Author: peterb51

21st November 2019

Birthday celebrations over, back on my head.

The lady came to collect the bookcase, another good sale, adding to our coffers.

I started work on the second repainting project.

Like all, it starts with aggressive sanding followed by less aggressive sanding, followed by gentle aggressive sanding until it is ready for Kelli to paint.

Don, the person who wanted the repainted furniture, stopped by to see the progress on the first one.

He was suitably excited at how it had turned out, however he is alway hyper excited at most things, but we were happy that he was happy.

The only change he wanted was to fill the old drawer handle holes.

This is something I hate doing, because it looks a simple job, but to do it so there is no visible sign of the hole,is harder than you think.

He handed Kelli the money, and I started the hole plugging.

20th November 2019

It was my birthday, another circle round the sun as Kelli puts it.

I didn’t have the usual birthday blues, living with Kelli that can’t happen.

She cooked me a wonderful breakfast consisting of hash browns, diced cabbage and chopped onions, washed down with with fresh coffee.

The present Kelli gave me was a small leaf Swiss cheese plant, I wanted to get something like this as there was a lack of green things apart from some succulents that I’m not a great fan of.

This was supposed to be a work free day, but there was alway the temptation to finish off something.

I had a batch of birthday wishes from all over the place, and a FaceTime with Damian and my grandson. This was funny because all he was concerned about was missing my party. I kept telling him his birthday is only a few days away, and he would have a bigger better party of his own.

I did another grand sweep of the front garden.

The piles of leaves I had accumulated had been collected by the city yesterday, but Mother Nature knows no timetable, and deposited another good covering in shear defiance of any ordinance that exists.

I was able to start another large pile by the side of the road. “I don’t think they will come round again this year” Kelli declared.

“ Then I will build a bloody big bonfire and burn it all, city ordinance or nothing”

Next we took 179 steps up a wooden stairway at a local state park. It takes you to a high ridge where the view over Lake Macatawa is breathtaking. This is the best time to see the view when the trees are free from leaves.

Kelli used to do the walk regularly, it would give the dogs good exercise, and test her own stamina.

It is a popular place, often frequented by crazy people who would run up the steps. This makes everyone feel inadequate, (including Kelli and myself). I would like to place wreathes at various places on the climb, or maybe a couple of skeletons dressed in running short and a deterrent.

We invited our friends Mike and Lesley over for a dinner of veggi bangers, mash and baked beans, followed by a Oreo birthday cake baked by my very own wife.

The beans were the real deal, not the crap that is sold over here, but the cake was amazing, I could hear my waist band creak with every mouthful.

19th November 2019

We delivered the dresser to a condominium in Zeeland. The lady was so pleased that it hadn’t been painted.

We did our usual visits to Goodwill, and Kelli found a mid century bookcase, that of course I passed by not seeing the potential.

I wander the isles staring at the shelves, catching sight of people eager to find something that would make their lives complete.

Goodwill has a good heart, at its base is reusability, we both feel there is too much new stuff out there, that becomes tomorrow’s surplus. This was the theme to our wedding. We have kept a number of the wine glasses that came from Goodwill, items you would struggle to find new. They are solid glass, not so thin that they break, more like they can be thrown them across the room and survive unscathed.

I always scan the place, first for people I should avoid, and secondly for any furniture that stirs my imagination. That is rare, but

hidden amongst the dross are the diamonds. I see the former, Kelli the latter.

We finished the dresser we were repainting. I put a sealer on the top, still not 100% but under the circumstances it was the best I could do.

We received a visit from the family Pastor. I could feel it in the air. The birds flew away and mice were throwing themselves on to the traps.

The purpose of the visit was to inform Kelli about her parents health.

This is still a difficult subject, and even the words from a pastor cannot solve this one.

He took the opportunity to give me a copy of a book he had written as a birthday present.

We also set a tentative date for a discussion over a cup of coffee, where I’m sure he will try to convert me, or I will try to convert him, the gauntlet is down.

18th November 2019

We were up bright and early as a potential customer was coming round to view our newly finished dresser. We had carried it inside the house to look better in natural light, and the garage was full of pieces in various stages of work.

The lady loved the piece, so we arranged to deliver it later that day.

Over the past few months we have noticed a slowdown in sales at the store. Many pieces have been languishing there for months, and as there is rent to pay for the space, the rewards have been really small.

Kelli took the decision to terminate her contract, but continue on a commission base plan, this gave us a presence but with a reduced expense. We decided to concentrate our efforts on selling more through Marketplace, and offer a delivery service.

This has started to bear fruit as there are many people who don’t have trucks, or the strength to carry stuff.

We also decided to sell more furniture as we find them, that is without any work from us.

This would include “project” pieces for others to finish. This would be good for cash flow, and allow us to concentrate on the things that we would enjoy working on.

We decided to put on Marketplace the dresser that we picked up yesterday. It was in good condition so it was a good opportunity to test out our idea. Sure enough before the evening was out we took a sale, high fives all round.

In the late afternoon we delivered the painted dresser to an address in Holland, a couple of miles from our home.

During the day I had tried to improve the fit of the lower drawer. This was one piece I hadn’t really been involved with, so there was limited time to do anything to make it perfect. The older dressers had drawers where the sides were made of cedar which is soft and wear away on the oak runners. After a time the drawer drops and it becomes difficult to close smoothly. In the past I have repaired the sides by bonding on a oak piece to the side panels, but I didn’t have the time to do this, so I did the best I could and let it go at that.

The couple were delighted with it, and it took pride of place in their new nursery.

I started work on the four free chairs we collected yesterday. Most of the frames were loose, so one by one I stripped them down and re-glued them. Two of them had some serious repairs to them which meant a bit more cosmetic work to make the look good again. One seat pad needed a bit of cleaning, which was set aside till another day.

Kelli has finished the painting on one of the renovation pieces he had taken on.

I had stripped the top back intending to stain and refinish it. The first attempt didn’t look that good, so I sanded it back to try again.

There is alway a potential problem removing a factory finish because some of the lacquers soak deeper into the wood than in other places. In veneers this is bad, solid timber is okay, it just means sanding harder.

The second attempt was better, but not perfect, but I didn’t want to sand any more in case I rubbed through, and ruin it.

17th November 2019

Saugatuck in the winter is a sad place. Many of the shops close, some never to reopen. There are those that are “hobbies” often owned by those who fortunately don’t need the income.

Bars and restaurants are safe havens of refuge, the go-to places when the ones you wanted are closed.

This is the first time this trip I’ve been to the book shop. The owner Cheryl, has previously closed during the winter, but Kelli had experience of a reasonable level of business in the off season to, at least, cover the rent, so that was a good reason to try it.

So now the place is open at weekends and Kelli picks up some of the hours available.

The first thing I got involved in was building a Christmas tree out of books. Fortunately there is no shortage of those, but finding them of regular thickness is difficult.

I managed to build something that I call the “Elton John”, that is a bit short and fat around the middle with a pointed top. It was the best I could do without a full set of drawings.

I walked to the coffee shop for my “fix” and to observe the locals.

There were a family group entertaining a small child by calling her on their mobile phones. What a sad thing when the only way they could communicate was using a piece of technology. In the old days the only thing given to me to play with was a flick knife, or a hand grenade. Then that says a lot about my relationship with my dad who eventually started giving me road maps and a compass.

I’ve come along way without the need for a mobile phone, but now children are trained to be reclusive and lacking in basic social skills at an age of five.

I have been interested in the impeachment hearings that have been shown live. I watch whilst I’m working in the garage. This country’s devision is much worse than I thought it could go. There isn’t even recognition if there is a bad or nonsensical tweet by the President, the Republicans are adamant that there is nothing wrong.

I have never seen such a bunch of spineless sycophants gathered together in one place.

The one fun thing that happens every morning is watching the dogs rush out into the garden chasing the squirrels. There is not a hope in hell of catching them, but they do it regardless.

On the way back we had to collect a dresser. Like we need another dresser, but you can’t afford to let them go when they are offered. However at $30 it was at the high end of the procurement budget, so the minimum amount of work to get it out for sale is required here.

The guy also threw in four dining chairs for free. Normally we are not excited about taking chairs because painting them can be a pain, but these had an Eames style fabric on the seat, so we might just clean them up and sell them as is.

We had fun trying fit them into the back of the truck with the dresser. It was like a Mensa test. I managed to fit three chairs in but the forth was impossible. I needed just a half an inch more to get it in, but it just wouldn’t go. In the end we had to bungees it to the roof rack. This made the vehicle easy to spot in the car park.

16th November 2019

It is sixty weeks since we got married, something we note every week.

I was working in the garage whilst Kelli went off doing things that only Kelli knows how.

I planned to make a squirrel feeder out of some scrap pieces of cedar. Kelli decided that she wants to feed every wild animal this winter.

There is already a bird feeder hanging in a tree that attracted every bird in the area. It’s like a scene from a Hitchcock movie, the fluttering little critters freak out the dogs who stare at the activity from behind glass.

The squirrels have made a beeline for the seeds which has prompted me to make the dedicated feeder.

Cutting cedar is like putting pepper in the air. I have a mask, but it mists up my glasses, which makes me mad.

15th November 2019

I started to sand the unit we got from Goodwill the other day. I had already stripped the top, but the carcass was painted dark blue. Very soon I was covered in blue dust. It took ages to get it all ready for painting. This was not my finest hour, I looked like a character from the film “Avatar”.

I turned on the work lights that I bought yesterday. We needed more light to work with and this seemed the best option. Switching them on flooded the garage with 500 watts of white light, now we can get a tan whilst we work.

14th November 2019

The one thing we had to do today was to pick up a dresser from our space at Our Collected Home. This had been there a long time, but we thought it had sold earlier in the month only to be told that the buyer didn’t like the hole in the top. It had been used as a TV stand, hence the hole was for cables.

We took the decision to fill the hole, and then repaint it.

It’s been a slow build up, since I got back. There is plenty of things to work on, but it’s sometimes hard to get motivated.

Sales for October was pretty crap and there is a slow start for November. This is usually a good month for furniture, so I need to get my finger out.

Even a trip to Aldi didn’t excite me, there are limited opportunities for fun, often at other people’s expense. It’s the people hogging the cabinet with the hash browns. They stand there blocking the door whilst I dance about trying to gain access. I have thought about ramming into their cart, I have even considered grabbing their cart and sending down the isle both of which would probably get me banned from the store.

13th November 2019

I was left to my own devices as Kelli had to do her flower delivery job. I had more sanding to do on a re-paint job. Firstly I had to move the piece out of the stock pile in order to work on it. This entailed moving other things out of the way. First there was a small bookcase that smelt like piss, not sure where this came from, possibly a public convenience. The next item was a dresser with no drawers. How do you lose four drawers? they’re bloody large wooden boxes, not the sort of things that fall down a crack in the floor, well not four of them. It intrigues me to think what I will be able to do with it.

We dragged the Goodwill find from yesterday into the garage, and Kelli left.

There was a dresser that we finished the night before that we had photographed that I needed to finish so that it could go on Marketplace.

I set about sanding the top of the re-paint piece. Two hours later it was stripped, and all I had to show was a sore arm and a pile of debris.

12th November 2019

We had another eight inches of snow overnight, so with a customer due to look at the latest dresser that Kelli had listed on Marketplace I thought I would make a start on clearing the driveway.

We are not so prepared as the rest of the people in the road with snow clearing equipment. Kelli has an electric snow shovel that is the equivalent of a Fred Flintstone appliance. Using it feels like I’m vacuuming the ground, but it was better than nothing.

The person who came to look at the dresser agreed to buy it, but we had to deliver it later in the afternoon.

The delivery went okay, the dresser was large and awkward, I got a cramp wrestling the beast out of the truck, much to the amusement of the buyer. Then it was up some steps and through a door. This was more exhausting than doing the entire restoration of the piece.

We stopped off at Goodwill and managed to grab a small unit, so the backlog is maintained.