Well I failed in my attempt to make the coffee top decent. All my efforts of sanding and finishing all came to nothing, it looked crap.
If the top was solid timber you could sand all the scratches out, but with a veneer, even though it was a pine veneer, the amount of work that can be done is very limited.
So I was disappointed, in the end we will paint the whole thing.
Kelli painted the bookcase, whilst I played ball with Winnie. I pulled my case out of the storage room, the trip is rapidly approaching.
With the warmer weather the snow has nearly gone, but you can never say never in this place.
It was pleasant taking the walk, we decided to go a different route to give the dogs something new to sniff.
Kelli had a solo visit to her doctor, in an effort to help her sleeping problem. Being the sceptic as I am, I hope it was successful.
Kelli awoke early, again, although the noisy jeep man is no longer living across the road, it was David, who also drive a jeep who was the culprit.
It doesn’t help that the sound is kept low to the land by the current climate conditions.
So she was not feeling great.
I had a table top to finish and the horrible black piece in the garage to continue stripping, that I wasn’t excited about, to work on.
I also had my beer date with Lloyd in the afternoon to look forward to.
Two glasses of Old Speckled Hen numbs reality for a while, but our sessions are real verbal chess games, most of the time it ends in a draw.
We took the dogs for a walk around the block and through the park. Winnie is really strong, and pulls constantly even though the halter collar which should stop her, doesn’t.
She needs to learn that it would be less uncomfortable if she just stops pulling.
After yesterday’s excitement, it was down to doing stuff.
I had to start stripping a horrible black buffet that had stickers all over it, I’m not sure why we bothered with it because it is not a quick job.
Next on the list was bonding an edgeband on to the front edge of the shelves I made for the shelf less bookshelf.
On top of that I stripped the finish off a coffee table top. This was quick, and I will refinish that tomorrow.
I recently bought more storage for my Mac Pro tower. I had to buy some small metal carriers in order to mount the hard drives. They arrived yesterday, it was relatively easy to fit, and then install the drive. There was a lot of thought that must have gone into the design of the computer making the whole thing child’s play.
Whilst I was doing that I had the idea to check if two external LaCie units that I had stripped down would work in the Mac.
I had bought them used, and they worked for a while, but then stopped. It was last ditch check, but I installed those, reformatted them, and they worked, so the fault must have been in the circuit board of the LaCie. Now I have more storage than ever.
Another trip to John the wood’s barn, the last before my UK visit.
I had hoped to have finished all the parts for my sofa, but alas the only thing I managed to do was build the base frame. I realised that to do anymore was not possible, so I found a corner of the barn where I could store the parts.
I went through all the costings for his milling of lumber, writing it all down in his “ memory book”.
That seems to be working as he takes it everywhere.
With all the business finished I dropped him off at his home, and then headed back to Holland.
There was a bit of excitement in the Avenue. As Kelli was closing the blinds, she looked across at Larry’s place and saw orange flickering in the bedroom. She called me to take a look, and it definitely looked like fire light.
I ran across, and climbed up on the gas meter to look through the window. I saw what looked like a paint can with flames coming out of the top.
It was difficult to make an accurate identification, but I shouted across to Kelli to call the fire brigade.
After spending a lot of time on the phone giving every bit of information, we heard the fire truck arrive. The flashing lights were blinding, it was now difficult to see the orange glow in the house.
I explained where the “fire” was. One firefighter climbed the steps and barged the door. Of course it didn’t stand a chance, it flung open to reveal a large candle with three wicks burning away. I was a little embarrassed, my observation was way off, but it was still a hazard, and shouldn’t have been left alight.
Also it was the sort of candle that shouldn’t have been lit in the house at all.
So as the firefighters were clearing up, we joined a group of neighbours discussing the event. I by this time was freezing, at least if the house was ablaze, it would have warmed me up a bit.
The start of another week, the same agenda, Nature’s Market and Aldi, filling up the cupboard and fridge, same all, same all.
I wanted to go over to Randy the upholstery man to change out the legs and to add wooden slats.
Fortunately I had everything prepared, so the change over was quite painless. We agreed the construction of the seat which will be medium springs covered with a down blanket. Kelli doesn’t want to use foam which would have been less expensive, but we try to use natural materials where we can.
I had the run of the shop while he went off for a meeting, which was great, because I don’t like people looking over my shoulder.
We had our usual walk, it was still bitterly cold, by the time we got back both our eyes and noses were stinging.
It these times when we wish for summer, lounging in the pool wishing it wasn’t so hot, we’re just not satisfied.
In one weeks time I will be flying across the Atlantic, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s not that I don’t like my home here, I need to keep connected to my roots.
I have the shed to complete and a dishwasher to attempt to repair, but the rest of the time will be for family and friends.
It will be good to get away from the cold, but it will be difficult to leave little Winnie who is growing so fast.
Although it will be only three weeks, and it goes really fast, it will be a chance to refuel, and be ready for a busy spring and summer.
Talking of the cold, it was bitter today, the windchill took the temperature down to 16 degrees F, not good when we went on our walk.
It wasn’t a work day, but I did cut up the timber for the shelves for the bookcase, so not a complete loss.
Kelli did well, she sold some items she bought at Goodwill yesterday. She has a good nose for cool stuff, so long may it sniff out the bargains.
In an attempt to calm Winnie down in the evenings, we decided to take her to the dog park that is not far away. This would be an opportunity for her to run unharnessed to her hearts delight. I took a couple of brightly coloured balls that I could throw, and for her to chase.
Of course it was bitterly cold, having snowed again. There was only one other person there with her old dog, so they eagerly got acquainted and chased each other around the area. There was also a bit of ball throwing, but she hadn’t got the hang of returning it to me, needless to say I did a fair bet of running myself.
However the atmosphere was disturbed by the arrival of a large lanky dog of some strange breed I had never heard of, immediately he started to throw his weight around.
Winnie and Phoebe took an instant dislike to this lout, and even the older dog was not interested.
At one point it slammed into Kelli’s leg, forcing it to twist awkwardly, that was our cue to leave, which was just as well as my fingers were numb.
Before settling into our warm home we walked around the block, we really wanted to tire them out.
Earlier in the day we went to collect a buffet that Kelli saw on Marketplace, it was a bit of a wreck being painted in black with stickers and odd handles, this will not be a quick job to do.
Then whilst we were out we did the rounds of both Goodwills, nothing had been added, but Kelli made a new thrifting friend, a lady who engaged her in conversation of things she was buying for her garden. In the short time they chatted, no doubt their life history’s were shared as well as their phone numbers. I’m amazed how these things happen, I guess some people just like to talk to strangers, so I’m sure they will meet up again to rummage through the shelves to find the hidden treasure.
The lady arrived early to collect the dresser we posted yesterday, a great start to the day, now we need more stuff to work on.
Marketplace has been lean on low price or free dressers so we drove to Goodwill to see if they had any.
The result was no, the only thing we found was a bookcase without shelves for three dollars, so being desperate we bought it, I had some thick ply that would make suitable shelving.
We also drove to the other store on the north side, but they had even less.
Whether it was the weather that was slowing down the supply we can’t be sure, but it has been a cold one.
And talking about a cold one, the snow came back, not a lot, but everything is white again.
Winnie has been a bit lively lately, around early evening she goes crazy, racing around the back garden, refusing to listen to my call for her to come inside the house. I have resulted to squeezing a toy to get her attention, but that doesn’t alway work.
I have made the rule that if she doesn’t settle, she goes into her cage for ten minutes, Kelli doesn’t like to do it, but we would not get anything done, we would spend all our time checking where she was, and making sure she hadn’t pissed somewhere.
Another spring-like day with temperatures up in the fifties, when will the snow return?
I was in two minds if I should put the snow blower back in the shed, but I’ll make that decision next week.
I continued on the door for the combination unit, which has been sold by the way to Nancy, but we have to repaint it to match other pieces she has in the room.
We also finished a three drawer dresser that we were given, all it needed was a guide rail on the top drawer which I knocked out in record time.
We took pictures, posted it, and someone is coming tomorrow morning at 11.00 to view it.
Now we have nothing left in the garage to work on.
There was some strange goings on over at Larry’s place. There is a dumpster at the front where all the stuff that wasn’t moved was filled.
There was a guy looking through it, taking out any metal bits, no doubt trying to get a few bucks for it.
The whole thing has been strange, Larry wasn’t the neatest person, is garage was filled with stuff and the house had ample things in it also.
Instead of holding an estate sale to get rid of it, the daughter arranged large trucks, that turned up in the evening, and they worked all night loading all the contents into them, they did it three times, not sure what was done with it, maybe dumped in the lake, there wasn’t much of value, it was just an accumulation of a lifetime of junk.
It was back to the barn, the weather was glorious, the warmth was rapidly thawing the snow, it felt like spring.
I was a little early, but John was ready with his water bottle in hand.
We arrived at the barn, the thick snow that I had to plough through was gone, all the piles of timber had emerged from their white shroud, the place looked different.
The inside looked different as well. Gone were the stacks of hickory and cherry, all of it had been machined into flooring, and stacked waiting for collection.
What also was waiting for collection were barrels of wood chips that I helped him filled when he had the last blowout. Finally, the chicken farmer arrived to take them back to the farm as bedding, so more space was gained.
Today was going to be assembly day, this was when the enormity of the piece was going to be revealed. I made a few adjustments so the parts fitted tightly together, then drilled the pocket holes.
Then each piece was slotted together, and clamped holding it firmly whilst I added a few screws into the pocket holes.
Then I stood back, “ Shit! That’s a big bugger”
I double checked the drawings, they matched the physical parts. There was no going back now it was there in front of me.
This new sofa is exactly the same footprint as our current one, but because the mass of the arms are considerably less it looks bigger.
The last major part is the base frame, that will be tackled next week.
As we were leaving, John handed me a sheet of paper with some numbers scribbled on it. This was the cost for all the flooring he had completed and needed to get paid for.
This is when I realised he didn’t have a clue about coatings.
We talked about the process, the milling of the lumber, the kiln drying, the cutting into planks, running it through the moulder that produces the tongue and groove feature.
He told me that he needed four blades for the milling station, that was $600, the kiln cost $2000 to run for two weeks. In total he had run 945 feet of flooring, with an amount for labour and overhead we arrived at $7.00 per running foot giving a final total of $6615.
I have agreed to help him set out a costing model, rather than some guesswork on his behalf, that should be an interesting exercise.
Another Lifetime to go 