Author: peterb51

19th July 2020

There were violent storms through the night and into the morning, meaning the house was dark and gloomy. Not the best day to jump out of bed full of excitement ready to take on the world.

Kelli’s breakfast made up for it as we planned our day.

We took pictures of our latest piece in the sunroom which was the brightest room in the house.

What I hadn’t noticed last year was how dark the trees make the living space in the summer. The Japanese maple has such a dark canopy of leaves even my solar lanterns struggle to suck in enough light to charge up.

Once that was done it was off to Menards for a sheet of plywood to make the new bases for the drawers for Old Crusty.

There was just enough time for a quick dip in the pool, but first I had to remove twenty gallons of water that had settled on the tarpaulin.

The evening was spent finalising everything we need to send back to the USCIS.

I’m sure we’ve gone overboard on the financials, but there should be no more questions on that subject.

But it is exhausting, reading and re-reading all the documents, even doubting yourself leaves you numb and tired.

18th July 2020

It’s muggy, humid, close, whatever you want to call it, it’s very uncomfortable.

I managed to work a bit in the garage rebuilding a drawer from “Old crusty” the blue crackle dresser we picked up recently.

This drawer fell apart as I withdrew it from the carcass, so it was rewarding to replace the broken wood and reassemble the frame.

Cameron came over to make a list of parts we will need to renovate the tandem that has been languishing in the shed.

Kelli wants to get it roadworthy so that we can cycle the half a mile before we fall off.

We topped up the pool ready for our daily splash around, but no sooner that we got in the clouds rolled in from the lake. It was still very warm, but not so enjoyable as when the sun is beating down.

That meant a short dip and then back to the garage.

I worked to complete a small cabinet that we hoped to post tomorrow.

I had to tweak the door that had a slight twist in it. I am forever stuck with doors that are twisted, it is my curse in life. Most people have flat doors that fit perfectly, but not me.

Enlarging the holes in the hinges and a little packing managed to solve that one.

The other piece that worries me is the project piece that we got a while ago, and one we have a customer for.

Whoever made it in the first place must have lost their square because the left hand panel is half an inch out of square at the top of the unit.

The trouble is I can’t let it go as it is, as it offends my eyes, but the way it has been constructed means that I have to cut along where the side panel joins the top, and then shorten the top front rail. I think that is possible but the challenge will be joining it together again.

We won’t get any more money for it, but in my opinion it should look right, I don’t want anyone thinking I made it badly.

17th July 2020

The humidity was so high all the windows in the sunroom were dripping with moisture. As soon as I went outside it was like being hit by a wet blanket.

The dresser we needed to complete was done, and we carried it outside to take pictures.

I still had another layer of polyurethane to apply to the top before anyone could collect it, but I gathered that I would have the time.

It sold within an hour, but fortunately we have to deliver on Sunday.

It was time to add more air to the pool.

The bottom portion Looked a little soft, so out came all the extensions cables and pump, and in went ten minutes of air.

The pump works for about ten minutes before it overheats and we have to stop, and in this time I read the instructions for the first time.

I thought I should just check that the pump manufacturer is making it to suit my usage.

Lo and behold there was a variation in which nozzle to use.

With a change in my inflation behaviour it actually worked better, and more air was forced into the blue whale of a pool.

We spent the evening with Mike and Lesley drinking wine and watching the Hummingbirds on their feeder, absolutely beautiful, I’ve never seen them before.

16th July 2020

Kelli closed the drawer to my dresser in the bedroom as she has done hundreds of times giving comments like “don’t you close drawers in England?”

I usually reply by giving the excuse that all my drawers have automatic closing, which is true.

That led me down a wormhole of why all drawers and doors should have self-closing mechanisms and why ours don’t. That left me open to attack that our doors should, and when will I do it.

And as if in retaliation, the screen door, between the garage and the house, which has a spring the size of a bullworker, snapped back on the tender part of my ankle. So self-closing doors can be a health hazard.

I had my list of jobs that I had to finish today. I haven’t been impressed with our progress recently, not that we don’t have projects, they just seem to take forever.

I had to wash off the stain I rubbed on to the dresser top and drawers yesterday because of small swirl marks caused by the electric sander. As these only become visible once the stain has been applied, it is a pain in the arse.

So I started at a disadvantage, but I laboured through the sheets of eighty grit back to a new surface. The re-staining was a much better colour, that at least was a positive outcome.

I had a crack in a cabinet door to fix and a new upstand for the back edge.

I was up to my neck in work when Kelli decided to re-inflate the pool, we hadn’t used it for a couple of days, so she chose now as the best time to do it.

The bottom section is the worst bastard to do because it is right near the ground, therefore it takes two people, one to try to lift, whilst the other inserts the pump nozzle.

Tempers were raised at this point, not at each other, more the process. We ended up letting more air out than we were putting in, but eventually we managed to get a reasonable inflation rate.

That was just as well because it was pool time again.

15th July 2020

Okay I had a little too much to drink, but it’s Wednesday and I think it’s a good day to get out and treat my wife to a meal. Every day she creates an amazing dish designed to keep me alive for another day,

It was cloudy all day as I worked in the garage with only the Lancaster bomber propellers to keep me cool.

I had several pieces that I needed to work on. One was the project piece that we picked up that I subsequently found to be a crock of crap.

Someone had taken the trouble to make a piece out of solid alder and make it totally out out of square. I had to fit the last shelf, and that is when I found the inaccuracy. My gut told be to break it apart and rebuild it, but that may cause a lot of damage, so I am in a dilemma, should I make some corrections to improve it or should I risk breaking it apart.

I decided to work on another piece where the top and drawer fronts needed to be stained.

Kelli had done the bulk of the work leaving me with the staining.

That was okay until I saw the swirling marks caused by the sander.

Now everything will have to be sanded back to remove the marks.

I went on to do something else, hoping that something would give me some fulfilment.

There was another top that was sanded, and a new cabinet that Kelli picked up this morning, all of which that needed something, but it was difficult to get focused on.

Which brought me back to my beer. It was lovely, and it was Stein night at New Holland.

It slipped down nicely, I could feel the effects after the first mouthful. Kelli was looking great in her summer dress, she had cut my hair that morning, so maybe that added to the effects.

She is very good at making he feel human again, and although she used dog cutting scissors she still made a pretty good job of it.

Not once did I have the urge to lick my own bottom or howl from the roof, however the evening is still young.

14th July 2020

The weather was supposed to be in the nineties today, but even in the land of the free the forecasting is shite.

We had to drive to Grandville to pick up a dresser, and quite by chance a quick visit to Plato’s Closet for Kelli to sell off some surplus clothing, what a coincidence.

I got to have my coffee at Starbucks, my usual luxury.

What I have noticed, with my mask on the barista hasn’t a clue what I am saying. I have to slow my speech, and over pronounce my words just to get a grande latte. They usually have problems with my accent, often responding with “What?” but we get round it eventually, but the mask muffles everything.

Also the heat it generates, especially on a humid day is really uncomfortable.

We picked up the dresser, Kelli was excited how old and crackled the paint was, I was thinking how long it will take to strip.

It looked like it was missing some drawer bottoms, but it looked solid, so a miracle might have to happen.

We had to drive back quickly as a prospective buyer for the dresser, we posted yesterday was coming to look it over.

We moved it out on to the drive, and as often happens there were things missed that had to be touched up.

The lady liked what she saw, she was interested in it’s age, for which I had no answer. The fact it had wooden casters and a sectional back dated it about a hundred years.

She asked far more question than the majority of people we sell to, but she seemed happy with our response, and handed over the money.

There was no time for pool activity, which was a bit depressing, but maybe tomorrow will be better.

13th July 2020

I decided to tackle cutting the front lawn. A patch of ground without a decent piece of grass on it. I had started to remove moss and weeds, but the soil is not good for growing anything. I have done a bit of experimental seeding, but that came to nothing. Some shoots came up but the harsh sun dried it to a crisp. I am told the best time to seed is early autumn, so I might try again then.

We had a house assessor come round to value the house, not that we are planning to sell it, but we wanted a current value that I can include in my paperwork that I have to return to USCIS with all the rest of my financial information.

We finally finished the dresser that we bought as a project piece months ago.

The handles that we had to purchase on-line turned up today, so we tried to assemble those.

That was a trial in itself, although the hole centres were exactly three inches, the drawer fronts were curved so we had to fiddle those to make them to fit.

Kelli started to strip another dresser outside in the sun. Wood dust was blowing everywhere, but the incentive was to finish the sanding then it was pool time.

12th July 2020

I never expected to paint the garage door today. Maybe I should have expected it as I had done the repair work, but the thought of a rest was quite out of my wife’s mind.

Over breakfast she went on about when the door would be ready, and thinking on my feet, I listed out what had to be done first. I thought it would buy me a bit of time, by which she would have been distracted, and found something else to do.

However this was not the case. I started by filling the screw holes and sealing the joint where the new wood met with the old. A bit of sanding and a wash down with water and we were ready to go.

We had the paint, the same that we had used on the front door, this would certainly make a statement on the garage.

The surface was textured, so a roller would skim over the surface leaving the indentations, that would my job, and to paint under the lip seals.

It was not so hot today, when we started the sun was in the back garden, but as it moved over, the heat was reflected by the concrete driveway back on to us and the door causing it to dry fast.

As I was painting, my mind was thinking about pool time and how quickly could we finish so we could crash out.

With two people on it, me doing the fiddly bits and Kelli splashing it on, we did it in good time.

We then stood back and admired our handy work.

“It’s very red” Kelli said sheepishly,

“ But it’s a nice red” I replied.

“ Do you think it’s a bit bright?”

“ it’s a bit brighter than it was before, but it’s a nice red” I said reassuringly.

“ Do you think the neighbours will complain?” I could sense Kelli was worried about public opinion.

“F*** them” I said “ it’s our garage door and we’ll paint it any colour we want”

11th July 2020

I finally decided to repair the bottom section of the garage door. This had been like it since we bought the place, and at first we tried to buy a new section to replace it, but it had been discontinued.

Over the years the weather had got in and rotted the bottom edge so it looked a bit tatty.

I had bought some treated timber last week, so it was a good day to work on it.

Greer and Kelli were planning a pool party, which meant I could carry on uninterrupted.

I did an inspection and the rot was a little worse than I originally thought.

Each panel was made with a textured skin of hardboard on a soft wood frame with expanded polystyrene as the core.

The outer skin had delaminated along the bottom edge, so all that had to be cut away.

That was a difficult job, and the heat reflected off the door was uncomfortable . All the time I could hear laughter and splashing about and generally merriment, and I was just sweating.

After a few hours I finished screwing the new wood strip to the door, and decided that the hole filling can wait till tomorrow.

10th July 2020

We had heavy rain during the night, that filled the pool close to overflowing.

I needed to remove some of the water using the one bucket at a time method.

Kelli emerges and suggested that we move the pool to a slightly more level spot. This would give us an opportunity to clean it, but it meant draining it again.

Now that I had the pump. It was not the task it was with just buckets.

I connected the hose and lowered the pump into the water, I put the end of the hose into the dog bog.

After I filled that up, I pulled the hose to the side of the road to empty the rest.

Whilst all that was happening, I got on with thicknessing timber for my next projects.

It took about half an hour to empty the pool, there was a large puddle at the side of the road, but in this heat it didn’t take long to dry.

Then it was back to moving the pool. We tried it this way and that, trying to find a more level spot. Each position had its positives and negatives points, but we ended up putting it back in a similar position to where we had it before, we placed the sand bags along the long edge, having inflating the lower section first. It certainly was easier without the water in it.

As we were impressed with our sandbagging, we thought we would use the same method at one end that was a little lower than the other.

Back to Menards we drove for more sand.

“We need a new tarpaulin” we said in unison.

This has been a saga in itself, the original was too small, the fitted on didn’t fit, so we got one that could cover most of downtown.