Author: peterb51

30th January 2022

Christmas finally came to 593 Central Bay when Cameron and his girlfriend came around to open their presents. It was a little weird, but at least that’s done, hopefully the next Christmas will be more normal.

I finished watching the Beatles film “Get Back”.

I could appreciate the technical achievement of piecing together all the film and audio in chronological order, but it showed how dis connected they were as a band. They were going through the motions but lacked any direction. It must have been so boring for the film crew, spending all those hours watching the Fab Four messing about.

Interesting to note that back in 1969 this would have been seen as reality TV, not realising that many years later we are “entertained” by uninteresting people trying to be interesting.

29th January 2022

A pot belly baker’s table? I’ve never heard of it before, anyway we were going to Grand Rapids to collect one.

The pot belly refers to the drawers that have a rounded underside that are used to store flour or similar baking materials.

This example we were collecting was over a hundred years old and was in the same family for most of that time. They no longer had room for it so posted it on Marketplace and spotted by eagle eyed Kelli.

It had a tough life by the looks of it, the top was held down by a number of nails and screws, and had split in sections.

The pot belly parts had de-laminated and will require repair or replacement, but this will be a Labour of love, I can tell.

The rest of the day consisted of machining the top for the pedestal, and making little legs for it. Kelli was busy sanding the headboard ready for repainting.

We had sold the cabinet with the glass doors, but we have to hold it for a couple of weeks, that’s not ideal.

28th January 2022

Rushed out early to get a new piece of glass cut at the local hardware and armoury.

The reason for the haste was that we had someone coming to view it at 1.00pm.

I had the glass installed and the door refitted by 11.30 only to be told that the person had some family emergency and was not coming today, bugger!

Not that we’re short of things to work on, I had drawers to repair and cabinets to glue up and tops to make, and it’s still only Friday.

I opened up the box that the bandsaw came in and put it together, it’s a pretty basic model but should be fine for what I am likely to put through it.

We off-loaded the headboard and carried it into the garage, it was heavier than it looked.

27th January 2022

There was a final push to get the cabinet with the glass doors finished.

I reassembled the glass panels and cut the quadrant to hold it all together. I then handed it over to Kelli to paint whilst I fitted the back panel and top.

Once the glass had dried I tackled fitting the doors. That is when disaster struck, I happened to notice a small crack in the glass adjacent to where the nail holding the quadrant on was positioned. Needless to day I uttered some expletives, annoyed at myself for letting that happen, now I have to replace the panel.

I carried on and fitted the doors, for once they went okay, and finally it was complete, finished in a summer beach inspired colour, just right for someone’s holiday cottage.

We carried it into the house and took pictures then back out again for me to get the old glass out.

We went out to collect a headboard that Kelli wants to match with the desk pedestal that we are working on, fortunately it was very close and didn’t take very long.

It was twice as warm as it was yesterday, but bearing in mind it was 9 degrees F it was still bloody cold.

26th January 2022

It was an embarrassing moment for Kelli when the person that was interested in the small buffet that we sold to somebody else turned up. She explained that not hearing anything from them led her to believe they were not interested, we were not even informed that he would turn up today.

He didn’t have a fit, so we showed him other things were were working on.

It was one of those times when we should have informed them as soon as it was sold, however it was done, and the lady picked it up earlier.

We lifted the mid century tall dresser from the truck and struggled into the garage. It has a lots of solid oak pieces on it making it heavy.

I laid out all the drawer pieces on the bench. One drawer front had some water damage, this will dictate how we will treat the finishing of all the fronts.

Earlier I moved the free desk that we hid away, out to strip down.

During our production meeting last night Kelli had the brilliant idea to use the desk top to make a new top for a dresser that had a grotty laminate surface. The pedestal would make a small dresser or side table.

As I started the disassembly, the full extent of the quality of the desk became clear. Every part was solid oak, not one part of particleboard was in it. Removing the screws from the pedestal was a bugger, it was almost that the screws were not undoable. What should have taken ten minutes took more than an hour. In a lot of cases I had to drill the heads off the screws, but once off I was left with lots of oak timber that I can reuse.

Then I went shopping to Lowes in the afternoon. I needed some timber quadrant to trim some cabinet doors, but I also had a hankering to purchase a nail gun, but I didn’t want a pneumatic system because I didn’t have a compressor and didn’t really want one.

My plan was to buy a cordless model which they had at Lowes.

I found the model that was advertised, but the battery and charger were sold separately (good one Craftsman). As I procrastinated, looking for the nails, they all looked so thick. Ideally I wanted small gauge nails for the trims I generally attach, if I was fixing siding, or making up boxes the thicker nails would be fine. The long and short of it was I put all of it back on the shelf and left without it.

To compensate for that I went across the road to Harbour Freight and bought a bench mounted band saw, this has been a tool I have wanted for a while, now I have to make some space for it.

25th January 2022

A busy day on the selling front, Kelli notched up two sales today. The latest dresser that was posted yesterday was sold to an old school friend of hers who has just moved back from Florida.

The other piece was the small dresser. Originally this was going to be viewed by a couple yesterday, but was put off due to the weather. Kelli had sent a message to them to find out if they were coming today, but didn’t receive a reply. It is times like this when a decision has to be taken, and there was another person interested. It was decided to offer the piece to the other person who paid in full immediately.

The day started with more snow, and a short drive to collect a free mid century dresser that had a few problems. When we got to the address we saw the dresser in the garage, and a pile of drawer bits. It was a heavy piece that we struggled with getting it into the back of the truck.

Back at the ranch we continued work on the other cabinet. I cut the top to size and machined the edge while Kelli’s carried on with the painting.

I managed to make a back panel from some off-cuts of bead-board that was gathering dust in the scrap wood pile. It just needed a bit of cunning joining together to look right, once it is painted it will look perfect.

24th January 2022

There was another four inches of snow last night that covered the drive that I had cleared yesterday. I went out again, although it was still snowing, because we had someone coming round to look at the buffet. I felt it was better to give them something to aim at with their vehicle rather than them driving over the lawn, and anyway as it was fresh snow it was easy to scoop up.

So having done that we heard that they were cancelling today’s visit, so I guess I will have to do it again tomorrow.

There is a legend in the Midwest regarding a critter called the Woolly bear Caterpillar.

The legend goes, The wider the rusty brown sections (or the more brown segments there are), the milder the coming winter will be. The more black there is, the more severe the winter. 

Well this autumn, it was noted that the caterpillars had a greater proportion of rusty brown rings on their body, so we were to expect a mild winter, what a load of crap that was. As I look out of the window more snow is falling, and it is expected to continue for the next few days.

Dispite the weather we finished another dresser and took pictures. The theme of this one( if we had a theme) was spring at the beach, hopefully our potential customers think the same.

23rd January 2022

There was four inches of snow overnight covering the path I had dug to get to the dog poo pit and the composter.

It was a good day to have a hot breakfast.

I dug out the waffle maker from the cupboard and gathered together all the ingredients. I whipped up the mixture and started production.

The coffee was brewing, and the dogs were hovering hoping to grab any scraps that fall on to the floor.

We have recently started to eat eggs, so I added some over easy examples on Kelli’s plate.

Then it was time to venture into the garage, which I did quickly to switch on the heater and work lights to get a bit of warmth started.

We had a message from a potential customer for the small buffet to say that they would be over at 1.00pm to view it. We wanted to show them a pair of mid century side tables that we picked up at a thrift store last week, as they had show interest in some, and had asked us to look out for a set.

I carried them out of the store room and set them by the garage door. We set the small buffet by the side of them and waited.

1.00pm came and went, 2.00pm also came and went, still no one. Kelli sent a message to ask if they were still coming. The reply the came back (in limited English) said that she meant tomorrow.

I had swept the drive in preparation, so I was pissed.

Anyway at least we’re ready for them.

There was more snow on the way meaning tomorrow I will have to sweep the drive all over again.

22nd January 2022

We braved the snowstorm to deliver the Child’s kitchen to an address in Zeeland. It wasn’t in the Zeeland I know, it was way out in the wilderness.

The ribbons of snow snaked across the road in front of us, there were no hedges to obstruct the cross winds. This was when I realised how bleak the countryside is around here.

The number of the house had five digits, almost to many to fit in the mailbox, but we got there.

The family were excited to see us, and their two year old daughter couldn’t wait to get her hands on it. This is always the fun part of the job, seeing how happy people are with their purchases.

They later sent us a picture of the kitchen in their child’s bedroom.

Next stop was to Byron Center to collect a free dresser. The drive took longer than we thought, but we got there, it was outside covered in snow. When I went to lift it, it had frozen to the ground. I thought it was really heavy, then it released itself, and it was still heavy.

It had some damage to the bottom of the end panels, but it was cold, we just wanted to load it into the truck and bugger off back home.

The decision was to scrap the free dresser that we collected a few days ago, it was a piece of shit. I set about dismantling it saving some of the wood that I could use again, but nothing else was worth saving, so I broke it up and I started a fire outside, put it on, and burnt the lot. It was disgusting, but it burnt well.

21st January 2022

Thank goodness for the ATM, as I can’t have a bank account yet it is my only way of getting cash. But around here the bank charge for every transaction and I really hate that. Also each machine has a different card orientation which, if you’re standing out in the freezing cold is bloody annoying.

Some banks charge up to $4 per transaction, so it pays to draw out a large sum ($300 maximum), but if that amount is not needed, you’re carrying around a wad all the time.

I managed to find a Credit Union bank that doesn’t charge anything. At first I thought it was an introductory offer to get me hooked, but so far I keep getting cash out for free.

Kelli had a doctors appointment where she underwent a bit more toe pulling and neck stretching. He seemed happy with her progress which is key to her recovery.

I joke that with all the visits she has had he’s bought a new boat to go with his car collection.

We stopped off at a thrift store where Kelli collected a pile of things that she can sell on.

One thing was a duvet cover that she paid $4 for, and sold it for $45, a nice little earner.

She also sold the knobs that we got from a dresser we recently collected for half of what we paid for the dresser, swings and roundabouts.

We sold the kiddies kitchen to a family from Zeeland, unfortunately they couldn’t fit it in their car, so we will deliver it tomorrow.