutes later we were at the house unloading it into their garage.

They had a dresser that was going to be replaced and they offered that to us for free.

One of the drawers requires a bit of work to get it running smoothly, but free is good.

We then had to drive to the north side to collect another free dresser.

The house was right on the banks of the big lake, with fantastic views right across the water.

The dresser was in really good condition, made from cedar, it’s a common design that we have sold multiple times.

We then had drove get back home to get the six chairs ready for collection.

I set them out in the driveway ready for the owner’s arrival, they were really excited to see them transformed.

Now for some reason, I thought they would throw in a few bucks to make it up to a nice round figure. They were certainly impressed with the table, and they weren’t short of a few bob judging by their home.

Imagine my disappointment when we counted out the cash, it was the exact amounted, I was gutted.

Kelli wasn’t surprised at all “ I think they were Trumpers, they hold on to their money”

Maybe because they put us on to their daughter who will be dropping off four chairs in the new year, that was enough, I guess I will get over my disappointment.

By the end of the day Kelli had stripped the paint from the dresser we collected today, and painted it already.

10th December 2022

It is a week since I started my wheat embargo.

What the heck is he doing that, I hear you ask?

Well it’s an experiment to see if I stop making a noise when I sleep. Bread, I hear causes congestion in the nasal passages, leading to a grunting noise when I breathe.

Wanting not to be the reason to stop Kelli from sleeping, I agreed to try this trial, it it’s successful then she will get good sleep, but I will have to just dream of having toast.

We finished the six dining chairs by spraying a acrylic coating over them to help give them the best protection.

I couldn’t wait to remove I’ll the masking to see how they all turned out.

It took ages, there must have been hundreds of pieces of tape that stuck to my dry fingers, they looked good, and another step closer to getting them out of the house.

We also finished one of the mid century dressers that we delivered to a house just round the corner, one more to go tomorrow.

I had spent hours polishing the brass handles, my fingers stained black, but they looked good on the finished pieces.

9th December Friday

The snow came back, it flurried down as we were spraying the top coat on the chairs.

Black is always a difficult colour to paint, everything looks covered, until it dries then you see the missed bits.

The person turned up for the small dresser, and I was glad when the cheapskate who offered a low price for the sofa table decided to pass on it. Now we will repaint the base and repost it. Sometimes we have to try different colours, some work, but this obviously didn’t.

The cabinet we bought yesterday for an existing customer was lifted out of the truck.

I removed some of the most damaged pieces around the base, this is where most of the restoration work is needed.