Author: peterb51

2nd January 2019

Damn it our bench sold. Not that this is bad, it is more about having something ready to replace it. I thought we would have the rest of this week to get other things ready, and even sharpened my chisels in anticipation.

I guess tonight will be busy.

We moved the tall dresser into the kitchen so that Kelli can work on it.

I scraped the top of the hutch base with the back edge of a wide chisel so that can be stained. This is a tedious task, but there is satisfaction in the crunchy sound of the varnish turning to dust. It took about an hour to get it ready for sanding.

By 6.00pm I had enough, the cold had numbed my fingers, and I was looking forward to a hot mug of coffee.

Kelli had been busy painting the tall dresser, so everything looked on track for tomorrow’s delivery.

1st January 2019

New Year’s Day starts like any other day, with a glass of orange juice.

I had a Skype call with my friend Martin whilst I was eating my breakfast. He always calls when my hair looks a mess, usually blurry eyed, many say it’s my best look.

Kelli had started on the food for lunch, we were going to the in-laws for a family bash.

I always use this day as my reflection on the last year, the highs and lows. Of course the high point was the wedding, but before that was the proposal. That was the most amazing time when Kelli saw the note in the wine list. The expression on her face will be in my memory for ever.

There was the renovation work to the cottage that took me to the edge, but now the dirty work is done, and I have the value back.

Bristol Cottage has had a good year, we are establishing ourselves, and our style is getting some recognition. The decision to move out of Tin Roof was the correct one, as, sadly that place has now closed. I know it is Kelli’s wish to have a place of her own, but the pressure of keeping a place filled, and have the time to find and work on stuff would be crippling.

We have to continue to build the business we have.

It has been fantastic to make contact with many of my Art School class mates again, and to have regular coffee meetings. It is great to see them as different people, each having a unique stories to tell.

I also value the friendship of my ex Herman Miller colleagues, I never want to lose the opportunity to meet and laugh at, and with each other. Bob’s recycled and vintage jokes will never get stale.

The work starts again tomorrow, and so does the planning for the next adventure.

Talking of which, we had to take Greer to Grand Rapids airport as she was flying to Wisconsin to see her best friend Will. It was odd for me, because it is usually me that Kelli takes, and here I was making the same journey, but without the anxious feelings of actually flying. As she was checking in she was told of a delay to her departure, this would mean missing her connection. The alternative was an very early flight the next morning, or one later in the day. This is the horrible feeling during this time of year, with the weather conditions changing regularly.

I noticed that an earlier flight to Chicago had been delayed, so we enquired if she could take that one, although there was ten minutes before that was due for takeoff. Some frantic phone calls later, and success, she had to get to the gate at double speed. As we left the terminal, I noticed a further delay to the flight, probably, because Greer’s last minute dash meant they missed the plane’s flight plan. I bet there was a few mutterings by the passengers on board.

31st December 2018

The weather has turned wet and dismal, the drive to Hudsonville was uneventful. The space looked sad and empty, the two big items stripped the booth of anything of interest, leaving a lot of things on the floor. This is Kelli’s nightmare, hence the truck full to the brim. Out went most of the remaining Christmas things, sad, as the build-up is so gradual and once that’s over it is a race to remove it. Fortunately we didn’t have that much to remove, so Kelli could concentrate on integrating the new items.

The shit dresser, now transformed into a not so shit dresser looked pretty good, and set the scene for the new year look.

We were surprised that the table and chairs were still there, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

We spent a couple of hours re-arranging everything until she was happy with how it looked.

We went to the Hudsonville winery for lunch, since we discovered the place it has become our default when hunger hits us.

We picked our table and ordered our food. There were a group on guys playing cards on the next table. One of them was shuffling the cards, really loudly, I hadn’t noticed it when we sat down, but Kelli was on it straight away. On and on he kept shuffling, as if trying to wear the numbers off. It began to annoy me a little, but Kelli was ready to smack him.

We finished our food and were ready to head out, we decided to shuffle ourselves in a silent protest, but to others it must have looked like we were crazy people.

Kelli dropped me off at Starbucks while she went to another place, and to my horror I discovered that there were no wooden sticks, this has been the whole reason for going there. I’m not sure if this is for environmental reasons, but I’m sure the green plastic things are not good for the planet.

So business has closed for 2018, time to take stock and to plan how to improve for next year.

America will still have the same dumb president, and Brexit will drag on, but I’m taking my wife out to dinner to our favourite restaurant, so sod the lot of them.

The table was booked for 7.00pm, we got there a little early, and took our seats. There was a full table behind us, they were loud, and they hadn’t even started drinking yet. One of the ladies on that table was a screecher. The pitch of her voice was uncomfortable, it was torture, making me ready to confess to any crime. It was bad for Kelli she had endured the card shark shuffler, a crying baby in the changing room of the store she visited, and now the banshee woman in red!

This had been a New Year’s Eve to remember.

We got back home with our deserts to go and a half bottle of merlot, kicked off our shoes and settled in to watch Love Actually, one of Kelli’s favourite films. She cries at all the same places even though she has watched it many times. At midnight we toasted the end of a good year and start of another. I didn’t suggest playing cards in case I got a new year slap.

30th December 2018

The morning sun reflected off the sprinkling of snow, that had fallen last night, but there was not time to stand around to look at it. I had the shit dresser top to fit.

Kelli had her projects so she was busy.

The top I was trying to fit was badly bowed in the middle so I fitted wooded dowels and some clamps and wound them up tight.

I was concerned that the dowels would not hold so I set about a “belt and braces” solution by trying to fit angle brackets. This was bloody difficult because it was like working through a letterbox. It must have taken a good hour to fit then, and exhausted every expletives I have ever known. I could only use a dumpy screwdriver so I ended up with a blister on my finger.

Kelli on the other hand made herself scarce in the bathroom, even the dogs found refuge in the living room. Finally the air cleared and the job was finished. By the end of the evening the kitchen was full with different pieces destined for Hudsonville.

29th December 2018

News of another sale, this time it was the drinks cabinet made from the old radio cabinet that had been around of ages.

I was frightened that it would not sell due to its quirkiness, and that there are very few quirky people in West Michigan (apart from us) however my faith was restored, but this sent Kelli in a tizzy, so the inevitable search commenced to find more stuff. I already had a number of pieces in various states of progress, so the thought of more things boxing me into the small remaining space was a bit scary. All this was of no concern to my wife, we had a mission to get at least two things to Hudsonville for Monday, and that was the target.

The first Goodwill was devoid of anything useful, so we headed off to the next one.

The doors slid open, both our eyes quickly scoured the area where the furniture is usually displayed, nothing looked promising. Kelli peeled off to look at small stuff displayed on low shelves, whilst I continued to wander round the furniture area. The was just junk, stuff that should be burnt, as they were an affront to my cultured eyes. I looked through the books, but there were just the usual God books, only useful for wedging a door open.

I looked at the CD’s but there were just Christian music, Country, and Christian country music, I can’t believe there is so much plastic wasted on this.

We were at the checkout paying for some small items when Kelli spotted a mirror, and once we paid, she walked round to look at it. I stood holding the items. I could see she was in discussion with someone over a hutch that had been there for a while. It was listed at $40 which we thought was a bit high, so we hadn’t bought it. I could see the talking was getting more specific, the hutch pieces were being moved. Finally Kelli beckoned me over, she said the price was now $20, should we buy it? I tried to play it a bit cool, looking over it in more detail. The price was a steal, a piece like that could easily sell for $300. Kelli has good negotiation skills, I know that by the way she can extract money from my wallet, (just joking) so she agreed to the price making it sound like she was doing them a favour. This was loaded into the truck, but it didn’t end there. Next door to Goodwill is another thrift store, we could not leave without checking it out. Within seconds she found a small dresser that needed very little work, ideal for Monday’s delivery. So with the truck loaded down we headed home.

Kelli started on the small dresser straight away by removing the horrible knobs. Huge

improvements can be made just doing this.

We had moved the shit dresser into the kitchen for Kelli to transform it with colour, it just awaited the top that I had to finish.

I’m sure my work output would be better if I didn’t get distractions like food, and eating, but also Kelli throwing curved balls at me. The latest was an idea that had been brewing in her little head for a while, and it involved digging for an old screen door that we picked up by the side of the road last year. We moved a load of crap and pulled out the door. Attached to it was some wooden fence strips, presumably there to protect the screen from damage. I had to remove the strips whilst Kelli took them away to paint. Later I had to fix some rails on to the back to hold it all together. With the addition of a small wreath it was transformed into a cool rustic display.

I alway give her a hard time when she collects all these bits, but always she uses it to make things looking fantastic.

The surprise was that it snowed this evening, and I missed it.

28th December 2018

We sold a secretary desk that Kelli had worked on whilst I was in the UK. It had taken a while, and been moved around the space a couple of times.

That meant one thing, I had to put on my warm coat and go out into the cold garage to start on another piece. This will have to be finished and ready to go to Hudsonville on Monday.

We had a number of pieces to choose from, the shit dresser, a tall dresser that Kelli had bought privately and the two side tables.

I thought that the easiest one to work on was the tall dresser.

I started by removing the top intending to strip it back to raw wood, only to find it had been coated with a thick coat of wax. Fortunately a long time ago Dave had given us some gunk that would remove it. However trying to find it was difficult. It is one of those times when you remember seeing it in a particular place, and it wasn’t there. “Kelli do you know where the wax remover is? A puzzled look ensued. There followed a back and forth exchange of possible places. So I went back into the garage and found it in the exact place it should have been, in the place I already looked. I sniffed for the smell of burnt toast, there was none, so a stroke was off the list, it was just my ability to not spot the bleeding obvious.

Trying to remove the wax was a bastard of a job, and I knew that there was no way it could be finished for Monday, so the only option was to work on the the shit dresser.

Most of the repair work to the body was done, so it was handed over to Kelli to paint.

27th December 2018

Back to Hudsonville to take the bench, and to take stock of anything we had sold.

I had created graphs to track our progress over the past year, and noted that our sales figures for December last year were exactly the same as the total today, which means we have another three days sales to improve this year.

The beer I had at lunch time was playing tricks with my eyes. Kelli always has to ask if I can smell toast, apparently the early signs of having a stroke. Shit! I always smell that, because I’m usually burning the bread.

26th December 2018

Well that’s that for another year, back out in the garage turning timber into shavings, and dull things transformed into desirable pieces.

We had leftovers to eat and great music to listen too.

Kelli renewed the postings on Facebook to hopefully grab people’s attention, and part them from any money they might have left.

I worked on the bench we brought back from Hudsonville. I remade the top and painted the carcass.

We went to Steve and Jackie Kubica’s house for dinner and met some of their friends. It was a great evening, the food was wonderful and catered for all of us. Steve was proud to demonstrate his height adjustable island unit, well only he would do something like that.

We got home after 11.00pm, but work never stops, I had to stain the bench tops before I was allowed to sleep, as we had to take it back to Hudsonville in the morning.

25th December 2018

What a great day, we all opened our presents in the morning, sharing greetings with my family in the UK.

Kelli made the last of the food, a slaw that tasted of heaven, then we loaded up the truck and drove up the road to the family homestead.

There began the carefully orchestrated use of the cooker to heat up our food and to cook theirs. Images of my own childhood Christmas, where my mother would be squeezing the turkey into the oven at six in the morning came to mind. The kitchen would be filled with steam, like being trapped in a Turkish Bath. Tempers would get heated, like the boiling vegetables, but eventually every thing turned out fine. There would be the ceremonial opening of the bottle of wine, where the cork would usually snap halfway, and my dad cursing the Spanish for using cheap cork, but they were great memories.

We were allowed to bring wine to the Bulthouse table for the first time in living memory. Long considered to be evil in a Cristian home, Dave gave his blessing, maybe scared I would have a hissy fit, but after eighty years his beliefs may have softened.

Although there was no snow, there was a flurry of flakes that gave an appearance of a winter scene.

The food Kelli had slaved over was fabulous, the roasted vegetables, sprouts, stuffing, and especially the mashed potatoes were devoured entirely, mmmm!

24th December 2018

So it is Christmas Eve, and Kelli is in the kitchen again cooking up some wonderful food for tomorrow. I was busily painting a storage bench in the kitchen, occasionally sampling some of the food. I thought it was the ideal place to be. The music was good, my singing not so great, but you can get away with anything at this time of year.

I wanted to go out for dinner in the evening, but when we phoned around everywhere we tried closed early, what the heck people!

We finally found a place that couldn’t give a shit about Christmas, a Thai restaurant!

To say that the Thai Palace lacked ambience was an understatement, there would be more atmosphere on the moon. We should have known when there were no cars in the car park . They also didn’t serve any alcohol, this was a disaster, and we knew it was a mistake.

When my vegetable fried rice dish arrived it looked like the result of a land mine explosion, Kelli’s was no better. The waiter had lost the will to live, and spent more time on his phone than attending to us.

We quickly ate what we could, and left the Thai Palace to fade into the darkness.

The only thing that could have been worse was if Sting and Bono would have turned up to play.