Author: peterb51

24th September 2017

Walking along the water edge with my bare feet is heaven. My legs are still whiter than a frozen chicken, and I don’t care that they frighten the locals. This is maybe, one of the last hot days left before the temperature drops thirty degrees, and I have to start wearing long sleeves. The boats were also out in force spluttering from Macatawa into the big lake, then throttling up and disappearing in a cloud of spray. 

Life for me is amazing, I never know what day it is, I don’t wear a watch, I forget to shave, and I’m letting my hair grow, when I return to the UK I will look like Robinson Crusoe, the passport people will take one look at me and say, “Welcome to 1975”. 

I have the same desire to get started on a project that I did in the early days at HM. 

It is hard for me to take time off, usually a glass of wine (or two) distracts me. 

I often pass the Design Yard, and all the cars in car park and remembering all the fun times I’ve had there, but that was a long time ago, in a different lifetime.

23rd September 2017

Kelli and her daughter Greer, took me to the Farmgirl flea market, a large outdoor fairground location in Hudsonville. Boy was it hot! The place was filled with a collection of vintage furniture and mass produced tat, made out to be craft made, and authentic. The popular thing at the moment are prolific phrases written out on semi rustic boards and framed. The shear amount of them on display makes them boring and predictable, from bible to philosophers quotes, sites like Pinterest are full of them. They offend my eyes, I could accept them if they were original words thought up by the writer, not copied. We stood it for less than two hours, then headed back to shop for paint and stock-up on screws.

Once we got back, I started scratching on the dining table we picked up yesterday.

To me it’s like a good book, totally absorbing. I started at one point to check if the top was solid or veneered. One small patch quickly spread, I was away. 

I am sure all the problems of the world could be solved if all politicians had to scrape paint off table tops.

The top was solid oak, and painted with a gloss black. I was able to use a cabinet scraper to take some of the finish off, by the time I passed out through lack of food I had complete half the table.

22nd September 2017

We delivered the four chairs to Lakeshore first thing, and they looked great in the setting. The top part had a crackle effect breaking through that I wasn’t sure of, but Kelli was excited, so it was good I guess.

The temperature was in the late eighties all day making it difficult to work in the garage without a fan the size of the propeller from a Lancaster bomber. When that thing goes off all I want to do is hum the Dambusters March.
I completed the repairs to the twin pedestals and started work repairing the flaking veneers on the dresser sides.

Kelli finished painting the big red bastard, which now is a big linen bastard, but is now transformed. To celebrate, she bought me a bottle of beer appropriately named.

Another visit to Goodwill resulted in a large wooden dining table being squeezed into the truck. Named Goliath, it has the base the diameter of a small tree, but the weight of a large one. 

 The top has been painted black, but there is a crazy pattern around the circumstance, if the top can be stripped it will be amazing.

21st September 2017

Another glorious day. I cannot understand why the leaves are falling in a eighty degree heat.

Are they baked? Have they had enough of the sun?

Decided to clean the garage, after three weeks it started to look a bit like my home, so I needed to do a tidy-up. I found most of the tools I had lost, which was a bonus.

Took a trip to Goodwill and found three pieces that should keep us busy next week. One was an old desk where I will just use the two pedestals and turn them into bedside units. There were also a dresser and a small coffee table, nothing too complicated for me,

I started on Fido’s coffin by knocking of part of the front section. Even with those bits removed, it still weighed a ton. 

Whoever made this thing wanted it to withstand the mass band of the burger and beer consuming state of Michigan.

Kelli started to paint the chairs that we got a week ago. These have to go to Lakeshore Marketplace in the morning to complement a large round table, so doing some painting made a change.

20th September 2017

Bloody finished! The transformation is complete, and ready to be delivered to Lakeshore Marketplace tomorrow.

This has been a fun project, I just hope there are Holland folks who will appreciate the quirky nature of the piece.

Tomorrow, it all starts again.

19th September 2017

“Sorry, but I can’t get it finished today” that was my lame excuse for not getting the green bookcase re-purposing project finished. There were too many small things to do, and I wasn’t prepared to do a botch job.

A few more things have sold and Kelli is getting desperate. 

I should get it finished tomorrow, then maybe start on Fido’s coffin conversion.

During the evening, I suggested lighting a fire to burn some of the scrap wood and shavings that I have created. Kelli also invited her son Cameron to join the fireside party.

I told them stories about our Guy Fawkes night when I was young. The highlight of the evening (for the grownups) was raking through the embers of the bonfire for the potatoes that had been roasting throughout the evening.

Of course, over here, that had never been heard of, so I decided to give an example.

I placed a potato in the fire and built the wood around it. As the wine flowed, I forgot about it for a while. When I finally remembered, and raked it from the ashes it was just a glowing block of charcoal. I insisted on cutting it open, and inside there was a small area of cooked potato, which was delicious, but too small to share around. They just had to take my word for it.

18th September 2017

I have been in the US for nearly three weeks, so soon I will be able to join in discussions of religion, politics, and the price of corn.

The transformation of the green bookshelf continues, I hope to have that ready for Wednesday.

We finished a small table and chair, that I had repaired and re-stained, that’s off to Lakeshore Marketplace tomorrow. 

Kelli has been providing me with fantastic vegan food, including a broccoli and cauliflower salad to die for, I can now register to be an alternative renewable energy source.

17th September 2017

It looks like autumn has started here in Michigan, the trees are beginning to turn.

The tree in Larry’s yard is supposed to be amazing, so I will try to capture it in pictures as it evolves.

Today IS a rest day, the sun is shining, and the beach is calling me.

Hallowe’en promotions are in full swing in all the craft and hobby stores, so trying to avoid them is difficult.

Families really take things seriously, apart from pumpkins you can also buy bales of straw? Now unless you own a racehorse or have hundreds of pet rabbits, what do you do with a bale of straw? Now I’m sure my American friends will send me lists of ideas, including making a new mattress for grandma, or straw and pumpkin soup (or chowder!) To an English person, I cannot get into that concept, we’re used to dancing round a bonfire naked, and burning virgins, or should that be witches? I can never remember.

If any young kid comes around trick or treating that are are likely to get bombarded with wood shavings, in the most friendly way possible.

16th September 2017

I filled the garage with loads of wood shavings. My improvised collector would not cope with the extra long lengths of wood I needed to thickness.

The planer is certainly earning its keep.

There must be a good use for all this stuff

Continued the work on the green unit, finished the drawers, and prepared timber for the top and base.

Kelli had to drive back to Hudsonville to re-arrange the space after the linen cabinet sold yesterday. 

We also sold the pair of bedside cabinets that I repaired, and made the new top for, great news!

Note! The wheely bin did not sell

There were other small sales that boosted confidence, so we went to Pereddies restaurant in Holland for dinner. It is one of my favourite places to eat, and I have been going there since nineteen eighty six, which was my first trip to the US.

I remember their club sandwich was so large it had to be carried by crane.

15th September 2017

I have three jobs on the go, I manage to do a bit each day to move it along.

The big red bastard has all the shelf supports fitted, so it’s down to Kelli to paint the thing.

I made a back panel for the apocalypse cabinet, and attached the drawer supports to the green bookcase, so good progress.

We went to “Painted Farmgirl” so Kelli could pick up her cheque, and refresh her space.

At the end it looked good, and moving pieces around gives it a fresh appearance.

No sooner had we returned, when she had a phone call to say the big linen cabinet had sold.

So panic station ensued, were there any pieces that could be finished tomorrow? 

Saturday was going to be time off day with a visit to the beach, or maybe a bike ride, but it looks like I need to press on with the projects.

Later in the evening Kelli went to view some furniture and came back with a couple of things. There was a round table, similar to one that had sold earlier in the week, and a cabinet that had been made out of floorboards. It must have been dark when she chose that, it looked like it had been made as a coffin for a dead animal that had miraculous comeback to life, and somebody didn’t want to waste the effort in building it.

Wish me luck on this one!