Another Lifetime to go

11th May 2023

The hottest day so far, and we had a good sale first thing this morning to a regular customer. Molly is usually one of the first people who comments on the posts. She lives in a relatively small place, next to the Max DePree house in Zeeland, so we’re surprised that she can fit in all the things she’s bought.

Next, we had to deliver a large dresser to a couple on the north side of the town, avoiding the Tulip Time parade day.

Then it was back to work on the two matching dressers and more kitchen drawer finishing.

I gave the back lawn a second high cut, and I was amazed how thick the grass is. There are still some thin areas, and patches where the dogs have killed the grass, but it looks healthy, and I will continue to add new dog resistant seed.

10th May 2023

It was off to Menards early, firstly to miss any visitors who get lost and block up all the roads, and secondly we wanted to paint the garage door.

This was last done a couple of years ago, and in that time it had faded, and needed freshening up.

When we first painted it in a bright red, it certainly stood out, but gradually it faded to a pink and looked grubby. That may have been because we used an interior paint, because it was used on an internal door.

This time it was a proper external formulation so should last three years before it turns pink.

There are a number of projects started including the kitchen that is taking over my time, thank goodness it was a warm day when things dry quickly.

We returned the electric skillet to our neighbour, with a thank you note and a gift card for the local shop, with three young girls in the house they will use it very fast.

9th May 2023

This is the first time this year that I have been able to sit outside and write the blog, the sun is still shining and the birds are chirping, it’s almost prefect.

Today the hob was wired in.

The electrician arrived early, we had to put him off an hour as we were still in bed.

There was a lot of smacking of lips and sighs when he saw the set up. I explained that the oven was already connected, all he had to do was run a new circuit for the hob.

He inquired about the crawl space, I showed him the entry point, at which he had to call a mate to come and do that part of the job, as he was thin and wiry.

Two hours later it was done, including recessing an outlet for the fridge, now the fun can start.

In between all this action, Kelli had arranged to collect two free dressers from a house close by.

These dressers had been built into a wall so there had been a few “modifications” but other than that they were in good condition, and should be good once we start on them.

Kelli finished the two side tables, painting them a dark blue/green with natural maple tops.

She wanted the get them posted as soon as possible, so pictures were taken even though the tops need more finish coats, so just the usual then.

8th May 2023

It was a dull rainy day, brightened only by a lady coming to collect the dark dresser.

It was shop day, but nothing exciting happened there, disappointing.

I had to cut down the desk top to make the two tops for the two pedestals, turning them into matching side tables.

The rain put paid to my aim for painting more door parts for the kitchen, although I did discover that I was two slats short on one door, so a mad scramble to find timber to make those.

7th May 2023

It was the second day of Tulip time in Holland, a time when people from all over the US converge on this small Michigan town to see the flowers.

Tulips have never done much for me, but the City go overboard to create a colourful arrangement of the blooms. Of course there are other attractions, including a fun fair where the finest cuisine floated in fat can be purchased.

If you get botulism,that’s an added bonus, you may lose a few pounds as a result, so your visit to Holland will be remembered.

We drove though the town on our way to collect a free desk in Zeeland. We passed a typical Japanese tourist taking close up pictures of a tulip, maybe they don’t have those flowers where he came from.

The desk we collected was small,twin pedestal in a sad state of finish, these are the ones we like, minimal repairs, just strip it apart, sand the heck out of it, cut the top and paint. The rate Kelli goes at it everything will be finished by Wednesday.

We had to borrow an electric skillet from a neighbour, now we can fry things. Kelli has started to use the new oven for the bakey things.

6th May 2023

Today was going to be reserved for the coronation, I woke up at around seven and plugged in my headphones just in time to hear the crowning. Later I caught up with the ceremony and watched the possession back to Buck house.

The only thing that Kelli noticed was the length of Charles’s eyebrows, mine are being trimmed all the time.

However the garage was calling, or rather it was Kelli, she has a list of things to do, and I was going to be needed.

I had my own projects I needed to paint, but hers took preference.

The weather was a bit rainy and not what I expected it to be, but we got two dressers finished and photographed, plus Kelli repainted the small dresser, and posted the whole lot.

I placed the hob in position just to check that everything fitted, and it did, big sigh of relief.

5th May 2023

Warm weather is here!, off with the flannel shirt and on with the teeshirt.

I finished the review of the worktop drawing, and making a few amendments, I dropped it off at Stacy, the designer, for her to pass it on to the worktop manufacturer.

I had a few more errands to do including picking up the paint for the garage door. We painted it a few years ago a bold red colour, but over time it has changed to a pink. A bit like old Ford cortinas, they alway started out one colour and faded into another. This time we have the correct formulation paint that, hopefully will last a lot longer. Painting a double garage door is no walk in the park.

I got home in time for the lady from the tile shop who came to measure up for the walls above the worktop upstand. This should finish off the walls and complete the new look for the kitchen.

Kelli called an electrician this morning to arrange for someone to come out and run a new circuit for the hob, that should be next Tuesday.

Then it was back to the furniture jobs, sanding paint and everything.

We have two dressers in progress and one we still haven’t sold, that might get repainted.

I finished the thin cabinet for the spices and bottles, now I have to wait for the inner frame that has been ordered.

4th May 2023

We had to go to our designer to sign off the drawing for the worktop. I needed time to go over it in more detail, so I took it away with me to study it.

Don came round again at our request to look at the installation of the hob. I thought that it was a plug and play system with the oven, but that wasn’t the case.

There was a lot of confusion, and contradictory information in the installation manual. The main confusion was the illustration in the manual was not the same as the actual oven. I contacted Bosch customer service who were very little help. In the end I was told that the hob could be mounted above the oven, but it would need a separate circuit.

So Don and I both discussed the issue and took off the removable covers to see what was going on. The largest one exposed a large circuit board, but the power terminals were tucked away. We finally agreed that I would need an electrician to fit a new outlet for the hob. That did put my mind at ease because the thought of drilling holes in the oven top filled my head with dread.

I assembled the additional six inch wide unit that will be used for spices and oils. I still have a number of doors and drawer fronts to assemble, I need to finish those by the week end.

3rd May 2023

It still remains difficult to prepare proper meals, and breakfast in particular. Kelli has a egg boiler that is a bit temperamental, so they don’t always come out as planned, but the toaster works well.

We had a dresser to collect from Zeeland, but on the way we stopped off at Infusion, a kitchen/bathroom showroom to order a plug set for the new sink, these are things easily forgotten, of course nothing is in stock, but we should get them next week.

When we eventually got to Zeeland we found the house with the furniture on the porch. The dresser was a standard design that we’ve had many times, hopefully a quick turnaround.

The big thing on the list was wiring up the oven.

I fitted the large plug on the end of the cable, but as it was much larger than the one on the old cooker I had to remove part of the floor panel, luckily I had an oscillating saw that did the job really well. With a bit of lifting we slid the oven into place and once the power was turned on we had another clock to look at.

Next I need to find out how to set up the hob temporarily, then we could be back in action.

2nd May 2023

Kelli found a buyer for the old cooker, and they were coming to collect it mid afternoon.

Now we had to move it into the garage and give it a good clean.

We still had Larry’s dolly and we had learned a lot about moving heavy objects, namely, get someone else to do it, but it was a work day and our trusty strong person was not around. We tackled this like any other project, total confusion.

The cooker could only go out the door in one orientation which made it difficult to keep on the dolly. I took the full load, and Kelli kept a look out.

Getting it down the small steps rattled my teeth a bit, but we did it, now we had to clean it throughly.

I opened the oven and sprayed this toxic liquid over all the surfaces. We left it for half an hour then I went back and wiped it out.

It was satisfying to see what the true colour of the oven was, the last time would have been when we moved into the house.

By the time we had finished it was sparkling, and quite presentable.

The man arrived, and was happy with it, he commented on how clean it was, we smiled at each other, it was a bloody hard job.

Once this had gone it left a large space in the garage, Kelli cut up all the cardboard from all the appliance packing giving us more space than we’ve had in a long time.

Early evening, Don, a next door neighbour to Kelli’s mother came round to give me advice on how to wire up the oven plug.

He kindly brought a bottle of wine which I opened, and soon my head was happy that he did.

He explained that I would wire both the green (ground) and the white (neutral) together on the same terminal with the red and black on the other two. I’ve never heard of that before, and now reading the installation instructions it made sense.

I guess I will be wiring that up tomorrow.

Kelli made a fabulous lasagna in the small toast oven, you definitely have to think a few hours ahead to be able to cook something and eat it this side of midnight.