Author: peterb51

12th September 2021

I was not happy with the veneer job I had done to the dresser top. The veneer I had used had come from Dave’s stash. This was a roll of fabric backed veneer about four foot wide by eight foot long. I had never used this type of material before, so I did a bit of research on YouTube, but there was nothing specific.

I decided to apply PVA adhesive to both surfaces. Letting both dry completely, I then used an iron to heat and press the veneer in place. This worked fine for the sample panel, but I was plagued with lots of blisters, these I tried to iron back out with limited success. That was my dilemma, should I continue and not be satisfied with the result, or tear it off and start again?

11th September 2021

The buyer for the French Provincial dresser turned up along with her “beefcake” husband/boyfriend. This unit was a heavy beast, but it was simple getting it to his truck, much harder to get it into it.

I wasn’t sure he cared about scratching the paintwork because of the way he handled it once we got it into the vehicle.

“ Ooo, I’m not fussy” said the young girl, the sun glancing off her double studded tongue.

This is not something we like to hear because we spend a lot of time checking all the paint, touching up if we think necessary.

We always give the buyer a small sample of the paint to touch up if it gets scratched, this might get used a lot on this piece.

With newly created space in the garage, we lifted down a mid century dresser that we were given for free. This was a great opportunity for me to use my new Purdey scraper to remove the finish off the top of the piece.

I had finished it in ten minutes,” Why hadn’t I got one of these before?” I shouted at Kelli.

“ Maybe I just wanted to watch you suffer”,was her witty remark.

I brushed a coat of oxalic acid to treat some water stains, and that will be ready for staining tomorrow.

There was an issue with the commissioned piece that was pointed out to us by the client.

The dresser had a quarter inch dip in the middle that they wanted taken out.

That’s not always easy to do, I have replaced warped pieces in the past, but I didn’t want to do this with this piece.

I could see the bottom front rail was attached to the facia with blocks and screws, once they were removed I could stick a leg in the middle of the piece that lifted it up removing the dip.

Now all I have to do is reposition the blocks, then hopefully problem solved.

10th September 2021

I’ve started stripping the drawer fronts of the “Train wreck” dresser. The time to strip one drawer equates to Kelli taking a shower, washing her hair, drying her hair and getting ready to go out. I now have plenty of things to soak up all that waiting time.

We drove to an address on the north side to collect a desk. These have been quite profitable in the past turning them into bedroom side tables. Seeing this for the first time I could see that there was a lot of work to make that work.

Getting back to the garage I was able to finish the top for the three drawer dresser, and a sealing coat on the commissioned dresser.

Finally we had a buyer for the French Provincial dresser, thank goodness, I had been moving it in and out of the garage for over a week. The double trolleys that I had lashed together was a death trap, I lost count of the number of times I tripped on it. Now it is getting it ready to collection tomorrow.

A young Mexican chap turned up to collect another dresser that we posted yesterday. It wasn’t a particularly good piece of furniture, but we gave it some interest by stripping and staining the top and top drawer fronts.

9th September 2021

I needed to do some work to a new dresser to keep ahead for when Kelli appears to do painting. I had to make a new kick plate, remove the top and edge band a shelf.

These were all accomplished in good time.

The lady who had commissioned the dresser re-paint arrived to chose the stain for the top.

I had made up samples using the stains that I had bought yesterday. The choice was good old Walnut.

The purchase of the stains not selected was not a complete waste of money because I used one for the new dresser top, it was close to the original colour of the sides.

Finishing early my job was to get the food carousel working in the kitchen. It seem to drop over time, stopping the doors from revolving . I had to off-load the contents, making sure that I separate stuff from the top shelf and the rest from the lower tray.

The inner tray support is held by two screws clamping against the centre tube, over time these slip and cause interference.

Using a set of mole grips I clamped the screwdriver and with the extra leverage tightened the screws whilst holding the tray up as far as it would go.

Success! Well, for now, let’s hope it holds for a long time.

I started loading back all the contents, finding stuff I have no idea what it was for.

A small bag of some root flour, fifty-five green lentils and something unpronounceable, but I put them back anyway.

8th September 2021

Kelli had a doctors appointment this morning.

Armed with a list of questions and concerns about her vertigo the session had an interesting “twist”.

He was concerned about the vertigo, so worked on helping drain any excessive fluid in the ear canal.

He was pleased how she is progressing the focus on tuning her body is making her stronger. Then there was the fun part (for me)

Last time he worked on her left arm to build strength. Now it was time for the right side to get treated. Grabbing her wrist he twisted the elbow, crack! It went, and Kelli shouted in pain.

The pain continued as he moved to different pressure points, moving up to the shoulder there was more shouting and cracking, then it was over. Kelli nursed her wounds, but she felt a noticeable difference in how her arm felt as it hung limply from her shoulder (just joking!)

When we got back we took the dogs for a short walk around the nearby lagoon. We could see how choppy lake Macatawa was, meaning the main lake would be really rough.

With Kelli working with me again we keep the door from the garage to the house ajar, so that we could hear the music blasting out. The down side it was all Kelli’s choice, so we had bloody wall to wall Justin Hayward on constant repeat.

I started work on repairing drawers, sanding dresser tops and did more work on the dining table top. That is proving difficult because of years of polish that has built up on the surface. I had a solvent that should dissolve wax, but even that was not very effective.

The best method was to scrape off the surface of the crud, and then clean, this has not turned out to be the easy job I was hoping for.

7th September 2021

Kelli was feeling a little better today, although she hasn’t checked if her vertigo has been cured, I will let her do that in her own time.

Work in the garage continued with the spraying of the commissioned dresser whilst the final choice for the top has still to be decided. I did a sample in a dark walnut, but the client wanted “something warmer” whatever that means.

The hunt continued.

Day 1487

6th September Monday

If yesterday was a duff day for me, today was a crap one for Kelli. She had a re-occurrence of vertigo, and it knocked her back in her recovery. We carried out the Epley manoeuvre to her left side hoping that it was successful.

She now has to avoid looking down or any sharp head movements for at least twenty-four hours.

Having mentioned the lack of rain yesterday, there was a good soak last night which filled the water barrels, and the front lawn.

I started stripping the round table, it throws up a number of questions about it’s history.

First it had been stripped before, and not done very well.

The remanence of a previous finish was as hard as rock, and difficult to sand. I’m not convinced that the top is made from oak, even though the base was solid oak which made me think that the top was not original.

Today was labour day, one of America’s national holidays, where everyone goes to their cottages in the woods. It also marks the end of summer. It is noticeable that the days are a little cooler which makes it still pleasant to work in.

5th September 2021

This was a funny old day, I couldn’t settle on anything, I was bored.

There are a lot of projects to do, but I didn’t feel enthusiastic. I was thinking about England, and how much I miss being there.

Of course this wasn’t suppose to happen, my plan was to return frequently, but Covid and the residency is taking its toll on my patience.

At least we sold the bookcase, that was a consolation, and we gave away the old bed.

Which just goes to show you can get rid of anything.

I had intended to do work in the garden, I managed to cut up an old pallet and that was it. I got distracted by other jobs calling to me.

I fitted a wooden top to another dresser, hopefully we can get that posted tomorrow.

We had a couple arrive with a round dining table that they wanted stripping back and re finishing. It also had a broken leg the needed repair.

They were happy with my quotation, and left it for me to work on.

The day dragged on, I watered the prairie garden and the raspberry plants. There hadn’t been any rain for ages, and the grass really looks thirsty, I didn’t think I would ever wish for rain, but we could do with a splash

4th September 2021

“ Do you think the bed is too low?” Kelli questioned.

I couldn’t answer that because I had a good nights sleep, but obviously it was on her mind so I needed to take heed.

She researched an add-on pad that would increase the height by a couple of inches. At about seven hundred bucks it was an expensive two inches. Next she found a wooden panel for a hundred, but I wasn’t keen on that because it would stop the airflow around the mattress. All this was leading me into the trap I could see coming.

“Could you make something that would work?” Was the inevitable question, not trying to appear a wimp I said “Of course”.

I had laid myself open now, I had to think quickly of a solution because I had just signed a virtual contract and the clock was ticking.

I was going to construct a wooden frame that would fit inside, on top of the current battens.

This meant a trip to Menards to purchase the timber.

I selected a “Prime” grade which had no knots or blemishes and produced in New Zealand.

I was not aware that timber was sourced from there, I thought that only butter, sheep and Hobbits came from that country.

Once I got back I wanted to check out sticking veneer on top of laminate. I had an old worktop that would be ideal. The veneer I was using came from Dave’s secret stash, it was a fabric backed material, something I hadn’t used before.

The method I chose to follow meant rolling PVA onto the scratched laminate surface, then applying it to the back of the veneer.

I had to let both surfaces dry before putting them together.

Then with a hot iron I heated and pressed down on the veneer.

This re-melted the adhesive and bonded the two surfaces together.

The test piece worked very well, and I was pleased which put me in good stead for working on the bed.

I removed the sixty-five screws holding the slats to the frame. It only seem like yesterday I’d driven them in!

I measured and cut the timber and assembled the new support frame and the re-fitted the sixty-five screws once again.

We re-fitted the mattress onto the raised surface, and remade the bed yet again.

Out of interest I measured the old bed which was twenty two and a half inches, the new bed was one inch shorter meaning I spent forty- eight bucks to make the bed a half an inch higher.

I hope I don’t get a nose bleed getting into it tonight.

3rd September 2021

The FedEx man struggled up the driveway with a package that did not look like the mattress we were expecting. Quite the opposite, it fitted on his dolly very easily, and the two foot by two foot box was not bed size.

However “Avocado” was clearly marked on the box, so something was in there.

I did try to move the box myself, but it was heavy. With a bit of lifting, dragging and bad language we got it in the house.

“How can there be a king size mattress in that box” I said, gasping for breath. Kelli was equally worried that maybe she had screwed something up.

We debated where we should unpack it, and decided to do it on top of the old bed.

With shear determination we got the box onto the bed and slid the contents out very slowly.

I cut through the outer cover carefully, suddenly it exploded like the Alien bursting out of John Hurts chest. We both looked in amazement as it became a king size mattress.

I hope we never have to try to squeeze it back into the box.

We sold the cut down dresser this morning but the small bookcase has resisted all who tried to buy it, this time we thought it was sold until the prospective buyer realised how far Holland was and ducked out.

The first of our commission pieces turned up this evening, a dresser to be painted and something done with the top which unfortunately was a laminate, I might try putting a veneer on it, another challenge.