Another Lifetime to go

4th February 2022

I finally finished the re-paint/refinish dresser.

The last act was to slide in the shelf which had been a problem area from the start.

The top had to be fitted as the fixings were covered by the shelf. The shelf had to be finagled into the narrow slot including the blocks on the underside of the shelf to stop it pulling out.

Bottom line it all went together and looks great.

Kelli was busy sanding the small shelf unit that she picked up yesterday. Now she doesn’t like sanding, especially the fillers, so I flit around doing all the jobs no one else wants to do.

3rd February 2022

Another doctors appointment for Kelli, but before that was a visit to Plato’s Closet for her to dispose of four bags of clothes that she no longer needed.

She didn’t get the cash she was expecting, therefore a bit disappointed, but at this time of year retail is a bit slow, of course the snow doesn’t help.

Her time with the doctor was better, he suggested she drop one of her supplements, which is alway a good sign.

Then it was off furniture collecting deep in the south of the town, well it was a long way south.

It was into the flat lands where the snow was drifting across the roads.

The address we wanted was on a farm that was at the end of a very long drive. We missed it the first time and had to go round a very long block to find the entrance.

There were three small pieces, a bench with a disgusting fabric seat, a little side table and a shelf unit with two drawers. These would be ideal for Kelli to work on leaving me to continue on the larger jobs. We decided on the bench and side table, the shelf was not wood, therefore not suitable for refinishing.

I’m getting near completing the refinish project. I’m hoping that will be collected at the week end.

We have a number of finished pieces that haven’t sold yet stacked in the corner of the garage, a little bit concerning, but February is alway a slow month, slower than January, but I’m confident they will be sold soon.

I went on Amazon to but some spray walnut toner, a great product to blend in colours where the finish is a bit blotchy. I found the exact can but the price was quite high. So I went on the web site of the company that manufactured it. and found the exact same can at half it’s price. Happy at my find I set about ordering it only to find the cost of handling and shipping cost much more than the paint itself. That pissed me off, but I went back to Amazon and reluctantly ordered it from them. I hope the stuff will last a long time, it better.

2nd February 2022

I spoke too soon about the thaw, we woke up to a fresh layer of snow, and it continued all day. That meant clearing the drive once again. The prospect for the rest of the week isn’t that good.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding Larry who lives across the road. For as long as we’ve lived in this area he has never used the garage for his car. That was because it was always full of junk or old wrecks that he’s working on.

Recently we have observed that he has been using it all the time. He spent time snow blowing his driveway , another rarity, now he’s in and out like Batman.

We know he’s not fighting crime, although he’s alway on the move often down to the local shop to buy his ciggies.

We have made it our mission to find out if he’s hiding from someone.

1st February 2022

It started to rain, along with a rise in the temperature has started to thaw the snow. Now everything will be soggy and horrible.

Kelli finished the headboard, we took some pictures and posted it on Marketplace.

There are a number of pieces nearing completion meaning I have a number of stained tops laid out drying. This limits what else I am able to work on because I dare’t create any dust.

I fixed the legs on to the small dresser and did a test stain on one of the drawer fronts from the mid century dresser we picked up last week. I had finished repairing the drawers that were in bits, so this piece is ready to start.

31st January 2022

Facebook has been bombarding me with advertisements for cordless snow blowers.

I had been searching for one when the snow first fell and couldn’t find any, now there are at least three on the market.

It’s now too late, because the snow is frozen and not suitable for these machines. They work with freshly fallen stuff, I have decided to wait until next Autumn.

Our evening entertainment consists of watching BritBox, a provider that shows programs from the UK.

We also watch a lot of home renovation series on US channels which, quite frankly have people with annoying voices, or the format is so predictable. It is quite refreshing watching programs where people speak properly. They may be old, but it is the connection with my home country.

The wild turkeys strutted past the window looking for food. These are our turkeys, they walk about like they own the place. One has a limp, so it’s walk is so different. We have watched them since they were chicks under the watchful eye of their parents, soon these will be doing the same in the spring. Some will say daffodils are the first sign of spring, ours are the baby turkeys.

30th January 2022

Christmas finally came to 593 Central Bay when Cameron and his girlfriend came around to open their presents. It was a little weird, but at least that’s done, hopefully the next Christmas will be more normal.

I finished watching the Beatles film “Get Back”.

I could appreciate the technical achievement of piecing together all the film and audio in chronological order, but it showed how dis connected they were as a band. They were going through the motions but lacked any direction. It must have been so boring for the film crew, spending all those hours watching the Fab Four messing about.

Interesting to note that back in 1969 this would have been seen as reality TV, not realising that many years later we are “entertained” by uninteresting people trying to be interesting.

29th January 2022

A pot belly baker’s table? I’ve never heard of it before, anyway we were going to Grand Rapids to collect one.

The pot belly refers to the drawers that have a rounded underside that are used to store flour or similar baking materials.

This example we were collecting was over a hundred years old and was in the same family for most of that time. They no longer had room for it so posted it on Marketplace and spotted by eagle eyed Kelli.

It had a tough life by the looks of it, the top was held down by a number of nails and screws, and had split in sections.

The pot belly parts had de-laminated and will require repair or replacement, but this will be a Labour of love, I can tell.

The rest of the day consisted of machining the top for the pedestal, and making little legs for it. Kelli was busy sanding the headboard ready for repainting.

We had sold the cabinet with the glass doors, but we have to hold it for a couple of weeks, that’s not ideal.

28th January 2022

Rushed out early to get a new piece of glass cut at the local hardware and armoury.

The reason for the haste was that we had someone coming to view it at 1.00pm.

I had the glass installed and the door refitted by 11.30 only to be told that the person had some family emergency and was not coming today, bugger!

Not that we’re short of things to work on, I had drawers to repair and cabinets to glue up and tops to make, and it’s still only Friday.

I opened up the box that the bandsaw came in and put it together, it’s a pretty basic model but should be fine for what I am likely to put through it.

We off-loaded the headboard and carried it into the garage, it was heavier than it looked.

27th January 2022

There was a final push to get the cabinet with the glass doors finished.

I reassembled the glass panels and cut the quadrant to hold it all together. I then handed it over to Kelli to paint whilst I fitted the back panel and top.

Once the glass had dried I tackled fitting the doors. That is when disaster struck, I happened to notice a small crack in the glass adjacent to where the nail holding the quadrant on was positioned. Needless to day I uttered some expletives, annoyed at myself for letting that happen, now I have to replace the panel.

I carried on and fitted the doors, for once they went okay, and finally it was complete, finished in a summer beach inspired colour, just right for someone’s holiday cottage.

We carried it into the house and took pictures then back out again for me to get the old glass out.

We went out to collect a headboard that Kelli wants to match with the desk pedestal that we are working on, fortunately it was very close and didn’t take very long.

It was twice as warm as it was yesterday, but bearing in mind it was 9 degrees F it was still bloody cold.

26th January 2022

It was an embarrassing moment for Kelli when the person that was interested in the small buffet that we sold to somebody else turned up. She explained that not hearing anything from them led her to believe they were not interested, we were not even informed that he would turn up today.

He didn’t have a fit, so we showed him other things were were working on.

It was one of those times when we should have informed them as soon as it was sold, however it was done, and the lady picked it up earlier.

We lifted the mid century tall dresser from the truck and struggled into the garage. It has a lots of solid oak pieces on it making it heavy.

I laid out all the drawer pieces on the bench. One drawer front had some water damage, this will dictate how we will treat the finishing of all the fronts.

Earlier I moved the free desk that we hid away, out to strip down.

During our production meeting last night Kelli had the brilliant idea to use the desk top to make a new top for a dresser that had a grotty laminate surface. The pedestal would make a small dresser or side table.

As I started the disassembly, the full extent of the quality of the desk became clear. Every part was solid oak, not one part of particleboard was in it. Removing the screws from the pedestal was a bugger, it was almost that the screws were not undoable. What should have taken ten minutes took more than an hour. In a lot of cases I had to drill the heads off the screws, but once off I was left with lots of oak timber that I can reuse.

Then I went shopping to Lowes in the afternoon. I needed some timber quadrant to trim some cabinet doors, but I also had a hankering to purchase a nail gun, but I didn’t want a pneumatic system because I didn’t have a compressor and didn’t really want one.

My plan was to buy a cordless model which they had at Lowes.

I found the model that was advertised, but the battery and charger were sold separately (good one Craftsman). As I procrastinated, looking for the nails, they all looked so thick. Ideally I wanted small gauge nails for the trims I generally attach, if I was fixing siding, or making up boxes the thicker nails would be fine. The long and short of it was I put all of it back on the shelf and left without it.

To compensate for that I went across the road to Harbour Freight and bought a bench mounted band saw, this has been a tool I have wanted for a while, now I have to make some space for it.