Author: peterb51

31st December 2021

Well it the end of a memorable year, and for a lot of reasons, I am optimistic that 22 will be better.

We started work on the black dresser, stripping off the bad paint job before the lady arrived bringing the paint that she wanted it finished in.

The floor was now covered in stripped paint pieces, fortunately we were able to have the garage door open whilst we did it. Kelli was using the heat gun, I had the scraper, together we had it stripped in record time.

By the time the lady arrived it had been sanded and ready for priming.

The colour she had chosen was a light pink, an interesting choice, but she is the customer therefore is alway right.

As the evening progress the new year messages came from the different parts of the world, we were not going to see the new year in, mainly because Kelli is too tired, and there is no big fireworks display to stay up for.

30th December 2021

The truck was covered in snow after another two inches fell overnight. I went out to warm it up so that we could make our trip to Byron Center to collect the dresser Kelli bought yesterday.

I wiped the snow away from the driver side door with my arm thus avoiding snow falling onto the driver seat, I was thinking ahead.

The door opened and no snow fell inside.

I then had to find the snow brush that was behind the drivers seat, and in doing so the snow that was on my arm then fell onto the drivers seat, typical.

This was the first time I had used the brush as we usually lose it, however this time we had it ready. As I wiped away the snow, I realised that this brush was the cheapest of the cheap.

A piece of inefficient crap. The rich people across the road probably had the finest snow brush ever produced, stored in its own exclusive case. They even have a person to do it for them, trained in the art of clearing snow.

My feeble appliance likened to an eyebrow, just about managed to do the job, I quickly hid it inside the car.

Byron Center was alway an odd sounding town to me, I thought it was a building, because it’s sounds so specific. What if you didn’t live in the centre of Byron Center, would that mean you lived in Byron Left or Right?

The dresser was in the centre of a garage in Byron Center, it was finished in Black and looked like it had been painted with a horses tail that was still attached. We saw through these faults and could see a money making opportunity. This was confirmed when Kelli called the person who failed to buy the dresser we sold yesterday, and managed to sell it to her, that’s my girl!

29th December 2021

We finished the dresser that was a little different than what we usually do. This one had a colour wash on the top and fronts.

We took some pictures, posted it on Marketplace and it was sold and collected this evening.

It was only a few days ago that we commented on the lack of sales activity, but once Christmas was over people have money to spend.

We had several inquiries for the dresser that also led to requests for specific furniture pieces. Kelli was on to it, searching Marketplace and buying items that we hope will already have a buyer, what better motivation is that?

28th December 2021

There is nothing more demoralising than thinking that you’ve finished sanding all the drawers only to find another hidden around the corner.

Another thing, I can last hours not having to pee, but once I’m a foot away from the toilet, it knows and panic sets in.

The remnants of the snow from a day ago was joined by more today. It wasn’t a blizzard, it just fell quietly without me noticing at first, then the coverage was extensive. It looks so pretty at first, and that’s what like, give it a couple of days and I’ve had enough.

Last year Kelli bought me some fleece lined work trousers, and they feel like heaven, ideal for days like these.

27th December 2021

Snow lay on the ground as we awoke, that was a surprise. We had no plans to go out, it was a work in the garage day, just like all the rest.

However the pressure is off, with Decembers numbers high, we can afford to take things easy and build up a stock for January.

We had a wonderful message from the lady we refinished the bookcase for. She gave it to her son as a Christmas present who was delighted with it. We often get good feedback, and it makes what we do worthwhile.

There were a lot of drawers all over the floor making moving about really tricky especially me with large feet. I feel like I’m performing in a ballet prancing about trying to avoid a disaster. I also have a few drawers to fix, that are all over the bench in various stages of repair.

26th December 2021

Oh, the day after, it’s back to normal. We had to drive to Hudsonville to collect another dresser, what a surprise. This was similar to many we’ve sold so it was a no brainer. Then it was off to Grandville to collect a free dresser with a broken drawer. When we got there we discovered it was not a broken drawer, it was another piece missing a drawer. I now have two dressers that need drawers, so I’m sure I will become an expert in making them by the end of it.

It was important to get back quickly because the buyer of the bedroom set of dresser and headboard was coming to collect.

It was good to get that out as it had been gathering dust for a while.

The little coffee table was finished and posted on Marketplace, hopefully that will go soon.

Not having a Boxing Day always feels that I’m being shortchanged, there is no excuse to lounge around and play with any new toys that I’ve got. You could say, and many do, that is what retirement is for, but there is no formality in that, every day could be the same.

Boxing Day gave a reason to go for a long walk to wear off all the excesses of the previous day. When cold leftovers were the norm, and drink the leftover wine straight out of the bottle without dirtying a glass, oh bliss.

Over here the machines in the factories are turned back on so as not to waste good production time.

25th December 2021

Okay it’s Christmas Day, it started with a fantastic breakfast, at least I thought it was as I cooked it. Kelli didn’t complain. We both had a good night sleep it was almost a pleasure to wake up.

Although there was no snow, we had periods of sunshine which gave a wonderful light.

After breakfast we opened our presents, and as usual Kelli found things that were so useful for me and also very personal.

The useful things included a set of leaf collectors. They look like the Incredible Hulks hands, but are used to gather up the leaves, can’t wait for next autumn.

She gave me a hand painted picture of a boxer dog which she knew was my favourite breed. It reminded me of “Turk” who I had during the seventies. It was quite emotional, and yet again she found something that hit the spot.

The presents I got for Kelli were quite predictable, she had planted the seeds in my brain around June, so plenty of time to for me to acquire them, and sufficient time for her to have forgotten what she had suggested.

There were a few surprises that were my own ideas, and I’m sure that foot pump will be useful. (Joke, can you imagine the response to a present like that? I’d still be in hospital at new year)

The family came at three, and the various meals went down extremely well, as did the bottle of wine that I had to consume myself as everyone didn’t drink.

Earlier I had a FaceTime with my youngest son Ryan and his family, we laughed at each other’s presents including the gloves with built in lights, they will be useful for seeing in the dark corners I have to work in.

When the evening came, we crashed out, it was a fun day, and another Christmas was over.

24th December 2021

Weee, Bang! Crash! Kelli’s phone re-entered the atmosphere and the landing was hard.

It was a bad night for her. For some reason the podcast she listens to every night to help her sleep failed at around midnight. This was not helpful, she tried multiple times to get it to play, but each time it bombed. This was a start of a terrible night. I gave her my phone to install the app, but even that didn’t work.

She tried again to reinstall, but the result was the same. That is when the phone was launched skyward.

The result was a smashed screen, not a cracked one, this was well and truly broken.

So we had to go to the phone store and wait until all the other poor saps were attended to.

Then there was the tiresome process of installing the new phone on to the network, but soon it was done, then the process of reinstalling all the apps back on.

All this and it was Christmas Eve, usually a day of panic, but for us it was back to the garage.

We had to remove the heavy dresser that we picked up roadside a few days ago. The amusing thing is that we have passed that house several times. It was like we were gloating at them. It would have been funnier to have unloaded it in the same place and driven off, but that’s not us at all.

Kelli started sanding the drawers and I continued to strip the small train wreck.

We have started watching house renovation programs in the evenings, they are quite fun. Everyone seems to be hosted by a big guy with a large bushy beard and a midget wife. It is well know that she has to stand on a box to get in the shot. Alternatively the wife is so thin that she is hardly visible, but that’s American TV.

I had a FaceTime session with Damian and his two boys, for once they were well behaved, even little George didn’t lick the phone screen, so he’s really growing up.

Seeing them made me want to get back to old Blighty as soon as I can.

23rd December 2021

It was good to be able to take things a bit easier. Our high sales this month meant that we could just coast to the end of the year.

However not in Kelli’s eyes, she always wants something to focus her energy on.

We did a second coat of primer on the mid century dresser and started removing the paint on another small buffet style piece.

It would have been easy just to slap another coat of paint on top of the four that it already had. There were some cool mouldings that had lost all of the crispness that they needed. So that is what we started doing. Suddenly a wonderful piece of furniture emerged. There is still a lot of scraping required, but once you get a glimpse of what has hidden under layers of paint, it spurs you on.

Kelli had another doctors appointment to get herself “tuned” for Christmas.

I took the opportunity to wrap Kelli’s Christmas presents. I used to be able to make a good job of wrapping, but this time I made a bit of a pig’s ear of them even though everything was in boxes, and in regular shapes

Still all that will be lost in the mad frenzy of opening them on Christmas Day.

22nd December 2021

It was all hands on deck to complete the dresser that was due for pick up today.

I had to fit new drawer guides to the two bottom drawers and fit the top. It was a relief not to be rushing at the last minute.

There was a bit of tweaking to get the fit right to one of the drawers, nothing that a few passes of a sander wouldn’t put right.

Kelli worked on the coffee table, painting the leg frame. I sanded and stained the top ready for finishing tomorrow.

I wanted to continue painting the mid century dresser, but it was too cold for spray painting, we normally have the garage door open, but not today.