Author: peterb51

25th April 2021

The dresser top with the walnut top was still flat when I checked it, that was a great relief.

I lovingly sanded it ready for finishing.

I decided to cut the front lawn, I pulled out the push mower from the shed, wheeling around to the front of the house.

The new grass is a great improvement over the old crap that was there before, although there were still a few thin patches.

It was a light cut, that is to say it hardly cut much, but apparently that’s what you’re supposed to do to avoid stressing the grass.

Everything is America is prone to bloody stress, what has grass to get stressed about? It just has to grow.

I gave it a good soaking with water, maybe the rest will thicken soon.

I checked the new plum trees, they have buds growing, so my death fingers didn’t do the normal on those. The apple and cherry trees are in leaf, just another four years to wait.

The new raspberry bushes have taken but the gooseberries look a little sad, I hope I don’t lose them.

I put down a bag of mulch around the trees and ended up with black stained hands. Why doesn’t someone invent something that protects the hands, like gardening gloves. Note to self, buy some bloody gardening gloves.

24th April 2021

I lay awake most of the night thinking that I should have laid up and clamped the walnut veneer on the dresser top differently. Of course it was too late, it was laying on the garage floor with every conceivable item of weight I could find including the three bags of mulch I bought yesterday.

I couldn’t wait to rush out to see how it was.

I started to remove all the things stacked on top, it must have taken me fifteen minutes to move everything. I had realised one error at the time, because using carpenter’s glue it was difficult to spread evenly, I should have used a standard PVA that would spread with a brush or roller.

As I removed the boards my fears were realised. There were a number of ridges, let’s be honest it was like a ploughed field.

I’ve had this happen before, that time I removed the veneer and started again.

I remember watching a video where this guy used an iron to smooth out the ridges.

So I grabbed Kelli’s and proceeded to smooth out the wrinkles.

Miraculously it worked, I followed the iron with a block to add pressure, but I was happy with the final result.

I trimmed the veneer to the final size and gave it a light sanding, then put it aside to see if the wrinkles re-appeared.

I wanted to weed the back garden. There were hundreds of them, and they had grown a lot in the last week, but this was the day they would be gone and dumped in the bin.

There is a sense of satisfaction in pulling them up, and the sandy soil makes it very easy.

I could grab a whole handful and pull them out roots and all.

“At this rate it should only take half an hour” I thought to my self.

It took me much longer than that, I would pull out a bunch, but more weeds appeared, where did those come from? maybe there is a weed dimension just to taunted me.

I was filling up large plastic bags, the garden waste bin was full, so now we were in an overflow situation.

I noticed many of the weeds were coming under the fence from a neighbours garden, bastards!

I was tempted to throw them back over, but I didn’t want any confrontation, well at least until I get my residency.

23rd April 2021

I had a Mr Bean moment when I went to Menards for some supplies.

As I was driving to the car parking area I stopped to let two old ladies cross the road in front of me. One was using a type of walking frame and the other was helping her. Eventually they made it and went into the store. I carried on and parked, putting my mask on and grabbing my bag I made my way into the store. I headed towards the trolleys, but my way was blocked by these two old ladies. I patiently waited for them to clear the turnstile. I grabbed the trolly but couldn’t get passed them, so I went on a diversion down another isle to pick a plastic bucket. Returning to the main isle the two old ladies has moved about five feet and were still blocking my route.

I decided to get interested in toilet seats so that I didn’t appear inconvenienced. Finally an overtaking opportunity happened, and I zoomed past. I collected various things I needed then went outside to get some bags of mulch. I loaded my trolley with three big bags and headed for the checkout.

I was lucky that one opened just as I passed, so quickly reversed and loaded my stuff on to the belt.

I paid and re-packed my trolly then headed out towards the exit, that is when I encountered these two old ladies again blocking my way

I pretended to be interested in sacks of salt stacked by the door.

Once outside I could accelerate past them trying desperately to control my trolly, the last thing I wanted was to sail past out of control and smash into a tree. The bags of mulch made the handling tricky, I swept past the shuffling duo and made it to the truck where I loaded all my stuff quickly.

I managed to do all that and drive away before they got to their vehicle, bad luck to anyone stuck behind them on the roads.

22nd April 2021

Today is Earth day, or at least that is what my calendar said, not sure what I’m supposed to do for it, I have a pile of dirt in the back garden, but I was hoping to use that as dressing for the lawn.

We had a visit from the utility people who wanted to install a new water monitoring device, I said “ Help yourself”

Of course they asked me where the old one was, and I didn’t have a clue.

I thought it was outside with all the other meters, but it wasn’t.

Now looking like a complete plank we went in search of this device.

“It’s usually next to the stop valve”

That was no good I didn’t know where that was either.

Not a very good advertisement for a home owner who doesn’t know how to turn off the water supply.

Eventually we got to the crawl space cover.

The engineer stuck her head down and declared that it was there, along with the stop valve.

I felt better that I knew where that was, so I did learn something new today.

I finished the dresser with the built in organiser, and stripped all of the old veneer off the top of the other dresser we picked up earlier in the week.

I burnt my fingers a couple of times on the stops of lifted veneer, “Damn they retain the heat”.

21st April 2021

Would you believe it, it snowed.

Yes, well it wasn’t a blizzard but there was certainly snow on the ground for a short while.

I had taken the precaution of protecting my new gooseberry plants just in case the cold snap killed the poor sods.

Kelli was having a bad day because of yet another sleep deprived night.

I alway know how the day is going to play out.

Her level of energy is measured by the amount of things she can do in the morning, like folding the laundry and preparing her protein drinks. Then the rest of the day she lays on the couch occasionally having to get up to visit the bathroom.

It’s very concerning for me, and hard to keep quiet, I want her to get back to her old self, but this condition has to “take its own time”.

If I didn’t have projects to do in the garage, I think I would go crazy. I come into the house periodically just to see if there is something she might need, and prepare meals.

I’m not sure the dogs fully understand what is happening, they just want to go outside as often as they can, and then be rewarded with a treat afterwards, they’re not daft.

20th April 2021

The run of cool weather continues, I hope that my latest plantings will survive. I have the strawberries in a metal tub that I can move around but the gooseberry bushes might be a bit vulnerable I may have to protect those.

I have heard nothing from the company supplying the replacement part for the patio furniture, there is probably a meeting being held to discuss what went wrong.

The garage is full of freshly finished parts for the dresser combo, every possible surface has something on it, I don’t have room for the dresser that is still in the truck.

I wanted to order the cordless lawn mower today only to find out that it was out of stock, typical.

19th April 2021

Oh the start of another week, another selection of warm and cold days to keep you guessing.

Today it started with a bit of rain, which saved me the job of watering the lawn, and then it was just clouds.

I read that Herman Miller has bought up Knoll, I bet the shareholders are happy. They have now cornered the market in mid century classic furniture, a smart move.

This merger might be the first of many. The market is full of companies eager to become more powerful, but it comes at a cost. Combining businesses usually means streamlining, in other words job losses.

The pandemic devastated the high street, losing some of the biggest names, I won’t recognise Bath when I see it again.

I keep an eye on what the old company is doing, rolling my eyes at the “gaming” chair adaptations which I guess is trending and looking cool.

I don’t believe gamers care about branding, most spent their lives in darken rooms, pale skinned reacting to the flickering of their flat screen monitors.

HM have even employed a gamer to be the brand ambassador, this heavily tattooed individual had just enough space on his elbows to have a HM logo.

The purchase of Hay was unexpected, some of their products are good, and I was considering buying some of the dining chairs myself at one time.

18th April 2021

I looked across at the half built patio furniture, it looked sad and forlorn, this big statement I wanted to make was an embarrassment.

I received an email confirming the replacement order with no mention of the part I needed other than “Back rail” so be prepared for another left hand part.

I did a bit of garden work, cutting the grass and watering the area I reseeded last week.

There was a bit of weeding, that is a soul destroying job, pull out weeds you know will be back next week.

I thought that I would sit down and pull out every single weed growing between the decorative stone. “That won’t take long” I thought, as the sun shone down.

There were bloody hundreds, some were hiding under the stones that sprang up when I thought I’d finished. There was satisfaction when the root came up, and anger when stem broke, then I’d have to dig for it.

It was so tempting to a sit down on my half built patio furniture, but decided against it because I wanted to wait until it was complete, how sad is that?

I did a bit of paint stripping on the dresser/vanity unit. I managed to remove all the paint from the carcass and seal the drawers, doors and top which dried quickly in the sun.

Kelli was well enough to make a quiche for dinner, before having to rest for the afternoon.

I’ve yet to see any improvement, even with all the supplements she’s taking, plus the extra potion she had last Thursday. I’m trying to remain supportive and take as much of the load away from her so that she can concentrate on feeling better.

17th April 2021

Kelli managed to help me collect a dresser from a Mobile home park. She thought she should navigate the route as these places can be like a rabbit warren, and I was likely to get lost, as it was it was very straight forward.

The dresser was a bit of a train wreck, but I’ve had them like this before and managed to salvage something.

My patio furniture arrived late in the afternoon.

I set out my work area and unpacked all the pieces laying them out on a large piece of cardboard. This was another of Beijing’s finest, so I don’t expect longevity, the structure looked okay, the holes lined up, so I proceeded to build the two seater sofa first.

This went together well, so encouraged I set about building the next one. This is where things went down hill. The configuration I was building was an “L” shape consisting of a left hand sofa, a corner seat and a right hand sofa.

The parts delivered would make two left hand sofas. I looked at it for several minute making sure I was not missing anything. Most of the pieces were non-handed except for the back piece, it was definitely wrong.

Kelli called the supplier and got through to a customer service lady, she handed the phone to me to explain the problem.

I went through the explanation slowly, what I had built, and what I was trying to build.

There was pause, as the lady on the other end went though what I was saying, and then the penny dropped.

She said that she would order the correct part and get it sent to me as soon as they could. I asked her how she would describe it to the manufacturer, I didn’t want to get another part exactly the same as what I have. She said she would explain it on the replacement order, and send me an email copy of the order.

I carried on building the corner unit and coffee table, just so there was something to show for my efforts.

The quality was okay, the cushions were a little thin, so we may have to get some more fillers, but if it lasts a couple of years it would be worth the money just to have something to sit on.

16th April 2021

Today our new patio furniture was going to be delivered, I was beyond excited.

At about 10.00am a large truck pulled up and two enormous boxes were off loaded.

We were due to go to Kelli’s kinesiologist for another case of physical bodily harm, so I pushed the boxes into the garage ready to assemble when I returned.

The beating session over we headed back, Kelli received a phone call from the dispatcher to say that our delivery had been mixed up and we had the wrong product.

Bugger! They said that they would collect next Tuesday, what a drag. Later on we had another call to revise the collection for tomorrow, apparently the other customer was non too pleased about having to wait.

I had a look at the boxes, and sure enough there was another person’s name and address, and it wasn’t even the same product.

Heaven knows if I would have noticed that, or I might have just tore into the box before discovering the error.

I made a start sanding off the paint from the new piece, it had been painted in chalk paint which sands off really easily. It looks quite solid and well made, and within a short time I was covered in white dust, as the pale wood was exposed.

Later in the evening we had people turn up for the white dresser, although I explained that I had replaced the top with solid oak, they didn’t seem to care, just handed me the money, and they were off.