Kelli was ready to do a painting marathon when she discovered the paint had been contaminated. When it was sprayed on to a flat surface it separated like there had been silicone or similar substances. That was annoying as I had only bought it last week, it will go back to Menards tomorrow.
We started work later than planned, but two dressers had to be painted, along with one set of drawers. The other set required staining black, and a top had to be waxoiled. This was quite an ambitious task, but we made it.
It was expected to rain today, but although the sky did come over dark nothing fell.
It is the anniversary of the first moon landing, I think I was in Newquay in Cornwall. I remember buying The Times because it had a colour supplement and the photographs in it were taken from a television screen, it was amazing.
There are many people over here don’t believe it ever happened. With so many people involved how could that be kept secret?
It was time to get some work done, all this fine weather is distracting us from selling furniture.
But first let’s take a bike ride, we been to see if there are any eggs available down the road.
So that where we went, and no, there were none, I did suggest going round the back where the chickens are and plucking them out, but Kelli didn’t like that idea. We finished our ride, and pulled out the furniture pieces that we wanted to get primed.
I had repair work to do, a lot, I had a top to strip, but first, let’s have some lunch.
I finished off the left overs washed down with a cup of hot tea. Kelli cannot understand how I can drink something hot when the weather is so hot, my answer is alway air conditioning. It is so chilly inside I have a tea to warm me up.
The cold tea they drink, and think it is “real” tea is misguided, and vile, there is nothing like hot tea to make the day complete.
Next there were plants to place in the garden and a treatment to spay on the lawn.
I removed the top from the tall dresser we had collected from Zeeland, the screws were difficult to turn, I had to work really hard to release. Once removed I set about stripping.
Now it was pool time. So I left everything and we both floated in the water. Once we’re were crinkled it was time to get out, we had furniture to work on. I needed something to eat, I fancied a banana, it was delicious.
There was a drive to Zeeland to collect a dresser, that started at ten bucks but ended being six because that was all I had on me, we should use that ploy more often.
We found the house with the dresser on the front porch. This meant carrying it down steps, but not before we removed all the drawers. Everything was loaded when Kelli noticed some sad looking plants by the roadside next to the trash bin. Normally when things are on the roadside they are not wanted, so Kelli messaged the dresser person to check that they were not wanted. After a few minutes, with no reply, she took an executive decision and we loaded them into the truck.
All of them needed water, the pots were dry as a bone.
As soon as we got home she soaked them with water. You could almost hear a sigh of relief from the plants as they absorbed the moisture.
We then went on a bike ride to the park, by the time we got back the plants had transformed, they had swelled up and looked happy again. We will keep them in our intensive care area for another day before finding them a permanent place in the garden.
We took a leisurely ride to the beach, considering it is such a short distance away we don’t get there much, but it was pleasant dipping our toes in the water.
I had a few jobs to do on some furniture pieces. Most of it was gluing down lifted veneers, I also made a start on one of the bullet riddled drawer fronts.
Later in the afternoon we had to go and collect a desk I had bought on Marketplace. I had been looking for one since we cleared out the spare room. I had found a Herman Miller Airia desk for three hundred bucks, when new they sell for two thousand four hundred, so I thought it a good deal. Okay the pencil drawer was missing, but I could make one, after all I have made twelve for the kitchen.
The pick up was a smart place out in the county side with a long driveway and immaculate front lawn, there was definitely some money here. The young chap met us and show us the desk, it was in great condition, the laminate top didn’t have a mark on it, apart from being drawerless it was perfect. He said it was missing when he bought it from the factory store, one can only imagine what happened to it.
It fitted perfectly into our truck, and once back we tried to get it into the room. There was a bit of struggle getting it though the doorway, in the end I took off two legs to get it through
Now I need to make a drawer, now I think I have some timber…….
It was a good day for having friends over. It was sunny with the occasional gust of wind from the north west. There were a lot of things to do first, mainly getting the provisions. So off to Aldi and the drudge of trolling the isles.
I shot off, as I usually do to get the stuff we get every week, dog food, coconut and almond milk, those things. Once loaded, we headed back to the corner shop to get things Aldi didn’t have. After that we had to borrow a fold away table from Kelli’s brother Matt. Once that was loaded into the truck we finally drove home.
I did work outside to tidy the place up, cutting the grass, rearranging the deck furniture and erecting the table. Kelli was in the kitchen preparing the fillings for the tacos we planned to serve.
We even managed to fit in a bike ride. Just as we were leaving, two police trucks went screaming down South shore towards the big lake, sirens blaring. There was no way we could keep up even if we wanted to. As we peddled away we heard a siren coming from the lake, where a small launch was beating its way through the waves. We couldn’t keep up with that either.
There was just enough time to finish chopping up the vegetables when we got home, the wine and beers were chilling, we were ready for the onslaught.
It was a great evening, Chris hadn’t been to our house before, so I gave him the thirty second tour. Morgan was her usual hyper self, for a little girl of ten she has the intelligence of an eighteen year old.
After four hours they had to leave, we were exhausted, we talked non-stop, and laughter, at our silly stories. Kelli did well, the food was great, and I didn’t drink too much, mainly because Jill drank most of it.
Today we had to deliver Greer’s old bed that has been used by the dogs to sleep on. It dominated the spare bedroom and we wanted it to use for an office. The problem we had was the size. Being a Queen, the box spring and mattress was five foot wide, too wide to fit in our truck. Kelli had asked around if there was a trailer what we could hitch up to the truck, then realising that although we had a tow bar there wasn’t a ball hook to attach anything too. There was the option of renting a van but at over sixty bucks for the day it was ruled out.
In the end we asked Kelli’s mum if we could borrow her van. A van over here is a vehicle that the old grannies or very large ladies drive, they are big and wide with lots of space in the back, and so is the van.
I knew we couldn’t get the box spring inside, so that would have to be tied to the roof rack.
This was challenging because there was no hard surface to tie down to, so it took for ages to get it secured. Then it was the time to get the mattress inside. Even though it was flexible,up to a point, it was like pushing a rhino up an elephant’s arse.
Inch by inch we pushed and pulled until it was inside, and we could close the back door.
The journey ahead to Allendale was twenty five miles away, I was hopeful that my rope tying was good enough.
We edged our way out of Holland, Kelli adjusted the wing mirror so I could monitor the box springs movement.
She kept the speed down, I could see there was movement, I warned her that if the steering became light we were airborne.
In the end we arrived without incident, and we unloaded everything, the mattress slid out the back like a birthed calf, much to my annoyance, I was hoping Greer and Dylan would have the same difficulty that we had.
Then we headed back, there was a customer due to collect our latest dresser. That all went well, and they left happy with the dresser in their truck, just what we like to see.
Kelli had a doctors appointment in Zeeland again. We got there fifteen minutes early so we went to Goodwill (the place where products go to die).
Whilst she navigated the clothes isles I checked out the furniture section that took exactly thirty seconds. The rest of the time I scanned the rows of CD’s, DVD’s and books but without my glasses, which is a little difficult. I even tried to stand at a distance which was better, but then the writing was so small I still couldn’t read it.
Kelli’s session contained a selections of limb pulling and bone cracking, her pain threshold is quite low, so the noises were very prolific.
Once that was over and my ears readjusted we drove back, collecting some items that she bought and collected from people’s porches.
Later a lady brought over a dresser that looked like it survived a gun battle.
Several drawers had some very bad veneer damage.
She had made contact with us several weeks ago asking if we could help her repaint her kitchen. This was not something we wanted to take on, so we passed on it. Winding forward, with low sales I suggested that we contact her again and suggest we brought the doors and drawers back and sprayed them. So we made the suggestion to her which she was open too, but then she asked about refurbishing a dresser.
So now we have it in the garage waiting for a flash of inspiration, with a promise of fresh peaches and blackberries when we deliver it, it will be a work of art.
Bright and early the grout man arrived. We, however we’re not so bright, Kelli could not get off to sleep which affected me, collectively we were numb and tired.
He got on mixing his stuff, I set up things to work outside. This was all before breakfast, would you believe? I managed to make a coffee so I could stand upright.
Within half an hour he was done, and off, I went inside to view the finished results.
All along the row that sat next to some existing tiles on the wall, he had to cut to fit, were all chipped. The grouting really highlighted this fault, and we were not impressed.
We sat and ate our breakfast, I was seething, this was unacceptable and I intended to get it fixed.
I decided to cycle to the tile store which was about four miles away. I thought the cool air would calm my anger.
I arrived at the store, walking to the back where the administration desk was positioned.
“We have a problem” I announced, and showed the lady pictures I had taken, showing the damaged tiles.
“Oh” she uttered, “I’m not sure what can be done to stop these tiles from chipping” her voice slipped into a dull and bored drone.
“It’s a characteristic of this tile, normally we would grind the edge to smooth out the chip”.
“ it’s a shame he didn’t do it, wasn’t it?” I threw in my winning hand.
“ Well I will check if there is anything that can be done and let you know, have a nice day”.
“Have a nice day?” I thought, “bugger that, I still have the balance to pay” I felt smug to have that leverage.
Once I got back, I had drawer fronts to strip.
We also sold a dresser and the pair of white side tables.
A chap turned up, excited at what we did, he made me an offer, I countered, and he agreed, DONE!
The tile man called Kelli saying he would be over shortly.
I was still stripping drawers when he arrived, I sensed he was a bit pissed, but what the heck?.
I showed him what we didn’t like.
“ Oh that’s a problem with those kinda tiles, I don’t think I can improve on that” he confessed.
“Well something has to be done, we can’t live with that” I replied.
“All I can do is to cut more tiles and see how they turn out” he said reluctantly.
He off loaded his saw, setting it up in a “I don’t think this will work” kind of manner.
He grabbed a couple of tiles and adjusted the saw to the correct width.
He handed me the first sample, it was chipped, but not as bad as the ones he had fitted.
“ I think I can improve that if I rub it on my diamond stone” I said taking it from him.
A few rubs and there was a bit more improvement, I showed it to Kelli, we both suggested that it should be turned so that the good side is on the top.
“ If thats what you want” tile man responded.
So that’s what he did, and the end result was
Acceptable. Off he went, and about twenty seconds later the invoice for the balance hit my email inbox.
If I’m honest, I think I would have done a better job, our tile man, a professional of twenty five years did not inspire much confidence.
There have been a number of issues with this kitchen project.
1. The tap had the wrong colour nozzle
2. The corian top dimension was out by 1/4” against the wood top.
3. The wood top was bowed.
4. Chipped tiles.
The only thing that wasn’t a disaster were the doors and drawers, and that was my responsibility. Result!
Up with the lark, earlier than usual, the reason, the tile man was coming between eight and eight-thirty.
Sure enough it was between that time. I didn’t even have time to eat my breakfast.
I brought in the two lengths of copper that we wanted to trim the top edge of the tile. He looked at it for, what seemed ages. “ Mmm, we might have a problem”, not something I want a professional to say.
“ There needs to be cut-outs to allow the adhesive to flow through” he explained.
“ I could drill holes if you like” I replied.
So off I went to do just that.
It did not go well. The drill threw up a large burr that was not desirable, that was rejected. Next was a notch using tin snips, but that distorted the material. My last attempt was cutting a vee with the bandsaw, that worked the best.
So I was in charge of that part whilst the tile man did his job.
It took a while to agree how the tiles were to be set, I had one idea that I thought we had agreed on, but Kelli had a different one.
Now we were trying to agree whilst the tile man stood back waiting for agreement. He kept saying “I’m just here to work” which annoyed us, he seemed to be in a rush, I’m surprised that he even turned his engine off.
Once that was reached, (and it was my idea that won) he could start work.
The result worked, just what we wanted, however tomorrow will be another early start as the tile man returns to grout.
“Hurry up and finish your coffee, there’s a free dresser on the Beeline road” Kelli announced.
I had just enjoyed a egg toasted sandwich and fresh nectarines, and was calmly sipping my Columbia blend when the peace was shattered.
Fortunately all I had to do was put on shoes, so slurping down the remanence we headed for the truck.
The dynamic duo were on the road.
When we arrived there were two items waiting on the roadside, one was a desk the other the dresser. We examined both, and I’m sure if we could have, we would have taken both, but with the current lack of interest in side tables, we just took the dresser.
Next on the agenda was booking my flight back to the UK. Normally I would have booked online, but because I had a flight credit I had to call. I was passed to “an expert” dealing with this. What happened next was the hardest thing I’ve had to do, even going to the dentist was better.
I knew from the moment she opened her mouth I was doomed. I think American Airlines hire non English speakers to man these phones.
This lady was Mexican, it took forty minutes to book the flight, with me not understanding what she said and her no hearing me, it was a constant back and forth of confusion. I was exhausted, bathed in perspiration, I had to rest afterwards, but it got done, and booked for October.
I had to get out and do some machining of some side panels, to improve and lighten the visuals, I must have had a blunt cutter as it started to burn its way through, so a new cutter was needed.
Another Lifetime to go 