Another Lifetime to go

17th October 2021

Today was all about working outside on the garden. It was a warm sunny day just right for getting my hands dirty and moving some plants. This last year had been a disaster as far as the garden is concerned due to Kelli’s illness, I had my outside projects building the patio and deck, but even that couldn’t be finished because of a shortage of paving slabs. I have the winter to plan how the back garden will be transformed.

We had to deliver the small two door cabinet to an address in Holland. We were expecting to sell the white one today, but the buyer became elusive, so we don’t know what will happen to that.

I did a bit of reseeding at the front of the house, but my record on growing grass is not good. Other people just sprinkle seed on the ground and up it comes, but not mine.

16th October 2021

It was a cold start of the day, cold enough for me to wear a fleece. We wanted to complete two dressers and get them posted on Marketplace. I noticed one had a run caused by the uneven surface I had the top sitting on. That was a drag, meaning rubbing it down with fine paper and refinishing it again.

The good news was that we sold it within minutes of it being posted.

Kelli is getting more confident since being cured of vertigo. Although her brain has to relearn head movement, it’s great to watch her do more things.

I started stripping the last chair, five more days of sanding and scraping, then I can give my aching fingers a rest at the end of it, and it can’t come fast enough.

15th October Friday

We visited the cemetery to see Dave’s headstone that had recently been installed. It was a sad moment for Kelli, at last there is a marker, other times we had to guess the grave, location, which I’m sure was wrong.

This was on the way to pick up a cabinet that Kelli liked the look of. The house was situated in the historic district, but unlike the last time I collected something from there where an old scrote shouted at me, this was much more pleasant.

The piece was not very well painted, but that didn’t matter as we both had similar ideas, and Kelli grabbed the heat gun and started stripping paint.

14th October 2021

Construction day began at 8.00am when the crew arrived to replace the furnace. That meant breakfast early, that meant a long day.

There is an advantage in having a unit that controls both the heat and the cold, it is efficient and relatively compact, the disadvantage is it is expensive.

The dogs didn’t know who to bark at first, but quickly got used to them, and viewed the progress from the comfort of the sofa.

We had to go out to collect a desk that Kelli found at a bargain for ten dollars.

What started out as a simple journey turned into an adventure. The address had fooled the GPS and we drove around in circles for quite a while before making a call to the seller for more accurate directions.

The desk was small, and painted black there was also a chair included.

By the time we returned, the old furnace was standing outside, along with a mass of tubes and wires. Inside the house, without the furnace there was a large hole in the floor where the air is pushed down into the crawl space. For the installers it was a long day, they finally left at seven, leaving a neat installation.

I wanted a Bluetooth thermostat controlled by my phone, not just because I’m bloody lazy, but it made a much neater unit on the wall in place of the enormous old relic of eighties technology.

We had plenty of things to keep us out of the way of the workers. Kelli made good progress on the two dressers, I stained both tops, made repairs to one of the cabinet doors, and as always more stripping on the third chair.

13th October 2021

Today was a landmark day for Kelli and her long road to recovery.

She had a session of physical therapy to check if her vertigo had gone.

It was a tense time walking into the hospital. She hadn’t had the courage to check it for herself, fearing the worst, it was easier to be in the hands of the professionals.

Assuming the number one position, there was no eye movement either up or across, signifying dizziness. The number two position was the same. Position three was the critical one because it usually triggered the worst effects of vertigo, but again, nothing. Sitting back up was uneventful, so the conclusion was , no vertigo.

This was a brilliant result, I almost sensed the the two therapists would be high fiveing each other once we had left.

Now we go through the period of training the brain to expect head movement, because for so long she had avoided them, even becoming expert at picking objects up with her feet.

This will be a gradual process, but it is a load off our minds.

The person came to collect the buffet we posted yesterday, it did look good, and the buyer was delighted with it.

12th October 2021

A drive in the rain to Hamilton to collect another piece of furniture. Thank goodness for GPS I don’t know how people lived without it. The property was a mobile home set in a wilderness, my question, what do these people do all day?

There was nothing around, if you didn’t have transport you could die and never be found.

The piece was a double door with a single drawer, and the kind that sell quick, but not for a great profit.

As soon as we got back, Kelli couldn’t wait to get started on it, grabbing the heat gun she set about stripping the top.

We had a buyer for the dresser we posted yesterday, due for collection Wednesday.

That meant there were things that had to be finished, I had to fit the back panel, and a few paint touch ups.

There is alway pressure to have projects for Kelli to work on, but most things we buy cheaply require repair work that only I can do.

So when we get new stock I am alway conscious that the repair works has to take priority. As I look at my current workload, apart from the chair stripping, I have a drawer in the piece we bought today to repair, and a worktop to sand and fill some holes, all that I have to do to keep the production going.

There is a dresser that I want to dis-assemble in order to repair an end panel, and I’m itching to get started on it.

11th October 2021

Another appointment at Kelli’s doctor for another session of tweaking and tuning. She left totally unscathed, not a bruise to be seen.

We had to get back home quickly because there was a potential sale of our latest dresser.

We did a few final tweaks and a polish and it was ready.

The buyer arrived and immediately loved the piece, we quickly helped her load it into her truck, and off she went.

We finished the third of our dresser collection. This was one we bought back in July, it was parked in the back of the garage because we didn’t fancy working on it. It was black and badly painted, it hadn’t had a primer over the original finish, so the black came away in strips. The original handles had been lost, and replaced with wooden ovals that covered the recesses where the handles would have been.

We set in painted wooden knobs that gave it a more contemporary look.

Kelli posted it on Marketplace, now we sit and wait for the interest to start.

We heard from the heating and AC guy letting us know that they will start the installation on Thursday, can’t wait for that.

10th October 2021

I had to polish the top to the dresser that hopefully we would sell today.

The stain I used was call Provincial which had more red than the Walnut colour that I usually use. But it was better than I expected, and the final waxing made it wonderfully smooth.

The black stained top had dried completely so that was ready to refit to the carcass. I also added another coat of finish to the third dresser top.

We took pictures of the dresser with the black stained, it looked great with the bluey grey carcass.

We then had to go and collect yet another dresser Kelli had spotted on Marketplace.

The people were selling all sorts of house stuff, they were moving, and everything had to go.

Kelli handed over the money, and we loaded it into the truck.

It’s was in reasonably condition, although something had been attached to the top at some time. There was a light mark where what ever was there had cut out the light, so this would mean sanding back the top and refinishing.

The couple arrived to collect the dresser, they were thrilled with it. They handed over a stack of five dollar notes, saying that the ATM would only distribute that value note. We didn’t care, Kelli paid for the pine dresser with some notes and a pile of quarter dollar coins that I empty out of my pocket and leave in a dish on the counter top, because money is money.

We ended the day preparing another dresser for spray painting tomorrow, whilst I continued to sand parts of the third chair.

9th October 2021

Another drive to Zeeland to collect a dresser that Kelli had bought, from her big chair the previous evening.

We were warned that there was some damage to the back panel, and it was shown laying on the top in the pictures.

Normally that isn’t a problem because older dressers have back panels that are made up of sectional panels.

As we drove into the driveway the dresser was waiting in the garage, it looked good, but as we looked closer the extent of the work ahead became apparent. One of the side panels had de-laminated with parts of the veneer missing.

Also some the pieces of back panel were missing, but the top and drawer fronts were in good condition.

As we lifted it into the truck, the floor became detached and a side panel was loose, and there was a danger it would fall apart.

Getting it out again, once we arrived home the floor panel fell out, this will definitely be a rescue project.

8th October 2021

We moved things around in the garage, Kelli was working on a piece covered in thick black paint. We had since July, we hid it away because there was a lot of work to do on it, and at the time I wasn’t inspired to do anything with it, but as we had caught up with a number of pieces, there was no other option.

It was not possible to use a heat gun on it as the paint just turned to mush, so the trusty scraper came into use. So much black paint had been used, including the sides of the drawer boxes, which is a job I hate. We managed to do a lot of paint removal to it.

I stained the top that I had sanded, and finally the finish on another top had finally dried, meaning I could apply another coat.

Kelli had purchased a modular storage system from Amazon that would fit into her wardrobe to store her massive collection of clothes. I had the job of assembling it.

“It didn’t come with any instructions “ she said.

Leaving me with just an image as a guide to fit together.

The product was okay, another example of China’s ability to supply things that are affordable and aren’t made in America.

It took me a couple attempts to fit the corner moulding correctly, but once in my stride it was together in no time.

I had reservations that it was strong enough to withstand the weight of all the garments that she squeezed into the cubes, but so far it’s still standing. I was pleased, out of the three and a half fitted wardrobes int he House, she has three of them.

Note, there were instructions, but they were hidden under the pile of panels, typical.