Another Lifetime to go

1st April 2023

The cold weather returned with snow flurries and a cold wind, but things were brighter.

We had a guy pick up the matching dresser and side table that he purchased a few days ago.

We also managed to sell the dresser with the two doors and a small side table giving us a good start to the month.

Kelli managed to paint another large dresser so we had a loads of drawers on every horizontal drying surface.

I got on making more drawer boxes, I think I have two left to build, then I have to make floors for them and coat them with a clear finish, so plenty to do.

31st March 2023

I had my second doctors appointment this morning. The last time he concentrated on my left arm that had been fractured as a child. Certain trauma is retained throughout life and it can manifest itself in stiff finger joints in later life. My own joints have been less painful even in the cold. This was interesting, and I was keen to move onto something else that concerned me.

Whilst I was at the dentist, they took my blood pressure and had told me it bounced around and was rather high. So this was my next experience to investigate.

I didn’t want to go on any medication, but wanted a more natural alternative.

The doctor took a reading, it wasn’t as high as the dentist, but as blood pressure varies a lot during the day he wasn’t concerned with it.

However during the course of the session he did take readings at different intervals and although some were lower it did move around a bit.

We talked about diet, bread and grains are not good and can cause inflammation, so those will have to be reduced from my menus. Apart from that, the rest of my foods are fine.

We were early for the appointment, and to kill time we dropped in to Zeeland Goodwill.

There was no furniture, but Kelli, went off the fumble through the clothes racks, found a classic Hollister jumper from the turn of the century, which are very desirable at the moment.

That was very convenient because she sold it the same evening for a substantial profit.

On the way back we stopped off at Lowes another large DIY store, to finally buy a table saw. I had done my research and found that the Dewalt portable table saw was the best for the price.

I needed help to get it into the truck, and there it stayed until I had room to assemble it.

30th March 2023

We both had a bad night, waking at three thirty and not able to get back to proper sleep.

That set the tone for the day, I am behind on where I wanted to be with the drawer boxes and bins, and my lacklustre disposition did not help.

I plodded on but I still have eight still to build.

We managed to unload the dresser that we collected yesterday because Kelli wanted something the work on and she didn’t feel like doing any painting.

The piece is very solidly built, but there was a bad spot on the top which was obviously water damage, the veneer had bubbles and lifted from the substrate, this had to be treated wether we refinished or repainted it.

The first line of attack was the hot iron trick to see if the adhesive could be reactivated.

Fortune was on my side, this seemed to work, so I continued to strip the top ready for refinishing.

It was a lovely sunny day, and a pleasure to work outside.

It is possible to see a bit of Lake Macatawa between some houses when the trees are bare, and Kelli has alway been excited by that, but that is all bound to change.

On our walk with the dogs we go around the small lagoon that feeds into the lake. At the end is a large patch of grass that hasn’t been built on. This strip of gold was owned by a large house at the end. This is now on the market at one point three million bucks, a fair price for its location. The green patch is also on the market, split into two lots, one is one point two and the other is one point three million smackeroonies. We think the lady who lived there kicked the bucket, and everything is being sold by the family, that’s a nice inheritance.

29th March 2023

Would you believe it? More snow, and we had to drive to Hudsonville again to collect another free large dresser.

It was bitterly cold, although the snow had stopped, and the sun was making an appearance.

The dresser was one of the heavy buggers, although we didn’t have to move it very far, Kelli struggled to find a grip that was comfortable. It make it a bit easier we took the drawers out, inside was a mass of wood shavings caused by the metal drawer runners wearing away the wooden guide. This is a common problem meaning I’ll have to make new guides out of a harder wood.

Kelli put in a call to a guy who could make our wooden counter top. His name was given to us by our friends John and Patti who use him to make their dining table tops.

I explained what I wanted, and I think he grasped it, I wasn’t totally sure, so I went through it again. When it came to giving him my email, it took ten minutes to get him to get it correct. Just to make it doubly sure I sent him a sketch, I just hope he knows how to get to his email.

28th March 2023

Kelli noticed a few small ants on the bedside table. This sent alarm bells aringing, we certainly didn’t want these creatures roaming about. We moved her cabinet out and saw quite a few more. They were also going into her closet, so we had to take drastic action.

A call was put into the exterminators and within an hour the guy was ringing our doorbell. He surveyed the place, squeezing some colourless gel along the skirting boards in both the bedroom and bathroom. He told us that it will attract all the ants in the area, and they will feed on the stuff and take it home, hopefully getting rid of them.

That was fun, I like nothing more then living in a ant infested house.

Within a few hours there were loads of the buggers feasting, it was alarming, but later in the day there was little sign of them, so hopefully the job is done.

The exterminator will return in a couple of weeks to spray stuff around the house to keep the critters away.

We went off to do our shopping at Nature’s Market, and Aldi. The self checkout stations did not have many people using them, most were happy to stand in the queue for the manned registers.

Then it was back home to work on the “turds”, putting right a few flaws in the paintwork.

We brought them into the house to take pictures and soon they were posted, can we get them into March’s numbers?

Well we did sell it after five hours posted, and paid for in full, collection on Saturday.

27th March 2023

The sun was shining, the garage door was open and sawdust was flying, there was a area of sun that was warm and ideal for drying paint. That was just as well as Kelli had to redo some of the pieces that she painted yesterday that didn’t go too well.

I glued up some drawer boxes, slowly the numbers of them are growing, soon there will be a problem of where to store them.

The two turds, as we call them, are gradually being polished. They have a decent manufacturing name on them, but the material of the time was MDF and either powder coated or epoxy painted. The people we got them from had hand painted them, and didn’t do a very good job, so we had that to contend with.

I had to work on the table, stripping off the skirt and the four legs. One of them had been damaged with large pieces missing, so my task was to cut out the bad area and set in a new piece of wood. I managed to find a scrap piece of oak, but it was hard as hell to cut, but as it has to take a fixing bolt to attach to the table, it needed to be dense.

We were given a front seat at our wild turkey porn festival. The males were in full plumage strutting their stuff, and the females were having none of it, and running away. This left the poor males grouped together, no doubt boasting how close they got to “doing it”.

It provided some good entertainment.

26th March 2023

A bad night for Kelli.

The day wasn’t very good as well with rain predicted spoiling the chance to move stuff outside and making space to do some spraying.

Kelli made an executive decision to repaint the dresser with drawers a lighter colour, she thought that it was the wrong colour that was putting people off from buying it, my thought was it had only been a few days, and some things need a bit more time. However she was adamant, so be it.

I had to go a buy more timber and by the time I returned it had been transformed.

Driving back I saw a Post office delivery van, which is rare on a Sunday, but as it drove towards me it was the most ugly design I have ever seen. It’s not so much styled, but created.

I would have loved to be at the meeting when this monstrosity was unveiled. I think a five year old could have done better. It looks like it’s already been in an accident and they couldn’t be bothered to fix it. I can’t wait to see what they come up with for the electric version.

25th March 2023

Two customers came to collect their purchases this morning, one lady arrived at ten, even before we had breakfast.

She bought the French provincial style dresser, which turned out pretty well.

The next sale was the four chairs we picked up for free that came with a table that is the bane of my life.

A couple drove from Grand Rapids and absolutely loved them, we did too, because we didn’t have to do anything to them, these are the best sale.

I got on with my small batch production, and even started on the assembly of one drawer, whoopee!

Later I drove to hardware store on Graafschap road, the local armoury. I needed some magnetic catches, but everyone else was getting armed. It must have been fathers buying their teenage sons weapons of mass destruction day.

There were flurries of snow all afternoon, a reminder to make sure the woollens and long-johns are within reach.

24th March 2023

Kelli had a doctors appointment this morning, so off to Zeeland we went. She has been on a probiotic for five weeks in an attempt to improve her sleep, and now it was time to report if it had made a difference.

It seemed they had, although nothing in the natural healing world is quick, she will have to continue to take the supplements, although they taste like dirt, for a bit longer.

Getting back home I was able to start on the drawers and storage bins. I set up a cutting jigs to produce all the side pieces which were the most complex.

By the end of the day I was covered in saw dust and had filled two large plastic bags with wood chips and sawdust, not sure what to do with them.

23rd March 2023

My sore mouth has eased a bit, not the throbbing pain I was expecting. I managed a normal style breakfast before getting stuck in to some project work.

We finished the dresser with the doors I made to replace the twisted drawers, and I made a start on the drawers and boxes for the kitchen.

This required reducing the timber thickness from three quarters to half an inch.

Kelli was on the other end of the planer, looking like she didn’t really want to be there.

There was a bit of problem with the shavings getting jammed in the extraction pipe. I was getting bombarded with crap, and confused why the chippings weren’t getting sucked up in the bag. Once we found the problem, and cleared the blockage it work as intended.

I was happy to make a start, now I’ve got to keep it going like a mini production line.