Another Lifetime to go

17th September Friday

We are gradually becoming a rescue centre for orphaned furniture. I thought I had control of nothing and Kelli control of everything.

Today we accepted a buffet with doors and no drawers, we already have a dresser with no drawers, so we have no bloody drawers.

We are also going to collect two dressers on Monday, I do not know where they are going to be stored, maybe we should search out some drawers without a dresser, that would be a novelty.

I finished the final coat on the table, just a wire wool and polish and that will be done.

I finished all the carcass modifications to the commissioned piece, just the top to finish on that one. I told Kelli to slap me if I ever suggest doing a veneer job again, it is a nightmare especially doing a five footer.

There are two more dressers in progress, old Pinky, has been stripped and ready for painting, and the nine drawer unit we bought yesterday, that has been stripped as well, so plenty on the go.

I successfully broke the dog poop collector when my big clown feet kicked it. I have done it a number of times, and repaired it. I have a canny knack of hitting it just at just the right place. I should stop leaving it at the end of the path, and find another location where my foot won’t find it.

16th September 2021

It was deja vu, the FedEx man pulled up and extracted a long package, I knew what it was, so I went to help him.

We struggled towards the garage and laid it down, it was another bed frame.

Our original frame had a cracked top rail, caused by a fault in the timber. I had glued the part and was able to use it, but I asked Kelli to order a replacement part.

She contacted the company and explained the situation and what part we needed.

They called back to say that they did not have the part available, but would send us a new complete new frame, and that is why we have a new one on the floor of the garage.

Now all I have to is change the faulty part over then repack it back in the box and then post it on Marketplace.

We had to drive to Zeeland to deliver the mid century dresser we sold in record time.

The buyer was a regular customer who lives next to the Max DuPree house. It was funny seeing all the old pieces in use. She is definitely a fan of Bristol Cottage, and very welcome.

We also picked up another dresser from somewhere in the wilds of Zeeland.

You know when the wilds begin because the tarmac stops and you hit dirt. The properties are large, and look expensive with the amount of land that is attached, you would think they could afford to surface the road.

Getting back Kelli couldn’t wait to start stripping the paint on it.

I worked on the round table, and applied a stain to the newly veneered dresser top.

I stepped out to the garage early just to check that there were no blisters that had appeared on the top overnight, I’m getting paranoid about blisters now, but it was fine, so the stain went on evenly. I finished the day with a coat of sealer, now I’ll be worried all through the night that it will be good in the morning.

15th September 2021

Bonk! Another walnut hit the road. A lone squirrel darted from Larry’s yard and grabbed it, holding in its “hands” ran off into the woodlands. The dropping walnuts were the bane of our lives when we lived next door. The driveway and the truck would be covered in them along with a black stain that oozes out of the split nut. Hitting them with the lawn mower was a pleasure in itself. The sound was ear shattering, and lord knows what damage it did to the blade.

I managed to rescue a small tree shoot that had sprung up amongst the stones of the front berm. I potted it and watered it daily along with some Japanese maples. Kelli was horrified when she discovered what it was.

“Do you want another walnut tree around dropping the nuts everywhere” she exclaimed.

I could see her point, but I didn’t have the nerve to let it die, so does anyone want a walnut tree?

Action in the garage was brisk. I had the mid century top coated, and the underside of the dining table finished in other first hour.

I had to have my daily scrape, these were drawer fronts from old Pinky.

But today was the day that I had to attempt veneer top two, the second attempt.

I cut the piece out of the roll and set it on a flat surface to apply the adhesive. I then covered to top surface and allowed them both to dry then did a second coat just to make sure.

Once that was dry I set about fusing them together. It was nerve wracking, I did a little each time, smoothing the area with a wooden block, I took my time making sure to cover all the surface. When it was done I looked carefully against the light to see if there were any bubbles, so far there were none, I may have cracked it this time.

14th September 2021

The weather has changed, the thunder rumbles and the showers hit.

Kelli didn’t sleep well last night, and that effects how she feels for the rest of the day.

There had been a stash of cash building up on the table that needed to get put in the bank, so that was the first job of the day.

I had lots of small jobs to do, mainly machining with router and skill saw.

A package containing the drawer stops I had ordered for the commissioned dresser arrived. They were not quite what I was expecting, but a quick look on the web site showed how they were used. I had to make blocks to attach the stops to the inside of the front rails of the carcass. I had some scrap timber of the correct thickness to cut up.

There are times when I get scared of cutting small pieces of wood on the chop saw. My hand gets so close to the blade my buttocks clench tight. The words of my woodwork teacher ring in my ears “Alway know where the blade is”, which was ironic because a few years later the saw nicked his finger.

I managed to cut everything without injury

Mr Searle would have been proud of me.

13th September 2021

Well the day of reckoning arrived, the stripping off of the veneer from the commissioned piece.

It was surprisingly easy as it was fabric backed, once I heated up a corner I was able to tear it off as a long piece. What was time consuming was removing the adhesive, but it was done by the time I decided to finish for the day.

Sales were good, we sold the small veneered caddy that was posted yesterday to a friend of Cameron, who knows everyone.

Later, we had a lady collect a display unit that Kelli had for ages.

She pulled up in a large truck with someone who I took to be her son. He had one of those thin moustaches and a strange smiles that said “can I eat your dog?”

I was careful to keep my distance from that guy.

We had a good thunderstorm where it was dark and foreboding then absolutely hammered down filling our water barrel in seconds. The humidity was high making the sealer on the mid century pice tacky all day, but Kelli decided to start on old Pinky.

Heat gun at the ready, she progressed through the drawer fronts, then started on the top. When she reached her limit for the day I took over with my super scraper, and had it done in minutes.

12th September 2021

I was not happy with the veneer job I had done to the dresser top. The veneer I had used had come from Dave’s stash. This was a roll of fabric backed veneer about four foot wide by eight foot long. I had never used this type of material before, so I did a bit of research on YouTube, but there was nothing specific.

I decided to apply PVA adhesive to both surfaces. Letting both dry completely, I then used an iron to heat and press the veneer in place. This worked fine for the sample panel, but I was plagued with lots of blisters, these I tried to iron back out with limited success. That was my dilemma, should I continue and not be satisfied with the result, or tear it off and start again?

11th September 2021

The buyer for the French Provincial dresser turned up along with her “beefcake” husband/boyfriend. This unit was a heavy beast, but it was simple getting it to his truck, much harder to get it into it.

I wasn’t sure he cared about scratching the paintwork because of the way he handled it once we got it into the vehicle.

“ Ooo, I’m not fussy” said the young girl, the sun glancing off her double studded tongue.

This is not something we like to hear because we spend a lot of time checking all the paint, touching up if we think necessary.

We always give the buyer a small sample of the paint to touch up if it gets scratched, this might get used a lot on this piece.

With newly created space in the garage, we lifted down a mid century dresser that we were given for free. This was a great opportunity for me to use my new Purdey scraper to remove the finish off the top of the piece.

I had finished it in ten minutes,” Why hadn’t I got one of these before?” I shouted at Kelli.

“ Maybe I just wanted to watch you suffer”,was her witty remark.

I brushed a coat of oxalic acid to treat some water stains, and that will be ready for staining tomorrow.

There was an issue with the commissioned piece that was pointed out to us by the client.

The dresser had a quarter inch dip in the middle that they wanted taken out.

That’s not always easy to do, I have replaced warped pieces in the past, but I didn’t want to do this with this piece.

I could see the bottom front rail was attached to the facia with blocks and screws, once they were removed I could stick a leg in the middle of the piece that lifted it up removing the dip.

Now all I have to do is reposition the blocks, then hopefully problem solved.

10th September 2021

I’ve started stripping the drawer fronts of the “Train wreck” dresser. The time to strip one drawer equates to Kelli taking a shower, washing her hair, drying her hair and getting ready to go out. I now have plenty of things to soak up all that waiting time.

We drove to an address on the north side to collect a desk. These have been quite profitable in the past turning them into bedroom side tables. Seeing this for the first time I could see that there was a lot of work to make that work.

Getting back to the garage I was able to finish the top for the three drawer dresser, and a sealing coat on the commissioned dresser.

Finally we had a buyer for the French Provincial dresser, thank goodness, I had been moving it in and out of the garage for over a week. The double trolleys that I had lashed together was a death trap, I lost count of the number of times I tripped on it. Now it is getting it ready to collection tomorrow.

A young Mexican chap turned up to collect another dresser that we posted yesterday. It wasn’t a particularly good piece of furniture, but we gave it some interest by stripping and staining the top and top drawer fronts.

9th September 2021

I needed to do some work to a new dresser to keep ahead for when Kelli appears to do painting. I had to make a new kick plate, remove the top and edge band a shelf.

These were all accomplished in good time.

The lady who had commissioned the dresser re-paint arrived to chose the stain for the top.

I had made up samples using the stains that I had bought yesterday. The choice was good old Walnut.

The purchase of the stains not selected was not a complete waste of money because I used one for the new dresser top, it was close to the original colour of the sides.

Finishing early my job was to get the food carousel working in the kitchen. It seem to drop over time, stopping the doors from revolving . I had to off-load the contents, making sure that I separate stuff from the top shelf and the rest from the lower tray.

The inner tray support is held by two screws clamping against the centre tube, over time these slip and cause interference.

Using a set of mole grips I clamped the screwdriver and with the extra leverage tightened the screws whilst holding the tray up as far as it would go.

Success! Well, for now, let’s hope it holds for a long time.

I started loading back all the contents, finding stuff I have no idea what it was for.

A small bag of some root flour, fifty-five green lentils and something unpronounceable, but I put them back anyway.

8th September 2021

Kelli had a doctors appointment this morning.

Armed with a list of questions and concerns about her vertigo the session had an interesting “twist”.

He was concerned about the vertigo, so worked on helping drain any excessive fluid in the ear canal.

He was pleased how she is progressing the focus on tuning her body is making her stronger. Then there was the fun part (for me)

Last time he worked on her left arm to build strength. Now it was time for the right side to get treated. Grabbing her wrist he twisted the elbow, crack! It went, and Kelli shouted in pain.

The pain continued as he moved to different pressure points, moving up to the shoulder there was more shouting and cracking, then it was over. Kelli nursed her wounds, but she felt a noticeable difference in how her arm felt as it hung limply from her shoulder (just joking!)

When we got back we took the dogs for a short walk around the nearby lagoon. We could see how choppy lake Macatawa was, meaning the main lake would be really rough.

With Kelli working with me again we keep the door from the garage to the house ajar, so that we could hear the music blasting out. The down side it was all Kelli’s choice, so we had bloody wall to wall Justin Hayward on constant repeat.

I started work on repairing drawers, sanding dresser tops and did more work on the dining table top. That is proving difficult because of years of polish that has built up on the surface. I had a solvent that should dissolve wax, but even that was not very effective.

The best method was to scrape off the surface of the crud, and then clean, this has not turned out to be the easy job I was hoping for.