Another Lifetime to go

19th February 2021

It has been a slow week on both Kelli’s stuff and furniture, so we were excited when the latest dresser posted yesterday was sold to a lady in Muskegon. That is outside our free delivery area, but Kelli agreed a delivery charge. The lady was all excited and pleaded not to sell to anybody else. So to make sure, Kelli deleted the posting, realising afterwards that all the messages also disappeared. That meant that there was no way of knowing who the name and address of the buyer was and no way for us to contact her. What a bummer!

Normally the process was to mark the post as pending, this shows others that the item is under offer, but for some reason Kelli took a different route.

Now we had a piece that was “sold” and no way to deliver it.

What happened next only usually happens in films. The lady messaged Kelli with a request for more pictures, so we were back on!!

Who says there isn’t a patron saint of furniture, St Chippendale was there for us.

We are still waiting to hear from the lady about the table, after the excited message from last night we have heard nothing.

18th February 2021

The painted enamel top table is finally finished.

One month’s work completed, with a new leg and rebuilt drawer.

When Kelli sent off a note to the customer, all we got as a response was “very nice”.

Very nice? Was that all she had to say? That pissed me off, so I increased the price.

Petty, I know, but the amount of actual work that went into it, stripping the old paint off the top took about two days, so I don’t feel bad at all.

We took the dogs out for a walk, and covered our usual route. Ahead we saw another lady with a dog walking towards us. Of course our dogs freaked out, wining and barking, and generally getting exciting. The other lady, not wishing to get involved in a dog fight turned around and walked back the way she came, but in a rather indecisive manner.

She walked back in the direction we were taking but slowly, making her dog constantly looking behind, and ours continued to get excited.

Why the lady couldn’t have walked UP the road and waited until we had gone in the opposite direction, then she could have doubled back, then continue on her original route. Instead we had to wait until she was much further ahead, then walk slowly so we didn’t catch her up.

Kelli was annoyed at the person’s speed, and remarked “Is we can’t walk any faster, I will fall over”, eventually we got to our road and the situation got resolved.

17th February 2021

I am working on old saggy, the dresser with a droop in the middle.

I thought I could reverse it by fitting a middle lag and placing weights each side.

That did nothing at all.

The main culprit is the bottom rail, the only real alternative is to cut it out and replace it.

Kelli says it’s not really worth all the extra work as it was a free piece.

I have already made a new top for it so a bit more work to make it better is worth it, it will just take a bit longer to finish, so it will side project.

I removed the top of a buffet that had split, I thought that it might be a simple job, and as we now have three more dressers in the garage, we will concentrate on those.

16th February 2021

I finally managed to get Big Berth the snow blower working. It was a bugger to start, my biceps have never worked so hard.

It took a while to get used to the controls, and to keep changing the direction of the spout. I was very successful in covering the truck a couple of times. The snow was a bit too deep so I had to take small bites at it to avoid the engine stalling.

I’m not saying it was a pleasurable experience, but it did put me into the lakeside set, I just need a sit on mower to complete the set.

We drove to Zeeland to collect a dresser that Kelli had bought last night. It was left in the person’s porch. We were told not to make much noise as it was a day care, and the children would be taking a nap, what they didn’t mention was about the dog that started barking as soon as we got close to the porch.

We moved it as quickly as we could, even keeping the motor running for a quick getaway, just as well.

15th February 2021

Kelli had found two more furniture pieces that we had to collect today.

The availability of dressers is at an all time low, so when some appear on Marketplace she jumps on them.

I was hoping to clear a couple of pieces that we already had, but that didn’t happen.

They were stored in a garage behind a giant skip full of junk, obviously the place was being gutted for renovation, so we struggled through deep snow to load them into the truck. Both pieces will need some work done before we can sell them, but once we unload them we can assess what has to be done.

Snow continues to fall, there must be about fourteen inches of the stuff on the ground, with plenty more due this week there will be more digging.

Kelli finally got round to buying the paint for the table with the painted metal top, I want that out this week because I’m frightened that the top will get damaged, but I moved it out of the garage to keep it safe.

Next in line is the long dresser with the weak carcass.

14th February 2021

It was three years ago that I proposed to Kelli in Perredies restaurant. Since then the business was sold and run for a short time before closing it’s doors.

That was our place, our special treat, and it was gone.

So imagine our joy when we learned that the place was re-opening. The owner decided to reimagine the place slightly different. He combined his passion for art and food in a art and food studio.

The place has a new name, Galleria. When Kelli called to book a table she learned that there was limited seating and four course menus. It was expensive, but it sounded a cool place.

The booking was for 6.00pm we had chosen our four courses, and I was hungry.

When we arrived there was a noticeable difference straight away. We entered the place and were led round to a room at the back that had a long table and two place settings, talk about exclusive. On the walls hung original artwork, and at the end was a log burning gas fire, it was wonderful. The Owner and chef came to greet us, he gave us a tour of the other rooms, which included artist’s studio space and a large gallery.

It was interesting to see how the place we had known had changed so much, but yet remained the same.

They had just opened, so things were still unfinished, but as we took our seats the first courses came and we tucked in to the food.

When the main dish Ravioli Burro Fuso arrived it looked delicious, we both had chosen the same. As our teeth sank into the first piece we both realised it wasn’t the three cheese filling we were expecting, there was meat in it.

I rushed off to find the waitress who then when in search of the chef.

There was plenty of bowing and apologies. They had run out of cheese and substituted the filling with butternut squash and turkey, oops.

I picked round the pasta, removing the filling, but Kelli couldn’t eat any of it.

That cast a shadow over the evening, and even having the bill reduced couldn’t compensate, although the desert of Austrian Apple Strudel was delicious.

As a parting gift we were give a Egg plant dip to take away.

Apart from that, it was a special evening, and although not intended it to be, a memorable one.

13th February 2021

I didn’t do any work today, not even going into the garage, and it felt very strange.

The main reason was that Cameron was bringing his new girlfriend over to meet us for the first time.

This meant tidying myself up a bit, making me a bit more presentable, which isn’t easy. We managed to maintain social distance between us which was a little awkward, but acceptable.

Alyssa works in a realtor’s office taking pictures of houses and maintaining their web site. She was a bright girl, a good sense of humour, so it was a pleasant couple of hours.

After they had left Kelli decided that taking the dogs out for a walk sounded like a good idea. It wasn’t because it was snowing. We did it anyway, putting woollen coats on the animals and putting on our warmest clothes to head out into artic conditions.

We did a larger circuit than usual, stopping of at Kelli’s mum to collect some envelopes.

The walk back was brisk, but the warmth of the house was fantastic.

It’s good to have such contrasts, certainly makes you appreciate spring and summer.

I sat and watched the impeachment trial on-line. It was interesting to watch the compelling evidence collated by the Democrats and the distractive tactics by Trumps lawyers.

Unfortunately there was not the two thirds majority needed convict, so once again the scumbag gets away with it again.

I don’t know how the republican senators can’t look people in the eye again.

12th February 2021

I finally plucked up the courage to spray paint the enamel table top.

I rigged up a temporary tent using a thick polythene sheet, positioned the heaters I set off.

I made a few light passes to start, taking a break after each one. I was encouraged at the results I was getting, hopefully it will dry perfectly.

By the end of the afternoon I had used up most of the paint in the can, so there was plenty of thickness to polish if I need to.

Kelli went off shopping with Greer, leaving me to my own devices.

They returned with a collection of things including a massive dream catcher, big enough to catch the dreams of an entire town.

She managed to find a bit of empty wall to display it, which was lucky as there isn’t much of that available.

11th February 2021

This is the time of year for cracked skin on my fingers, and it can hurt like hell. I try to keep them moisten with cream, but working with wood all day doesn’t help.

Kelli has this stuff called “Liquid bandage” which is just like superglue that you paint on to the wound and it puts a protective surface over the cut. The first coat stings, and makes my eyes water, the second and subsequent layers are fine. It does work, and soon I can be back at work getting more cracks on all my other fingers.

We had to drive to Hamilton to deliver the dresser we recently finished. The sun was shining and reflecting on the snow laying thick on the fields burning my retinas, apart from that it was a wonderful sight.

10th February 2021

I have been repairing a wine rack that Kelli got last week.

It was falling to pieces every time we moved it.

Just like a giant puzzle every piece had to go in the correct place.

I started to gut another large dresser, the construction was so bad that the front rail snapped as I tried to remove the drawers.

This was a reputable brand so it was difficult imagine that the construction was approved.

I will add some extra timber bracing to improve the structure. I have seen all sorts since I’ve been here, but this was one of the worst.

There was a three eight of an inch bow in the centre that was not easy to hide, which means a lot more work to make good.