Another Lifetime to go

5th April 2022

I assembled the frost damaged dresser using the new base frame. A number of the MDF cross rails had split, so I had to repair those.

The main activity of the day was to complete the paving.

I had twelve slabs to lay which were twelve too many, the weather was good, just right for straining my back, hopefully the last I will ever need todo, well apart from digging up the old grass, and laying new turf, but first things first.

I think I did the best job possible, levelled in all directions which wasn’t easy because of the rough texture of the paving. I’m sure a professional would shake their head and pick out all the faults, but sod them. I’ve learned a lot through doing it, mainly I will stick to wood work in future

4th April 2022

I drove to the house of the lady that I am making a jewellery drawer for, I wanted to check the framework that will house the drawer. I had to make a few adjustments to get a better fit, now I am confident that I can finish the project.

When I returned to the homestead I did work on the new base for the frost damaged dresser.

I hate working with MDF, so the new base frame is made from pine and a piece of poplar. That should be the strongest part of the whole dresser.

In between all that I have drawer boxes to repair, but first I have to remove all the bits of timber someone had nailed, glued and screwed into the drawer. Then I have to remove the side panel, trim it and bond a new piece of wood to it, it’s a Labour intensive job, but I have finished one so far.

3rd April 2022

It was going to be a dry day meaning a slab laying time.

But first there were a few furniture jobs to do allowing repaired panels to dry ready for machining tomorrow.

There was great excitement that we had two sales, one the large corner unit to the couple that came to view it yesterday, and the new dresser that we posted yesterday.

A large flat bed truck arrived to collect the corner unit, then we waited in eager anticipation for the buyer of the dresser to arrive at around three in the afternoon.

I started laying slabs after lunch with the intension to lay another fifteen before I became worn out.

By five there was still no sign of the buyer, and no message to update us on their arrival.

Kelli had sent a polite message but still no response. She then sent another message to another interested person, but they didn’t respond either, so we felt genuinely let down.

2nd April 2022

The sun shone through the bedroom window causing the orange wall to glow. This only happens in the spring when the sunrise starts to move down the length of the wall turning it into a giant Jaffa fruit.

This was going to be short lived as rain was due to take over later in the day.

The first job after breakfast was to collect a dresser from somewhere on the north side.

This piece looked okay as we approached, and it was heavy and old, that I could tell from the segmented back panel. Once we got it back, and looked inside there was evidence of botched repairs to the drawers with extra pieces of wood screwed to the sides and floor panel. The dresser itself was solid oak and will look great when it is stripped and refinished, but with a long haul of repairs ahead of me it won’t be quick.

Other projects moving along included the one dresser I started yesterday. I disassembled the carcass and cut the side panels down to the new dimension. I searched through my timber stock to find suitable material to build the new base frame, finding some that I ran through the planer to make an common thickness.

A strange situation arose regarding a free dresser and side table that Kelli found for free in Grand Rapids. She suggested that we could collect it on Sunday, the buyer said that wasn’t convenient for her, but offered to deliver it to us for twenty dollars during this afternoon. Of course we accepted the offer because it would probably cost us that in petrol. However the afternoon came and went with no communication from the seller, we almost gave up hope of this deal materialising, when a message came through that the person will deliver it on Thursday, I won’t hold my breath for that.

We finished the “That’s why it’s free” dresser, and posted it on Marketplace as quickly as we could.

1st April 2022

Mother Nature decided to play an April fool joke on us by covering the ground with an inch of snow overnight.

This was not welcomed at all, I had my day mapped out as a slab laying day, so instead I pulled out an old dresser that we hid away under a sheet. This was because we shouldn’t have got it, although it was free, it had frozen to the ground that damaged the side panels when we lifted into the truck.

It was my first chance to access the condition of the piece, and it was not very good. The construction as mainly MDF, but the top was chipboard with a birch like veneer this had been painted. There were many KD fittings holding everything together, so a sign of quality, but that’s what we deal with.

My plan for it will be to cut of the damaged areas and build a solid base, strip the top and paint the body, should be an interesting project.

By early afternoon the snow had gone and the sun was out, so I could do my slab laying after all.

I carried my bags of sand outside and started to mix the mortar. I had fifteen slabs to lay which would complete half the area.

It tuned out the mixing the muck and laying fifteen slab was my daily limit, I was knackered.

We decided to have a take out for dinner, but the didn’t stop the excitement, Kelli found a free dresser not far away. Chocks away chaps! Off we went to collect it. The speed limit was exceeded a tiny bit, because we wanted to get back home before our food arrived.

We arrived at the address only to be told that it had been grabbed by a neighbour across the road, what a bummer.

This spontaneous action would not have happened six months ago because Kelli would have been wiped out after a days toil, so this demonstrates how far she has come.

31st March 2022

It is the end of March and to celebrate, it snowed. What the heck? According to the weather forecast it was due to snow all day, it didn’t settle but still it came.

We moved on to work on the “Well that’s why it’s Free” dresser, named after the words the lady used when we asked about the missing drawer. I had already worked on the top that had been veneered over laminate.

I had made a new drawer to replace the missing one and I had glued a walnut veneer on to the top drawer front to make it a little more interesting

When I removed all the clamps I was really pleased how it turned out.

These changes should take a dull uninteresting dresser into a stylish one.

I would like to show the lady what it looks like now

30th March 2022

We finished re-assembly of the large corner unit, tweaking the doors so they fitted well and aligned with each other. It was tricky carrying it into the house to take the pictures. Fitting the triangular glass and wood shelves into the unit was challenging, there is definitely a technique getting them to fit correctly that we learnt.

I bonded the walnut veneer to the drawer front, always a stressful operation getting everything clamped down. Even with a bit of preparation, I still had to reposition the clamping boards several times. I will leave it overnight and see what happened in the morning.

We decided to go out for lunch to a small cafe just down the road. This is the place she wants to go for her birthday bash with her family, she knows the owner, and she caters for vegans. It’s a cool place , it’s close and we like to patronise a local business.

By the time we got back we couldn’t be assed to do anything else, so we skived off early.

29th March 2022

I have alway been interested in the news, I grew up watching the BBC nine o clock news and ITV news at ten. At no time did I ever think that I was not told the truth, some stories might have been less graphic in their reporting, but generally I believed that the news was a public service.

I recently saw an interview with an American journalist where the question was asked “ When did the news change?” His reply was, “during the seventies, that’s when the news was monetised” He was referring to the time when ratings became important, and producers needed sponsorship. News stories were chosen for their sensation level.

Roll forward to today’s news outlets and the situation is even worse. There are hundreds of outlets spouting their “news”.

I have spent time watching YouTube videos of various legitimate news channels of both the left and right political persuasions. Each one of these channels offer a snippet of controversial value to grab the viewers. The same goes for the crazies, and conspiracy crackpots who spout their truth as “news”, basically their only method of earning money is to grab attention using outrageous stories.

In the end “truthful news” is available to those who end up paying to believe it.

Back to my reality, we had a bit more spraying to do, and I continued work on the newly veneered worktop.

It was still cold, but got slightly warmer as the day went on. I could tell because I started to carry some paving stones from the front of the garage where they were set down last November, to the back where they will be laid.

I managed to move five of them, but the ones on the next row were still frozen until later in the afternoon. However it was still too cold to mix cement, maybe tomorrow.

28th March 2022

Sometimes it is nice just to sit looking out of the living room window drinking my coffee before we start our projects.

There is calm on Central Bay Avenue, it is not a busy street, there are the early workers who leave at six thirty and get back home at four in the afternoon, you can set your watch by them.

South shore Drive is a little busier, at this time of year it’s all about landscaping, so most of the trucks are pulling trailers with garden equipment on them.

There are signs of new growth on our front lawn, I am waiting for a delivery of the organic fertiliser that will add the nitrogen to kill the moss and boost the grass, for us spring is around the corner, to coin a phrase.

It was still bloody cold, there is a small amount of snow left in the shady areas, and the water barrels are still frozen. I hope it is all downhill to a bit of warmer weather.

The warmest place, apart from the house is the greenhouse, Kelli proudly proclaimed this as she emerged from her new refuge. It is quite home from home with all the new seed trays freshly watered.

We managed to do a bit of spraying of a large corner unit that used to be dog food. It was a bit cold with the garage door open, and it took a while to dry, but we persevered and got it done.

I on the other hand attempted to bond a veneer on to an laminate worktop.

I had stitched together strips of walnut veneer, and scuffed up the surface of the laminate.

I used a contact adhesive that I applied with a roller. Normally something goes wrong, like it falls in the wrong position and gets wrecked, but this time it was textbook perfect.

I clamped down both the ends of the top as these are the most vulnerable and left it overnight.

27th March 2022

It was all hand on deck to get the dresser ready for collection.

I had given the top another coat of finish before how I knew how low the temperature was last night. I gave a big sigh of relief when I checked it in the morning.

My task for the day was to build a drawer that was missing from a dresser that we had bought a few months ago. We had stored it in the room adjacent to the garage, but it took up valuable space that we wanted to use for something else.

I had glued up some side panels in advance that needed to be planed to the correct thickness then a groove machined for the bottom panel.

The final job was cutting the dovetails to match the existing back piece, one of the only two pieces that had survived. That was an interesting job, and proved that my chisels were sharp.

The last job of the day was gluing up the drawer box.

The couple that had bought the dresser turned up, they loved the piece, and even though they had first offered a ridicules offer I didn’t hold that against them, I even helped them load it into their vehicle, that was very good of me.

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