Author: peterb51

23rd July 2018

The end of this trip is approaching, and the panic is setting in. I have this week to complete the items that have money at the end of them.

Kelli had agreed to buy a plate rack from an address in Saugatuck, and as I had nothing better to do, it was me who was nominated to collect it. I tried to memorise the directions from her phone, but the moment I left the book shop I forgot most of them. I engaged gut feel, and set off to find the white pick-up that was parked in the drive.

At each intersection There were three choices, left, right or straight on, but amazingly I found the place, or rather it found me. Luckily the person selling the item was working in the garden, and saw me floundering about.

Fashion has never been my forte, I subscribe to the Jeremy Clarkson school of gentlemen attire. Denim goes with everything. One of my pet hates are cargo pants, especially on older men. Along with cargo shorts, they are the most unflattering clothes ever designed. I believe the design brief was to create something that has bulges in all the wrong places, and to make men look like aliens. They might look better on dockers or slaves, but parading down the Main Street in Saugatuck even the gays feel humiliated.

Another no no is camouflage clothing. People pay good money, when they could join the army and get them for free. Anyway what is the point in camouflage shorts? The last thing I would like to do is blend in to the background, and leave my legs exposed.

In an attempt to make me look less like Jeremy C, Kelli now prepares clothes that are co-ordinated and less like a tradesman. I now feel I’m in a photo shoot for a John Moores catalogue.

22nd July 2018

As always this is supposed to be a rest day, but inevitably there are always things that I’m behind on. I made the mistake of sanding the top of the heavy bench, so I had to finish it. There was also the sanding of the sofa table so that it is ready for sanding.

We went up the Kelli’s parents for dessert, and to cut some wood pieces.

There was concerns about Dave’s health, he recently has gone down hill recently. An indication of this is we’ve only been out for breakfast once this trip. This is usually our escape, and the opportunity to “chew the fat” and put the world to right.

He has a stubborn streak, and has refused to visit a doctor to treat his bad legs. Everyday he has to bind them with dressings, and there is concern that he might loose them. I believe he is frightened, he chooses to ignore the problems, hoping it will heal itself. He is much weaker, his voice is thin, and it looks like he has given up.

When he does move, it is with sticks or a frame. The family are angry with him for not caring about himself, and it effects everyone. In a couple of months he has to take Kelli down the path at our wedding, by then, I don’t know if he will have the strength.

This put a downer to the day, it is frustrating being unable to get into a person’s head and help them want to help themselves.

Before we left, I needed to investigate the construction of the roof above the kitchen.

This meant that I needed a ladder, luckily Dave had a collection of step-ladders handing on the wall. Getting to them was a task in itself. First the car had to be moved, then the rubbish bin, followed by a small trailer. Finally once the wheelbarrow was repositioned, I could unhook the largest step-ladder. Then lift it over a petrol can, and past the items we had previously moved. Once cleared of all the obstacles, I was able to climb up to check what was up there. It was not easy because of how the garage was built on the the kitchen. I took some measurements, and preceded to put the step-ladder back. It took the assistance of both Kelli and Greer to guide me back, knocking over a stack of cardboard boxes in the process.

There was a medical emergency in our place when Kelli cut her thumb on a piece of broken ceramic. From the initial moment I expected blood spurting everywhere, but no, it was a mere scratch. Of course,there’s a list of things she would not be able to do with a damaged thumb. The main one being, washing her hair, others would include not being able to use the cooker, and opening a bottle of wine.

21st July 2018

We did the rounds of the two Goodwill this morning. I am surprised at myself, as I never thought in a thousand years I would voluntarily go into these places. However it is becoming the norm, and less traumatic for me. Kelli can always find something, whether it is things for the wedding, or items to sell on. The principal idea behind Goodwill is interesting, as it is a charity foundation to give employment and training opportunities to those who may have barriers to finding a conventional job. It is a non-profit organisation that raises money (mostly as a result of Kelli) though the hundreds of thrift stores around the country.

We met some friends for lunch at the Brick Lane Pizza, in Grand Rapids, a cool place that serves a good vegan and vegetarian menu.

On the way back we stopped at Goodwill again, this time to let Kelli use the facilities. Having a quick look round we found a five foot long bench that weighed a ton. We struggled it into the truck, and took it home. This should be another quick transformation.

20th July 2018

The Japanese are in town! Dressed in their customary bright coloured raincoats the ladies were sipping their coffee talking non-stop.

They were passing round these old fashion picture devices called cameras, I guess some parts of Japan never change with the times.

It is fun to be a part of this colourful world.

Even in this small resort town the English, and Japanese co-exist together with the locals. Well our money is always welcome.

I had another restless night, my thoughts dominated by stairwells, supporting walls and suspending floors. I thought that building a scale model would channel my thoughts better than my drawings would, but it has exposed me to much more detail, and many more questions.

I completed the sofa table frame, I discovered that I didn’t have clamp large enough to cover the five foot span, so I had to improvise, not ideal.

19th July 2018

Kelli continued to clear crap from the garage, lots of stuff that didn’t sell from her booths had been stored, gathering dust. It was time to put it on the side of the road, and wait for the vultures to descend and pick though the stuff. This was aided by a note on Craig’s list offering them for free.

As I was working on my table frame project, cars kept stopping, and people would rummage though the pile, squirrelling items into their car, and then disappearing. Within a short time the pile had reduced. However one item had survived, resisting all the people that had taste, and not been attracted to the ones with none. There had been a lamp at Hudsonville for ages. It started life providing light for the booth, moved around within the limits of the cable length. It became like an unwanted gift that you could not throw away. It became as familiar as the floor tiles, but it’s time had run out.

It was moved into the garage, on to the table where my chop saw sits. I would see it every time I made a cut, gradually getting covered in sawdust, it stood defiant.

Eventually, as part of the clear-out, it could not avoid the hand of Kelli.

It was added to the pile of things, awaiting a new owner, and a new home.

We hoped it would be gone by the morning.

I completed the first part of the model for the treehouse. I discussed the basic ideas with George, over a couple of glasses of wine and gleaned some of his experience that will help with the next stage of the design. I will need to get a good stock of chardonnay.

18th July 2018

We loaded up the truck with rubbish to take to the local recycling centre. Kelli had contacted the council and obtained permission to take up to a thousand pounds of crap at a time.

These centres are not as well used as they are in the U.K. The term “tip” seemed appropriate as it looked more like a bomb site. We drove up to the office where the truck was weighed. I handed the guy the permit, and asked if we should separate the metals, woods and plastics, ” Nope, just dump everything in the yellow bins”.

This was such an inefficient method that it surprised me.

There wasn’t much evidence of people doing anything, the lack of activity made us think if we had come to the right place.

We drove round to the row of yellow bins, and proceeded to dump our stuff, contributing to the miss-match assortment of Astro turf, shopping trolleys, and Venetian blinds. Our feeble collection of wood off-cuts, old fans and plastic boxes were soon all swallowed up inside the bins. I did not want to lose the wood bits, preferring to burn them in our little outdoor stove, but there is little need to do it in summer, and any smoke would arouse the attention of the local fire department who would think that there was a forest fire, and douse the neighbourhood with a thousand gallons of water.

Watching those little bits of wood disappear down the cracks of the yellow bin made me sad, and yes, I bet I would need some of those pieces for something or other.

17th July 2018

I had to work on the sofa table, the leg frames were ready to glue up.

Kelli and I visited the caterer for our wedding. We had chosen Perredies to supply the food, there were questions we had, therefore a face to face meeting was the best way to answer them.

There was so much talk about food, it was all I could think about.

Luckily we did get a sample of one of the salads to taste.

At the end the menus was agreed, and another item ticked off the list.

In the evenings when we chill out, watching yet another episode of Star Trek (I don’t know how many seasons with Patrick “bloody” Stewart there are, but I am starting to take on a Scottish accent). Kelli, being capable of doing more than one thing at a time, flits though Pinterest looking at furniture, room settings, and food. It is the food that drives me to distraction. It is even more interesting than listening to a miserable Klingon, or a boring android. My tummy rumbles as the images flick past my eyes, and we dive down another wormhole.

I, in return look at videos showing concrete footings and roof trusses. Sometimes we are so absorbed in our different divergent we miss old Patrick’s catchphrase, “Engage”

Other times I succumb to sleep in a desperate attempt to keep my sanity.

16th July 2018

The heat hit me as I opened the front door. The humidity was going to be high today. Humidity, I’m usually only reminded of that when I’m in the US. Like everything here, heat is subdivided into dry or wet. My mother used to use the term “close” when it was thundery, but apart from that hot, was hot.

Kelli didn’t sleep too well because of the heat, I on the other hand can sleep anywhere, the last year at HM taught me how to do that.

Waiting in line for my coffee, there was a guy with really thick nose hair . He would need a scythe to hack through that clump. I don’t think Ronson make anything that could tackle growth that thick. At first I wasn’t sure what it was, the colour of his beard was different, so I thought it was a nose ring or some kind of decoration. I looked closer, no, it was growing.

This is a phenomenon usually experienced by us older gentlemen who sprout hair everywhere but their heads, however that is what grooming is all about. This might be seen, to my one reader, as a little tasteless , but if he has to stand a few inches from me I can’t help but observe. The only other case I can remember was whilst I was in India, where this guys nose hair rustled when he breathed.

In the afternoon we picked up rolls of woven polypropylene, this is used to cover the outside of new builds, and what we will need for the treehouse. I saw it for sale on Marketplace, and although it had been used to protect a concrete slab, it was in good condition. Now I just need to clear some space in the garage to store it.

15th July 2018

“Have to got ten dollars?” Kelli inquired

“Yes thank you” I responded

“Smart ass” she answered, ” I’ve just seen something on Marketplace that I can sell, with nothing to do to it” she showed me a picture of a piece with three drawers and nine pigeon hole compartments. She grabbed my ten dollars, and we both got into the car. The place was close, about a ten minute drive. It was an area that I was unfamiliar with, so we drove with the doors locked.

We pulled into a driveway that was more like a car park, the next house had two caravans and four cars parked on the grass. A lady appeared carrying what I thought was a small shelf, but it turned out to be the item Kelli was paying the cash for. From the original picture I thought it was much bigger, and that is why Kelli needed me to come along and lift it into the truck.

14th July Saturday

The day was cooler in Saugatuck, there had been rain, and there was a steady flow of people through the Book shop. A small leak in the roof caused a “plop! plop!” Into a plastic bucket.

I was eager to get back home to finish sanding the drawer fronts, and get the dresser ready to go on Facebook. I also had the sofa table frame to finish.

My visits to Uncommon Grounds have become a regular excursion, and somewhere I can view the town from the comfort of an armchair.

Kelli was making a list of things for the wedding that has to be paid for, but we have been searching for a new caterer. We had contacted two, but never received a quote, this is a little disappointing as we wanted to support local businesses, so the search is ongoing.

I have been making lists of jobs I have to do before I go back to the UK. Fixing the Dyson, finishing the back panel to the monolith, and to clear space in the garage for storing materials for the building project code named “Treehouse”

Trying to stop Kelli looking at furniture and fittings is like holding back a rampaging bull. I am still making drawings and taking measurements, trying to establish floor and roof heights, something that is not easy to do without digital equipment, I feel another trip to Lowes is inevitable.

Dinner tonight was one of the best vegan Cesar Salad I have ever tasted. Kelli found this recipe, and made the dressing and crouton. It was so good I could have easily eaten my own body weight in it.