Another Lifetime to go

15th January 2022

We had a few things to do this morning, so I checked how my repair to the drawer box side panel that was damaged yesterday on my day of woe. I removed all the clamps and all was well. I trimmed the excess, and fitted it to the rest of the box as soon as I could to avoid the possibility of it getting damaged further.

We had to deliver the small dresser to a previous customer on the north side, and whilst we were out there were a few collections to make including another dresser.

But first we had to unload the two heavy pieces we left in the truck overnight.

The delivery of the small dresser went without a hitch, I like the fact that I was able to carry it on my own without sounding like I was having a heart attack.

There was time to kill before we had to collect the dresser, so we stopped at a thrift store

There we found two matching side tables which Kelli snapped up (they went on Marketplace as soon as we got home).

We had to wait in the carpark of a blueberry processing company for the lady to arrive.

Eventually she turned up with a car full of people. She was Mexican, and it is well known that all family members travel together no matter where they go.

We loaded up and headed back, we were expecting a couple to bring us a dresser that they wanted re-finishing. I had done an enamel topped bakers table back in February 2021, so they must have been happy with that, as they had driven from Kalamazoo, which is about fifty-two miles away.

Now the garage is full again.

14th January 2022

We had to drive to Lowes to meet up with a chap who was selling a greenhouse. This has to be the longest transaction in Holland history, because Kelli had been communicating with him for months. We thought it had died a death as the guy stopped responding, but suddenly he started up again. We decided to buy it for our plans to grow more veg for ourselves.

On the way back we stopped off at Goodwill, we hadn’t been to that one for a long time. There wasn’t much there except for a black painted desk. As our stock was rapidly diminishing, we thought it would be a good piece to have, and as it was only five dollars it was a bit of a bargain.

It was a heavy beast, I had to get help to move it from the store through the back room to the loading bay. The person available was a large lady, who had problems walking. She waddled in front of me, I wasn’t sure if she was capable to helping me carry the furniture, and that proved correct, instead she pushed it.

The scraping sound echoed around the store, I pretended that I wasn’t involved. Once through the double doors she handed the baton to a young lad to do the actual carrying and lifting.

With a struggle we got it into the truck, the first Goodwill purchase this year.

I had one of those days when things didn’t go right, a day when things might have been thrown as far as I could throw them.

It started when I started making a sample of the extension piece for the unit that has to be increased in height. I decided to use my new dowel jig to join all the parts together. I cut up all the parts and marked every piece so I could align the doweling jig. I drilled all the holes, and then came the time to assemble the frame.

There was perfect alignment on the faces but a small step on the ends. This shouldn’t have happened! All the lines lined up, I refitted the jig and tried to re-drill the holes. This did nothing, the steps were still there.

I then started checking every piece of wood and found that the end cuts were slightly out of square. I need to recalibrate the saw now.

Then as I was fitting the bottom panel into the drawer box that I had made, one of the panels dropped on to the floor and chipped the bottom corner. Being a soft plywood it just broke away, I cursed out loud!

I decided to stop for the day in case something else went wrong.

13th January Thursday

We had a customer come to collect the dresser we posted yesterday. There was the last minute rush to make sure everything was painted properly. The market has picked up a bit as January is often slow with low sales.

I began working on two dressers that need my expertise whilst Kelli finished the small drawer unit which she posted on Marketplace.

Then she started on the kiddies toy kitchen.

I repaired a bit of damage on the side panels with a big dollop of Bondo.

One of the dresser units is going the be repurposed to use two glass doors we had in stock, but I have to increase the height by about four inches.

12th January 2022

We sold the heavy dresser this morning. The couple arrived just after 1.00pm and there was no quibble. We just loaded it on their truck and the money was handed over. It turned out to be a fine piece, although it was not my best top, they loved it and that was all that mattered.

They also seemed interested in other pieces that we were working on, so that sets the priorities.

This spurred our activity with Kelli sanding and preparing a small drawer unit ready for painting.

I left mid afternoon for my meeting with Tom Verkaik in Zeeland.

This is the first person from I have talked to from HM so it was good to catch up.

Covid has had quite an effect on the day to day business with material scarcity and some companies going out of business. Being as he leads the product engineering group there is plenty of work testing parts from new suppliers.

Most of his team work from home but he feels detached from the rest of the organisation.

The MillerKnoll integration has caused disruption as well, many staff have been integrated, causing confusion.

Tom feels that the company is struggling to define what it’s future direction is, and the leadership is not popular at the moment.

He couldn’t tell me if any of the people I knew still worked there, I suspect many were offered attractive packages to retire early, I guess Tom might be waiting for the same inducement.

11th January 2022

The sliding door in the sunroom froze last night. That meant that the dogs could not go out for a piss. It is hard to explain to a dog what the problem was, they were just desperate to get out.

The only immediate option was to let them into the garage and out through the door to the back garden.

The hard job was coxing them to enter the garage. This is an area they do not normally venture into, so in the freezing cold I called them. I tried everything, whistling, calling their names, and I even thought about smearing their food all over my body, but I didn’t fancy getting savaged to death.

The urge to piss finally got the better of them, and they both trotting into the forbidden zone and out the back door.

Getting them back in was easier, just my feeble whistle was enough.

I then had a look at the problem with the sliding door.

The sunroom does get a lot of condensation, it has a lot of glass and is full of plants, it is not so well insulated as the main house. The water had ran down the sliding glass door and into the track where it froze. The solution consisted of a hot air dryer, a screwdriver and an old towel.

I melted the ice, dug it out with the screwdriver then mopped up the water with the towel, problem solved.

All this, and I hadn’t even had breakfast yet.

10th January 2022

We sold the two night tables, this threw me into a panic as I still had to make the back panels. We managed to put the buyer off until 3.00pm because we had to go out and collect a couple of pieces that Kelli had found.

I managed to get the panels cut to size before leaving.

The first stop was to Family Fare car park to meet up with a seller of a small cabinet.

After that we drove to an address to collect a child’s kitchen,Yes? that was what I thought.

“What are we going to do with a child’s kitchen?”

Kelli had it all worked out, she found some examples on Pinterest and thought she could do better.

The piece was obviously hand made, and was solid pine, but it needed a refresh, and that is Kelli’s project.

The next stop was a trailer park way out from the town. As we approached the place it became obvious why it was so far out. The majority of the mobile homes had seen better days which is always scary. We eventually found the number, it must have been one of the worst on the site. There were dirty sheets covering the windows, and the thought of getting out of the safety of the truck scared the living daylights out of me.

“What shall I do?” Inquired Kelli.

“ Keep driving” I replied, but then we had to find our way out.

That is easier said than done.

The roads were icy which limited our speed, and when you are in an environment resembling a Mad Max movie you need the ability to exit quickly.

Round and round we drove looking for the exit frightened that we will pass that place again, but this time being chased by a mad woman pushing a dresser.

We did escape unscathed and rushed back home so that I could fit the back panels to the side tables and give them a final check over.

The couple had driven from Muskegon, they handed over the cash, loaded up the pieces and set of back.

We carried on with the dressers in progress, and as more snow started to fall we called it a day and came inside of the warm house.

9th January 2022

We finished the two matching side tables. Kelli picked out some unique handles for them which made them look so different.

We carried them into the house to take pictures. At this time they didn’t have back panels, I guessed that I would have time to cut one before they were sold, fortunately I had the material to make them.

There are a few pieces in progress, one is the free roadside beast that has been transformed. The top has been stained black, and will take another three days to finish.

I had to dig another path through the snow to reach the compost bin, there was quite a backlog of stuff waiting in the kitchen to get deposited. It also provided the dogs with more places to piss and poo, I’m really excited about that.

I set out with my snowplough style shovel trying to make an impact in the drift. It is metal, and with snow frozen to it, it’s heavy and awkward, I was puffing and wheezing like an old git. I laughed when I realised that was exactly what I am.

8th January 2022

It was time to remove the snow from the truck. Quite a bit had built up, and as we hadn’t ventured out it for several days it was nearly twice as high as the truck. I decided to leave a Mohawk on top of the roof, thinking it would blow off as soon as we started moving, but it didn’t.

The drive down to Hamilton was pleasant. The sun was shining making the scene of snow against blue sky wonderful. We had the completed mid century dresser and mirror well wrapped in the back of the truck.

When we arrived at the owners house, the lady quickly appeared, her voice rising in decibels with ever second, and when she saw the finished result most of Hamilton could hear.

These were nice people, I saw one of the tables I refinished for her many months ago, so we were equally excited that she liked it.

We had had a busy morning, first to Natures Market to buy a bottle of Holy Basel then off to the doctors to check if it was having any effect on Kelli’s recovery, it wasn’t. This meant that what she bought earlier, and the order on Amazon would have to be returned.

Once we got home there were some work done in the garage, but just enough to keep the wheels turning.

7th January 2022

Another eighteen inches of snow fell overnight.

The driveway that I dugout yesterday has filled back up.

The dogs don’t like running into a drift. They stay out just long enough to do their stuff, then run back with their noses pressed against the sliding door waiting to be let in.

Kelli wanted the skylight cleared, but the long snow scraper was stored in the shed in the back garden. In order to get to the shed, I had to dig a path. The snow came up to my knees, I was struggling to dig the track, the disadvantage of having a double plot is clear when you have to move a lot of cold white stuff.

I managed to find the scraper, it came in four sections, being aluminium, they were bloody cold to assemble, but once done, it was over twelve feet long, and just right to clear the snow off the skylight.

The activity in the garage was mainly down to Kelli, she was painting the big heavy bastard dresser and all the drawers. She then started on another.

I managed to cut the tops for the small side tables and plywood for a drawer I have to make for another dresser.

I wanted to try Odies finishing wax, I had seen a number of YouTube videos that sang it’s praises, so I bought a pot on Amazon to try for myself. The wax is quite expensive and should be used sparingly, it is generally used as a finish coat in place of polyurethanes as it is non toxic and food safe.

I coated a scrap piece of pine, waited half an hour then buffed it. The result was a warm smooth finish, but it shows any residual marking, so it’s essential that the timber is sanded throughly.

6th January 2022

Today would have been my Dads one hundred and fifteenth birthday, happy birthday Ted.

Snow continued for most of the day, a good twelve inches when it stopped. I decided to clear the driveway with just a push style shovel, which is a pile of crap. I started off well, scooping and flinging the stuff to each side of the drive. After about ten feet along the drive, the weight started to tell. Considering I had talked about my mortality yesterday, I thought my time was up. I was gasping and sweating, it would not have been cool to have pegged out in a half finished driveway. I persisted and reached the truck then stopped.

The man next door was using a snow blower, he breezed up and down with ease, I was using him as a pacemaker, I think I kept up pretty well.

We loaded the mid century dresser into the truck just to get it out of the garage. Kelli plowed ahead with painting the big heavy bugger dresser we picked up from the side of the road. Which leaves me rushing with the top.