Yet another free dresser to collect from Hudsonville, and deliver one in Holland.
The small dresser that we got from a neighbour’s attic was sold to a lady who was within a couple of weeks of giving birth. The dresser was going in their nursery. It’s satisfying to know that the piece that we gave new life to is going to a new life for a new life.
The one in Hudsonville was the other extreme.
Although a well known name, it had had a rough life. It had obviously been stored in a garage or shed as there were plenty of leaves in it. The floors to the drawers had sagged and will need to be replaced, and a bit of work to the sides but it should work out well.
All this travelling about left us short of time, I continued to sand the third chair and Kelli started on the blue painted mid century piece.
There was a full day planned, collecting two pieces of furniture as well as the weekly shopping expedition.
First stop was an impressive house set in its own wood. The lawns were immaculately trimmed and the driveway was flawless, not a crack or blemish down the entire length. In front of an impressive barn was a blue painted mid-century piece that was a pile of crap. How they owned such a piece seemed beyond belief, but it’s not the first time this has happened.
Some of the worst examples we’ve collected have been outside wonderful buildings, leading to the thought about what kind of furnishing they have inside.
The next piece was a bed frame from the north side, we’ve had quite a few of those lately, there must be a bout of insomnia going around.
Then it was the shopping. With thanksgiving just around the corner, we wanted to look at the bird we had ordered at Natures Market. As we were catering for ten people we needed one built like a sumo wrestler. The one we saw was priced at over eighty dollars, “wow!” I exclaimed “we could buy a whole flock for that”.
It certainly made the wild ones that come down the road more attractive.
We continued with our weight training prior to breakfast, I have no idea when my arms will show any improvement, not that I desire huge biceps, just enough to fill my sagging skin.
Then I returned to all the sanding that I do endlessly, and even that I would have expected that to help with my arm development. Time will tell.
We have two dressers that have been paid for, still waiting to be collected, and today was the day.
Well that was the plan, all through the day we were expecting a message to warn us of the impending time they would be with us.
Eventually one rescheduled for Saturday, and the other tomorrow, so we pushed them back into the garage for the umpteenth time.
I continued sanding the second chair whilst Kelli completed painting two more dressers.
All around us was the sound of leaf blowers, this annoys Kelli, as a lover of nature, leaf piles are the winter home for useful bugs. This is why I have brushed all the leaves in the back garden, into piles on the flower beds. The leaf blower I have has been banned.
The Beep! Beep! of the city trucks signalled the wake up call. Starting before 7.00am the clearing of the leaves had begun. I think there are two collection times that this happens which is just as well as there are plenty of the things still to drop.
The city team consists of a grabber and a fleet of trucks that take the stuff to god knows where.
They do the best they can, but there is always a lot of debris left that has to be piled up ready for the next time.
Kelli had found a free outdoor table top on a local free site and decided that we should have it, so off we went to collect it. Whatever it was came in a cardboard box, so I assume it was new, but where were the legs? So that is a project for the spring.
I started on the stripping of four dining chairs that Kelli acquired whilst I was away. Luckily they could be disassembled making it a bit easier to sand, even then it’s a days work per chair, oh happy next four days.
First stop was the dentist for a bit of cleaning. Not my favourite place to be, but something I consider important especially after the problems I’ve had the last year.
After that we had to drive to Zeeland for Kelli’s doctors appointment.
Her progress has improved month on month, her sleep hours have increased, maybe all the meat we’ve been eating has worked.
The saga of the missing dresser customer continues. Kelli’s messages had still not been read this morning, perhaps something might have happened. I suggested, a sick child/animal/car accident/ new pandemic/broken fingernail, so we are still waiting to hear.
Later in the morning we did hear back, there was the “I had so much going on” excuse, so I got that one wrong, but but we had the money and didn’t care.
A new collection time was agreed for 6.00pm this evening, but that came and went.
Another message came through rearranging collection for Wednesday, so back into the garage it went.
I was helping Kelli trying to close up the greenhouse which wasn’t going very well.
The zip started to rip away from the plastic cover, which illustrated what a pile of crap it was. As I struggled with the zip, I stepped back and fell over a hanging basket that wasn’t hanging, it was on the ground. I lashed out and kicked it
If it wasn’t for my training in “stunt work” it could have been painful.
Of course it could have been worse, I could have fallen on dog poop.
The whole episode was a big joke for Kelli who laughed for the rest of the day.
After the entertainment, we got back to working in the garage.
I knocked apart the drawers from the small dresser we rescued from a neighbour’s loft.
We had a buyer for the dresser we posted yesterday. There were several interested people, one would have travel four hours for it. Kelli evidently sold it to someone local who also paid up front.
They were in a bad state, I sanded them clean of the paint and re-assembled them.
Kelli was busy painting another dresser that I had stripped the top revealing a walnut veneer.
After doing a few repairs, I stained stained it with a dark walnut stain.
There were more leaves on the front lawn, it’s a never ending task, at least for the next few weeks. The piles I had heaped by the side of the road had reduced considerably, mostly now all over Larry’s front yard. Poor chap, he must have used gallons of petrol in his mini tractor sweeping them up.
I unpacked my mower from the shed, slotted in the batteries and headed out front.
I had decided to mulch rather than collect the cuttings hoping to save a bit of time and effort.
It would have helped if the batteries I had used were fully charged, I got a couple of length in before they petered out. Walking back into the garage to get the fully charged units used up all my energy.
Aldi have started to get all the wonderful cakes and biscuits for Christmas. These are tempting, because it makes a change from the mundane things usually on the shopping list. I was prepared to sacrifice, say, the toilet paper for a box of stollen pieces.
Luckily we didn’t have to make the compromise, and were able to get both.
Getting back home we took the hounds for a walk, the sun was shining through the leafless branches, a carpet of fallen leaves covered all the front gardens.
We finished the dresser that we had concerns buying. It turned out okay, it may not command a high price, but it’s finished.
Kelli was spending the day with Greer, roughly translated, they were going to shop at Goodwill.
Having the day to myself was a treat, I had plenty of things to do, and the dresser we had refinished was being picked up this afternoon.
Now that the garage is clean I know where everything is and it’s a treat to work.
The paint scrapings were flying about to the music of The Grateful Dead when the chap turned up for the dresser, he was the distribution manager for Steelcase, so I expected him to be all over it looking for flaws, instead he could get it into his truck fast enough. He even had a sponge roller to help slide it into the back.
Once that excitement was done I got back to my scraping.
My solo day was cut short when Kelli returned, with a free dresser she had picked up, in the back. It was obviously a project piece because the stripping had been partially done.
I got out of the truck by myself, loaded it onto a trolley, I’d had enough excitement for the day, so I packed up, and finished for the day.
I was keen to fire up the laptop and try to remember how to use the 3D CAD software again. For many minutes I stared at the screen trying to remember what to do, after all it had been six years since I had used it last.
With the aid of the user handbook I managed to find how to start a model, it started coming back to me gradually, if I do a bit a day, I should be proficient again soon, I hope.
I had been concerned about the aging of my body particularly the arms. I had noticed a measurable loss of arm strength, in fact they have started to look like a pair of plucked chickens. I mentioned it to Kelli, and she set to work looking for exercises to build upper body strength. She came up with videos that use hand held weights, and as we had some, we gave it a go.
Yes it was hard, but we decided to do them every other day, and see if my chicken arms grow into turkeys.
Another Lifetime to go 