Author: peterb51

18th August 2020

The flowers in the garden are beginning to disappear, this marks the time when summer has turned the corner. Last year I was in the UK having found the problem with my ESTA.

This is a painful memory, but thankfully placed in the box marked “do not open again”.

I missed the last part of the summer in Michigan, but I had plenty of things to do at the cottage which occupied my mind.

I have plenty of thing to do here, pieces that I want to get out by the end of the week,

We had an inquiry from someone who asked if we could make a 42” diameter top to fit an Eames base. It was not clear if they wanted veneered chipboard with a vinyl edge. This is not something I would want to do. I suggested making a solid wood top, but even that would be a challenge.

We checked with some friends in the trade about getting a solid wood top made by someone who had machines to handle, but the costs would be too high with a limited mark-up, so in the end we declined the job.

17th August 2020

We got up late, then had to rush around as the lady was coming to collect the project piece.

I had to move a load of crap off the top, as most vertical surfaces in the garage becomes a work bench, luckily there was a cloth covering it.

I was adding a finish to drawer fronts from another dresser that was nearing completion. The lady arrived and was happy with what I had done. She also lamented on the dresser she passed on, but as quick as a flash Kelli showed her the one we picked up on Sunday, which was still in the truck. The lady was interested and asked to be kept informed as we worked on it.

We also sold our latest creation a dresser the was bright aqua green. Kelli always wants to stretch the colour limits of people. Usually the safe colours of white, off-white and fifty shades of grey are what sells the quickest.

This was an attempt to change that. I had stripped the top and drawer fronts but the wood was still coloured from the stain used in manufacturing.

We decided to just put a clear finish all the wood items to make them a bit different than what we usually do, and I guess it paid off.

We delivered it to an address in Zeeland, deep into the new God’s country. The housing estate was immaculate, perfect grass, unblemished concrete driveways and the correct amount of scrubs around the porch.

It feels like we are invading a film set, expecting someone to shout “cut!” as we unloaded.

16th August 2020

A drive down to Fennville to pick up a dresser that caught Kelli’s eye on Marketplace.

Fennville is the vineyard of west Michigan, we passed many teaming with people not necessarily adhering to any social distancing themselves and a major reason why we won’t be going to them until all this virus stuff had gone away.

The dresser was an interesting piece, all curvy and quite old but it needs a lot of love to bring it up to scratch.

The Presidential election campaigns start next week and the networks are full of it.

Trump has a lot of airtime where he makes shit up, nearly everything that comes out of his mouth is rubbish and makes no sense.

It is doing my head in to think that America can be led but this crazy individual. The nearest I can remember is sitting in a meeting at HM just before the Christmas break where a certain individual spoke (who’s initials were BW) about the importance of just getting the red gift tag, no gift, no voucher, just a label with your name on it. He went on about heritage and tradition, and the tag was a symbol of belonging.

That must go down in history as a speech about being grateful for getting nothing.

15th August 2020

We had a lot of vouchers to spend at the garden centre, these were earned by buying a shed load of grasses for the front of our house. We wanted to finish the area around where we planted the bamboo.

We got to Jonkers garden centre along with most of the oldies from Holland.

Immediately Kelli was complimented on what she was wearing, that happens so often it doesn’t surprise me anymore.

We chose more grasses to be planted in between the tubs. We redeemed the vouchers along with a chunk of cash and headed home to finish the job.

Once everything was planted we settled in for a splash in the pool.

We still had the project piece that was sold a week ago where I had to make a back panel for the centre section.

Kelli, in the subtle manner she has, has tried on numerous occasions to nail down a collection date. Finally agreeing next Monday, at the same time wanted to see if that person was still interested in the other dresser we are working on. There was another person waiting in the wings eager to snap it up, so we needed to check.

This applied pressure sometimes works to force a decision, this time she decided not to buy it.

Straight away Kelli contacted the other person and immediately got a hundred dollar deposit.

Since Kelli’s children left home it’s a coincidence that they visit at the same time the have a large amount of laundry to be done. This was the evening when both Cameron and Greer chose to wash their smalls.

I lit a fire to burn up all the scrap wood then we sat around toasting marshmallows and making things with chocolate and crackers with the crickets serenading us.

14th August 2020

It was due to be in the high eighties today, just the day to do absolutely nothing, but there was not a chance of that.

Kelli had arranged for a regular customer to bring a dresser round for me to look at. The drawer fronts had white Formica stuck to them and she wanted it removed. This was not a difficult job as the laminate had started to peel away. We agreed what needed to be done, selecting a paint colour, and stripping the top, when slick Kelli showed off the latest dresser that we had just posted. “If you want something for a child’s room, why don’t you buy this one that’s already finished?” The sales pitch was perfect, I almost reached into my own pocket. The lady was excited, she agreed that it was “Darling” and bought it on the spot.

She was really interested in another dresser that is nearly done, putting me under pressure to finish the top. There was another person already interested, so Kelli needs to do a bit of probing to see if that person still wants it.

Oh the trials and tribulations of the furniture trade.

Getting back to the bamboo situation, we awoke to the sight of one of the plantings laying on the driveway, I guess the weight of it was too much for the sandy soil.

Kelli also had a number of warnings from friends on Facebook about the dangers of rampant bamboo roots, and the damage they can cause.

We had to put plan B into action which meant buying a few metal tubs to re-plant everything into. I didn’t like the thought of the roots undermining the driveway.

So the costs were going up, metal tubs, bags of potting soil, it was no longer the cheap job I thought it to be.

After finishing the re-potting it was pool time.

The new one is certainly much better than the old, with no air adding, and no water top ups.

It was so warm that there was very little noise from Kelli as she slid into her floater.

I can understand how water therapy is so popular, I can so easily fall asleep in this perfect place.

13th August 2020

“Bamboo!” Shouted Kelli

Not the word I have ever heard her utter in all the years I’ve known her.

My first thoughts were “Is this another vegan food idea?”

“Bamboo” she repeated, “I’ve had an idea”

As I have explained before, Kelli’s ideas usually cost me money and often a great deal of work, this was going to be both.

She explained her idea, which was to make a screen of bamboo to hide some of the wild areas of the next door’s back garden where weeds and bushes run wild.

“Not a bad idea” I thought, it was an area we were going to fence off anyway.

She had found someone on Marketplace who was thinning out a clump of bamboo and offering it for sale.

I had to stop what I was doing and go and collect what we wanted.

The address was in Holland Heights an area where Kelli used to live.

The guy met us on his driveway, and led us to his back garden. Running along the back of his property was a hedge of thick clumps of bamboo. He dug out a clump of long thin shoots at least twelve feet high. We agree five of that size would be enough for the space we had.

We wrapped the root ball in a plastic bag and loaded it on to the roof of the truck. All this, and he only wanted ten bucks for it, a real bargain.

We rushed back and planted everything, but it wasn’t enough, so we went back for another load.

It must have looked odd driving back with all this foliage hanging over the back of the truck, a sort of moving bush.

By the end of the day we had wispy, bamboo shoots swaying in the breeze,hopefully bedding themselves in.

12th August 2020

We both worked on the two dressers that were in progress in the garage, desperate to get some sales for the month.

The pool was calling us, it was a hot day and the water was so inviting. I held Kelli back as long as I could, but it was inevitable that we would end up in it. Kelli is such a wimp because she hates cold water. In my opinion it was a perfect temperature. I lunged into my inflatable ring whilst Kelli apprehensively tackled the lilo. An ear piercing scream signalled her contact with the water. A sound most of the surrounding neighbourhood are now used too. It even frightens the crows who have been decidedly noisy the past few days.

We only had a short time because we were invited by Steve Kubica and his wife Jackie for a boat ride up and down the Saugatuck river in his pontoon boat with dinner afterwards.

It was a fun evening with a great vegan feast and drinks.

11th August 2020

With my list of pool repair materials we headed off to Menards.

First was a roll of “FlexTape”, a material that could be applied to a hole in a sinking ship. The Titanic could have been saved with a few rolls of this stuff.

The next was “Water Weld” an epoxy putty that could also be applied underwater.

We felt confident that we could do the repair and be floating around in it within hours.

I completed the drain, and located the tiny hole close to a weld line. I dried the area and applied a massive patch that covered the hole, and some other dodgy places.

This was obviously a manufacturing quality problem, caused by an inexperienced seven year old Chinese kid who made the product.

The next task was reinforcing the repair on the inside which was much more complex as the hole was really close to a fold. This is where the epoxy putty came into its own. A quick slice and a mix with the fingers and it was ready to apply.

Once it was moulded into place the repair was done, we tested it with a little water and it was good, so we re-pumped the water back from the old pool to the new, this time the water was warm from heat from the sun, Kelli was happy with that.

We worked on some furniture pieces whilst the pool was being filled, once that was completed we couldn’t wait to try it.

Right from the start we knew it was better, we had more room to move about, and we wouldn’t have to keep topping up the air, we could do what the pool was intended for, being lazy.

10th August 2020

Kelli was off early to pick up her new pool, I had a couple of things to work on in the garage, which included a lot of scraping.

When she returned, we did a lot more preparation of the ground to make sure it was level for the different shaped pool.

We used a lot of the sand from the sandbags to fill the uneven surface before moving it into shape.

The pool was still in its original packaging as the previous owner had never used it.

We lifted it into place and proceeded to inflate the top ring which is the only part that need air, the rest of the pool is shaped by the water within it.

Now was the long process of filling it.

As the water gushed in I noticed a pool of water near the emptying plug, thinking it was not fully tightened, I checked the plug. There was nothing wrong with that. I then noticed beads of water coming from a small hole near a seam. The bloody thing had a leak!!!

I stopped the filling and showed Kelli the problem. She was gutted, this was supposed to be a step up in pool leagues tables, and now we were no better off than we were with the old one.

There were repair patches in the box, but I wanted to see if there was a better method.

We were now in a position of having a half full pool that was leaking and no convincing way of fixing it.

Kelli contacted the seller, but what would they do? The product was still sealed in the box, so there was no tampering. She contacted the manufacturer, but of course with no receipt they weren’t interested, so we were on our own.

I spent time watching YouTube videos of people who have repaired pools with out draining them, but our leak was on the underside seam, so draining it was inevitable.

Fortunately we had the old pool to drain the water into, saving us wasting it.

Then the thunderstorm started, adding more water to what we had to pump, it looked like the heavens were laughing at us.

9th April 2020

My idea of fun was not trying to level the pool area. I was encouraged when I saw the cloudy skies, that the possibility that it would not be so unbelievably hot. But I was wrong.

I scraped the soil with my long sprit level trying to remove high spots whilst Kelli was making sure the pool was fully inflated.

With my clothing becoming sodden with perspiration I scraped away gradually levelling the ground.

It was not perfect, but it was better than it was, we placed the pool in position, and proceeded to fill it up.

We floated around for a few hours, but Kelli was still not convinced the the pool was right which is why she later announced that she had made an executive decision to buy a different one. She had been following one for sale on market place which was a circular design that didn’t rely on a number of inflated portions, so hopefully it will be less time consuming to maintain.