Author: peterb51

25th February 2018

One of the wedding ideas is a beach service on the edge of Lake Michigan, so we drove down to take a look. There is the issue of access, because although the beaches are public, you have to cross private property to get to them. That is when the crazy ideas surfaced.

One was a D day style landing, one with horses, and another, care of Kelli’s brother Matt who suggested a funeral style with me being carried in a pallet wood coffin, and set down, then Kelli would lift the lid and let me out, I thought it was a cool idea, but the consensus was rather cold to that concept.

Kelli still spends the evening scrolling through Pinterest, at this rate she’ll soon be suffering from RSI.

24th February 2018

Kelli was unhappy with her hair, so had arranged to go back to have it fixed, she returned, the balance was returned to the galaxy.

I had plenty of things to do in the garage, the balance did not affect me at all.

I had to thickness timber for a coffee table. If I had a cup of coffee for every coffee table I have made, I’d spend a lot of time on the toilet.

The fifteen bucks unit is nearing completion, although we’ve nearly doubled that buying the knobs and paint.

We had dinner at the Saugatuck Brewing Company, tonight’s entertainment were a three piece that played music to fall asleep too. The guitarist looked like he had lost the will to live which matched my mood exactly.

The topic of conversation is all about the wedding, exploring different venues, I can see I will need to get Kelli a big book to store all the ideas in.

23rd February 2018

There is something vaguely unsettling sitting in a hair salon waiting for Kelli to emerge. Unsettling because her hair is precious and has a preservation order on it, any disaster would disrupt the world order.

I couldn’t stand the suspense, so had to leave to search out the nearest cafe. Lemonjello’s was the nearest, but is often full of Hope college students glazed by the glow of their laptops.

It was my lucky day, I found a table and slowly sipped my cappuccino catching up on the progress to my cottage. It looks like most of the big jobs will be completed next week, leaving me with all the rubble to clear away when I return. Friday is when the invoices appear, so always a twinge in the bank balance.

The visit to the salon did not go well, she insisted on wearing her nazi hat home afterwards.

The story of the nazi hat goes back many years. Kelli wears a cap anytime she is not happy with her hair, which is most days. I started calling this cap a nazi hat because it was army green just like those in the old war films. I guess It started after watching the famous “Fawlty Towers”, “Don’t mention the war” episode, anyway it stuck.

I guess I understand that the hair style you come out of the salon with is not your real one, and you can’t wait to get home and wash it again, yep! It’s the same in America.

22nd February 2018

Happy hour at Perredies was packed, with cheap people eating cheaply, with us included. I had never been to one of these before, and we met up with Kelli’s friend Bethanne, and boy when these two get together they can talk for America. I do not always understand their language, it is a blend of giggles, in-breaths and tv quotes. It is so much fun being in their company

There is so much laughter, it is like being in a foreign country, and no sub-titles. For twenty bucks you got a bottle of house wine and a meal. Later, the waitress brought us an opened bottle of wine left over from some other diners. Well, waste not want not, we assisted in finishing it off. The wine was good,and went straight to my head, I was swaying, and everything was really funny. When we eventually left, two hours later I had a craving for peanuts, so in between chilling in the big chair, and nodding off I would be chomping on nuts leaving the dogs to find the ones I had dropped.

There is something mildly erotic about being asleep when a dog starts licking the salt off your hands, mmmm, far out man!

21st February 2018

We have someone interested in the “fifteen buck” piece. This project has been going for ages, I started it during the last trip, and finally I had a vision of what I thought it needed to be, but that has now changed. Instead of a experimental piece that stood in the face of conversation, it will become a piece that someone will actually buy. Not that I’m complaining, but I was looking forward for something a little different.

More things were flashing through Pinterest. My peripheral vision was blocked, and my full vocabulary was “nice”, “I like the back” and ” would you need to wear a vest under that?”.

I have entered the woman’s world of infinite choices, where the wrong “yes” could mean instant death.

We want a non religious ceremony, so should we find a Druid, a Witch or a vampire? Kelli is on a roll, she is trying to find a beach, and a minister with a speedboat.

This is going to be the best time, it may piss with rain, but it will be the wildest experience I’ve ever had for a long time.

20th February 2018

The rain was pouring down, the roads were awash and Kelli’s basement got flooded.

I have heard about this happening, but this was the first time I have experienced it first hand. At ten thirty in the evening Kelli, Greer and myself were mopping and baling frantically, so the pumps could push it outside, only for it to soak back into the basement. Eventually we won the battle, and I sank into the big chair exhausted.

Earlier in the evening we met up with John and Patti at a restaurant in Zeeland. They make, and repurpose furniture like us, so a lot of the conversation was comparing notes. Secretly we see them as rivals ( in a friendly way) because they make, and sell furniture that is really expensive, and the stuff just flies out the store.

19th February 2018

Back up to Hudsonville to replace the items sold. The small table that I repaired was still drying in the back of the truck along with a dresser that Kelli had repainted. The weather was terrible, rain was melting away the snow, which is a improvement, but it make driving tricky. Once at the booth we saw the devastation, when one big piece goes, its controllable, when two or more goes it’s like “We’re closing down”.

This is the opportunity to move everything around, yippee!

I brought in the small table, we were fraughted with the dresser, because the back door to the truck had jammed. Panic ensued, it was too large to get out through the back doors. With a struggle we established that a corner of the blanket covering the dresser had wedged in the door lock. A sharp tug and a lift of the door solved the problem.

Once the move around was finished, the booth space looked good again.

We stopped off for a coffee on the way back. The Starbucks was a small booth inside of the Family Fare supermarket, when we got there the place was deserted except for a sign that said that it was closed for a short time. We stood around dumbstruck, re-reading the sign just to make sure we read it correctly. Just then a guy turned up and started switching off the lights. He saw that we were waiting, and although he was closing for the day, he served us. He was friendly, he had a mop of green hair and an armful of tattoos, not the kind of person you expect to find serving in a Starbucks, but he made a good cup of coffee.

18th February 2018

I removed the top from the small table, and stripped the paint of to see the condition. Under three layers it was Mahogany, it had split along a joint so the repair was a simple job. Whilst we were having the usual Sunday lunch at Kelli’s parents, I ran both the pieces over the planer in preparation for another non work day jobby.

In the evening, Kelli was back on Pinterest, this time looking at cakes and flowers. More pages flashing cakes of all descriptions and colours, it re-enlighten a craving for sugar and cream that I thought was gone forever. There were so many flowers and bouquets that if I suffered from hay-fever, I would have been sneezing all night.

So this is how it goes, the fuse has been lit, Kelli is building her book of lists, the dresses can fill volumes, whilst what I am wearing nearly covers a single line, including socks, so that’s me set.

17th February 2018

Another non working day, another frantic scramble for furniture to finish. The dresser that we delivered of Friday sold quickly, it could have sold three times over. The activity started last night because Kelli posted it on her Bristol Cottage Facebook page, and was generating interest straight away. One lady who was talking to Kelli arrived at The Tin Roof just as someone else was carrying it out to their car.

That then drives Kelli into frantic mode, she quickly repainted the dresser she took out, and delivered it back with the paint still damp.

Of course there was slim pickings at Goodwill apart from a small table that needed some attention to a split in the top. Kelli, as always find small stuff that makes up the bulk of her sales, I don’t know how she selects the pieces. When I look, I just see junk, so I stick to my job, and leave the treasure hunting to her.

The went to the Saugatuck Brewery for dinner. It’s a cool place, and we have our favourite veggie burger and fries. We started with grilled sprouts, which are surprising good and didn’t come with the normal after effects, well not until I was outside. There was a guy playing guitar and singing, we both noted that most of the songs he performed were written, or sung by dead people, except Neil Young, so expect an announcement soon.

16th February 2018

More drop-offs today, including a fantastic dresser that was FREE! This is the best kind.

Kelli worked her magic with the paint brush. I made a new top from an old maple headboard.

On the way to The Tin Roof we had to stop to get some handles. The Hobby Lobby is a regular place that we go to find furniture fittings. All we needed were three handles with five inch fixing centres. As we scoured the shelves, which had little choice, trying to find handles that met the specification was really difficult. I thought that five inch centres was a standard, but I wasn’t thinking about Chinese five inch centres that measured four and three-quarters. None were the size we needed. Things were desperate, the only option was a rope handle, so three of those ended up in our basket, and we even had to scrounge some fittings from other handles.

We fitted them once we got to the Tin Roof, and they looked a little different, they matched the paint effect with a nautical flavour.

We picked up another dresser that had been there a long time that Kelli wanted to repaint, so flexing my muscles hauled it into the truck.