Author: peterb51

10th April 2022

It was so nice to have the garage door open and it be warm outside. We were able to have things outside to dry, making a huge difference to our productivity. We managed to finish two pieces, a bookcase and a dresser, ready for pictures tomorrow.

I put up a shelf in the greenhouse that Kelli immediately filled with flower pots and other gardening stuff.

I unravelled the hose from its winter hiding place and treated the front lawn with an organic fertiliser. It’s been looking so sad with a lot of moss cover probably due to all the snow that covered it for so long.

I managed to fit the slides to the drawer that I was commissioned to make for a lady to house her jewel collection.

I also managed to clean the back gutters, what a wonderful productive day.

9th April 2022

What a difference a day makes. It’s Kelli’s birthday and after a good nights sleep the smile is back on her face. The celebration party that was at risk yesterday is back on, oh and it’s snowing.

We had a potential buyer for the mid century dresser arriving at 11.00 so a bit of last minute cleaning and polishing was in order.

When they arrived they approached the piece if it was a bomb. The lady was quite old and wizen and tested each drawer in turn many times, I knew from that she was wasting our time, and when she asked if we would go down on the price I thought, “no way”. She went back to the drawers testing them muttering that they felt a bit stiff. She then turned to me and said “would you take a hundred?” Now considering that Kelli had reduced the price a few times trying to make a sale, this was an insult. I explained that I wouldn’t accept her offer, by which she muttered that it didn’t really go with the rest of her furniture.

Which was a dumb thing to say because she could have arrived at that conclusion just looking at the picture in the advert.

I should have closed the garage door at that moment, but I resisted.

It was Kelli’s birthday, so we had a family party at the Way Cup cafe

8th April 2022

It’s hard for men to realise what woman go through when they reach the time of their lives when things change.

I have watched Kelli start her journey, and it’s not calm ride.

She can take all the supplements her doctor recommends, but there are places even those cannot reach.

We also don’t appreciate a good sleep, even then the quality of that changes as you get older, but to not get any can be miserable.

This happened at what we now know was the start.

Most people in a normal situation can shrug off a sleepless night, maybe not easily, a few cups of coffee might help, but then we go about our day and try to make the best of it.

For Kelli this is the worst thing that can happen, this is when the slammed doors, the “nothing is worth living for” attitude and the general disruptions are all too evident.

7th April 2022

Well today was not so adventurous as yesterday, rather it was more traumatic because I had a dental appointment for a deep root procedure.

I’ve had a scale and polish before but this promised to hurt a lot more.

I was there on time, even though it was an early appointment. I was led to a side room and sat on the big chair. The hygienist was friendly, and chatted almost non-stop throughout the operation. The chair was tilted back until my trousers receded down my legs and any loose change i had moved dangerously close to falling out of my pocket.

Then the action started, a combination of ultra sonics and high pressure water attacked the plaque, disintegrating it immediately. I was only given treatment on one side of my mouth with another appointment in a couple of weeks.

The experience lasted an hour, and as I left the place I could feel the cold wind rushing through the gaps of my teeth.

6th April 2022

The day got off to a slow start, my re-assembly of a drawer box ended in disaster when the repaired side panel split along the groove whilst I was trying to fit the floor panel.

Other repairs seem to go the same way, I guess it was not my day.

I searched for some oak timber that will be stronger and a better job all round.

Kelli had a doctors appointment, which is alway amusing for me when the doctor does some manipulation because she has such a low threshold for pain. It usually consists of cracks from the bones and shouts from her mouth.

Next on our list was a visit to Jonkers, a garden centre that we use frequently to fill up our garden with shrubs. We needed a bag of potting compost and one of manure to pot some recent deliveries, that would take their place in the greenhouse.

When we arrived at the place there were chains across the entrance meaning that the garden centre was not yet open to the public.

This meant our only option was to use the small shop next door that house all the indoor plants. Unfortunately there were no parking spaces at the front, due to a load of old saps already filling up the place, so Kelli then started on a different route. There was a narrow lane by the side of the shop leading to a small car park that she ignored, instead we proceeded further down towards a gravel drive close to the where the main greenhouses were. On she drove, the driveway then narrowed to a path, one I remember walking on many times, collecting our plants and grasses on a rattley old trolley, it certainly seemed strange traveling along it in a vehicle, it gave me a different perspective to the place. We passed, narrowly missing large pots and garden decorations as the path meandered slightly, but still she went forward, there was no chance of reversing. Eventually we arrived at the main car park, the one we couldn’t originally enter because of the chain blocking the entrance. The next plan was to drive across the deserted car park towards the shop. That exit was also blocked with a chain, we were imprisoned. In desperation I jumped out of the truck and unhooked it allowing Kelli through.

We went into the shop and were able to buy what we wanted, but we had to drive back though the chained entrance into the empty carpark to collect the bags. Of course I was now experienced in chain removal making it easy. We loaded up with our bags then drove back passed the chain now resting on the floor and finally exited the place.

If there is a surveillance video, I’m sure it will soon appear on YouTube.

There will soon be a time when we are buying more plants at the same garden centre, and whilst we push our trolly along these pathways, we will smile at the thought that not many people would have driven a truck through these paths of a deserted garden centre.

5th April 2022

I assembled the frost damaged dresser using the new base frame. A number of the MDF cross rails had split, so I had to repair those.

The main activity of the day was to complete the paving.

I had twelve slabs to lay which were twelve too many, the weather was good, just right for straining my back, hopefully the last I will ever need todo, well apart from digging up the old grass, and laying new turf, but first things first.

I think I did the best job possible, levelled in all directions which wasn’t easy because of the rough texture of the paving. I’m sure a professional would shake their head and pick out all the faults, but sod them. I’ve learned a lot through doing it, mainly I will stick to wood work in future

4th April 2022

I drove to the house of the lady that I am making a jewellery drawer for, I wanted to check the framework that will house the drawer. I had to make a few adjustments to get a better fit, now I am confident that I can finish the project.

When I returned to the homestead I did work on the new base for the frost damaged dresser.

I hate working with MDF, so the new base frame is made from pine and a piece of poplar. That should be the strongest part of the whole dresser.

In between all that I have drawer boxes to repair, but first I have to remove all the bits of timber someone had nailed, glued and screwed into the drawer. Then I have to remove the side panel, trim it and bond a new piece of wood to it, it’s a Labour intensive job, but I have finished one so far.

3rd April 2022

It was going to be a dry day meaning a slab laying time.

But first there were a few furniture jobs to do allowing repaired panels to dry ready for machining tomorrow.

There was great excitement that we had two sales, one the large corner unit to the couple that came to view it yesterday, and the new dresser that we posted yesterday.

A large flat bed truck arrived to collect the corner unit, then we waited in eager anticipation for the buyer of the dresser to arrive at around three in the afternoon.

I started laying slabs after lunch with the intension to lay another fifteen before I became worn out.

By five there was still no sign of the buyer, and no message to update us on their arrival.

Kelli had sent a polite message but still no response. She then sent another message to another interested person, but they didn’t respond either, so we felt genuinely let down.

2nd April 2022

The sun shone through the bedroom window causing the orange wall to glow. This only happens in the spring when the sunrise starts to move down the length of the wall turning it into a giant Jaffa fruit.

This was going to be short lived as rain was due to take over later in the day.

The first job after breakfast was to collect a dresser from somewhere on the north side.

This piece looked okay as we approached, and it was heavy and old, that I could tell from the segmented back panel. Once we got it back, and looked inside there was evidence of botched repairs to the drawers with extra pieces of wood screwed to the sides and floor panel. The dresser itself was solid oak and will look great when it is stripped and refinished, but with a long haul of repairs ahead of me it won’t be quick.

Other projects moving along included the one dresser I started yesterday. I disassembled the carcass and cut the side panels down to the new dimension. I searched through my timber stock to find suitable material to build the new base frame, finding some that I ran through the planer to make an common thickness.

A strange situation arose regarding a free dresser and side table that Kelli found for free in Grand Rapids. She suggested that we could collect it on Sunday, the buyer said that wasn’t convenient for her, but offered to deliver it to us for twenty dollars during this afternoon. Of course we accepted the offer because it would probably cost us that in petrol. However the afternoon came and went with no communication from the seller, we almost gave up hope of this deal materialising, when a message came through that the person will deliver it on Thursday, I won’t hold my breath for that.

We finished the “That’s why it’s free” dresser, and posted it on Marketplace as quickly as we could.

1st April 2022

Mother Nature decided to play an April fool joke on us by covering the ground with an inch of snow overnight.

This was not welcomed at all, I had my day mapped out as a slab laying day, so instead I pulled out an old dresser that we hid away under a sheet. This was because we shouldn’t have got it, although it was free, it had frozen to the ground that damaged the side panels when we lifted into the truck.

It was my first chance to access the condition of the piece, and it was not very good. The construction as mainly MDF, but the top was chipboard with a birch like veneer this had been painted. There were many KD fittings holding everything together, so a sign of quality, but that’s what we deal with.

My plan for it will be to cut of the damaged areas and build a solid base, strip the top and paint the body, should be an interesting project.

By early afternoon the snow had gone and the sun was out, so I could do my slab laying after all.

I carried my bags of sand outside and started to mix the mortar. I had fifteen slabs to lay which would complete half the area.

It tuned out the mixing the muck and laying fifteen slab was my daily limit, I was knackered.

We decided to have a take out for dinner, but the didn’t stop the excitement, Kelli found a free dresser not far away. Chocks away chaps! Off we went to collect it. The speed limit was exceeded a tiny bit, because we wanted to get back home before our food arrived.

We arrived at the address only to be told that it had been grabbed by a neighbour across the road, what a bummer.

This spontaneous action would not have happened six months ago because Kelli would have been wiped out after a days toil, so this demonstrates how far she has come.