Another Lifetime to go

20th January 2021

Not much work was done today as it was Inauguration Day of the new President Joe Biden. Kelli was in tears for most of it as it was the start of a new hope for America.

There were concerns of more disruption by the right wing militia factions, but that didn’t happen.

We took pictures of another dresser that we finished, not a very interesting piece, but we put crystal knobs on it to give it a bit of bling. That must have made the difference because by mid afternoon it was sold.

I needed some supplies from Menards so it was a good excuse to get out for a breath of cold air.

Once we got back I made a new drawer front for the table out of a flat piece of cedar.

For some unexplained reason the table mounted router crapped out, so I was forced to use my hand held one. It was not perfect but it did the job.

19th January 2021

Well the good news was we found the owner of the kitten, the bad new was it escaped from them again.

There are some people who shouldn’t be allowed to keep pets if they can’t look after them.

It was great when the owner phoned Kelli last night excited that the kitten had been found after a month ( no wonder it was bloody hungry). It had been bought for their daughter who was the one who let it escape the first time, and don’t you know it, she was the one that did it again.

That made Kelli mad, I suppose we should check around the garage in a month to see if it finds its way back to us.

If it does it will be taken to the Humane Society to be re-homed at a responsible person.

We had a return customer come to collect the small dresser that we posted yesterday.

I wasted time on a drawer for the table with the enamel top. It wouldn’t sit properly because the front was twisted. I then decided to make a new front, only to find the timber I planned to use was twisted in the other direction, that is when I gave up for the day and sanded drawer fronts that came from a dresser we had collected from Grand Rapids back in the summer.

18th January 2021

“ You can never too many cushions” was Kelli reply to my question as we visited the third address to pick up even more of them.

The day started by delivering the dresser to a condominium in Holland Heights.

We off loaded it into the garage while the lady inspected it.

“ Are these marks caused by wear and tear?” She said pointing at the distressed areas that kelli had sanded back to give the fashionable look.

We explained why we did it, but because we gave her a paint sample she could re-touch up the areas herself if it bothered her.

When we were leaving, we noticed a dresser in the garage that the lady wanted to sell, now that she had the one we delivered.

There was a bit of bartering, but we got it for a reasonable price, the problem was, we had to go and collect a freebie in Zeeland. It was agreed that we would return and pick it up.

Off we drove to Zeeland and pulled up outside the back door of the house with the dresser.

Straight away we knew it wasn’t what we wanted, the style was more contemporary and was made from painted MDF. We have worked with this material in the past but it is not easy to finish the way we like, so we passed on it.

This meant that we could go back to the first place to pick up that dresser.

Once that was done Kelli informed me that we had a few collections to make.

The first place we stopped at Kelli walked to the front door and returned with a cushion.

The second address there were two more cushions in the porch.

The third place had another two cushions waiting for us, that is when I asked my innocent question “How many cushion do we need?”

I know it is fashionable to cover all seating with so many cushions that you can’t actually sit down, and when all the chairs are filled, you start on the bed, so many that it takes a long time before you can go to sleep.

17th January 2021

I was using the day to finish off some jobs that will ultimately lead to the completion of pieces that will get February off to a good start.

We loaded up the reloved rustic dresser into the truck ready for delivery tomorrow.

We were back to selling things quickly, it still amazes me that there is such a demand for this type of furniture, not that I’m complaining.

Just as we finished loading, a kitten came into the drive making plenty of noise. It was obviously lost, but we had no idea who it belonged to. It had a pink collar with a bell but no other identification, so we were at a loss as what to do.

I have said before that I don’t see many cats roaming about, Kelli says that there are a few around but they don’t get let out to roam.

That seems to be wrong to have an animal that likes to check out it’s territory and keep it locked inside.

The first thing was to see if it was hungry, all we had was dog food, which was devoured quickly. Kelli posted a picture on a couple of neighbourhood sites, whilst I tried to keep it amused. That was fun, it’s been a long time since I’ve been clawed in the gentleman’s region, but gradually it seem to calm down and kept jumping up on my lap.

We had to find somewhere for it to go as Kelli is allergic to cat fur, so stay tuned for a few days of frantic sneezing.

Eventually Kelli took it to her sister in law, who is the default animal sanctuary. Hopefully we will find the owner soon.

16th January 2021

Another sprinkling of snow greeted me as I prepared the dogs breakfast.

The roads were white and unblemished that was until a Prius wafted past disturbing its purity.

The dogs didn’t care, they just wanted food, no finesse, just “straight down the neck” as fast as they can. Dhama took her bowl for its usual scrape around the house, as I drank my orange juice staring out of the window onto the winter scene before me.

I had no fixed plans for a Saturday, Covid took care of that, so it was more about what I needed to finish in the garage so that Kelli could post.

We dragged the rustic piece into the living space to take pictures. It had changed a lot from the grim piece we collected, but that’s what we do.

I dismantled a small drawer that was part of the table with the enamel top. Each part had bowed, so part of the day was thinking of ways to straighten the pieces.

After soaking them in the sink for half an hour and then clamping into a reverse position, I left them to dry over night.

15th January 2021

Finally stripped the enamel top of all the crappy paint, ready for the repairs.

To take a slight break I stripped the paint off the table base, and the small drawer.

Kelli has been patiently waiting for her stimulates cheque from the government. Everyday I trot to the mailbox to see if it’s been delivered, and slope back when it hasn’t. Most of the family have already received theirs which rubs it in a bit.

Of course when Joe Biden becomes president next week there will be another one, so the tension will continue.

The networks are still reporting on the fallout from the troubles in Congress a week ago.

Every day there is a new angle that gets thrashed to death, with concerns of more demonstrations in all state capitals on the 21st January to coincide with the inauguration.

Just when the snow had almost gone then there was a fresh fall in the afternoon. It was a gentle flurry that coated the grass and quickly disappeared on the roads, so my purchase of a snow blower was a little wasted.

14th January 2021

I have never worked on an enamel worktop before, but today we had one delivered to restore for a customer.

She picked it up at a junk shop, the original enamel had been painted over, but she wants every thing repainted.

I spent a couple of hours removing the old paint. I managed to strip all around the perimeter and uncovered the reason it was repainted. There was quite a bit of damage where the front edge had some impact that deformed part of the front edge.

The plan is to repair the missing enamel with car body filler and repaint the whole top with appliance epoxy paint, that should give a new smooth surface that should look good, well that is the plan, we shall see if it works out.

13th January 2021

I agreed to go with Kelli to check out an upscale resale outlet called Ditto to look for more small items to sell.

Whilst she was wading though the stuff that interested her, I looked through the DVD’s and CD’s.

I must have gone through them four or five times just to see if I recognised any of the artists. The US must produce millions of discs just to put into these thrift stores for sad people like me to sort through.

Kelli had accumulated a good selection of curtains, bed linens and pottery that will soon be listed on Marketplace.

There was the usual trip to Menards, and a chance to check out the choice of packing materials for the stacks of boxed Kelli has to post out.

I did manage to do a bit of work in the garage. I had to make guides for two drawers that were missing them, not simple, as I didn’t have the proper machines, and was not able to buy them from Amazon.

I found various bits of scrap timber that I bonded together to fabricate something that would do the job.

Missing or broken guides are the main things that need repair or replacement in all the dressers that we get. Some plastic components can be bought from the large DIY stores, and can make the difference between something as rough as a badger’s arse or smooth like a greasy pole.

The main purpose of the guide is to stop the drawer box crabbing, or jamming

Often the sides of the drawer box wear down from constant use, this is a bit more complicated, but after doing it for so long, I’m quite an expert.

That is often the first question the customer asks “Do the drawers work?” So we take time to make sure they do.

12th January 2021

The couple who bought the mid century dresser collection arrived this evening to collect it.

They arrived with an open truck and a small car. It took a long time to get everything loaded and strapped down, made more difficult because the chap didn’t know how the strap worked. We gave them all our packaging materials to help protect all our hard work.

We had spent most of the day going over the pieces with a fine tooth-comb touching up and getting them ready.

In between, there was sanding and preparing the next dresser on the production line.

Kelli has been doing well on the small stuff she picks up from Goodwill. Today she sold a Japanese influenced tea and sake set.

I started working on the entertainment centre we picked up for free yesterday. I was able to look in more detail at the construction which was puzzling me. There were a number of timber parts that weren’t part of the original cabinet, and once I removed the shelves I discovered that the top part was not attached to the bottom part. The two sections were held together by a cluster of brad-nails, god I hate those. They are used to hold the whole bloody world together, and they are difficult to remove. After a lot of levering and prizing I managed to remove all the extra pieces and get it back to its original state, now the rebuilding starts.

11th January 2021

No time for a lie-in today, a customer was coming to collect the dresser this morning.

I hurriedly got dressed and went into the garage to get the piece ready. A quick clean, beeswax polish on the top and it was ready.

The guy inspected every part of the dresser, pulling each drawer out inspecting the back and bottom. I didn’t have any worries, the drawers themselves worked really smoothly, some of the best we’ve had.

He handed me the cash and I helped him load it onto the back of his truck.

Then we had a free furniture piece to collect, a old entertainment centre. We don’t often get these as they can be difficult to sell.

These pieces are not as popular as they used to be now that were in the age of flat screen and wall hanging, but it will be repurposed into something desirable I expect.

The next trip was to collect a long dresser from the north side of town.

The address was an apartment up a flight of stairs. The seller was moving to Tennessee and didn’t want to take the dresser with her. I could see why.

There was a narrow corridor leading from the bedroom into the living room that was barely wide enough to get through, plus a couple of tight corners made the removal difficult. With a bit of manipulation and a lot of good fortune we got it into the living room. We were unable to remove the drawers which would have made it lighter, so we had to face getting it down the stairs with its full weight.

One step at a time was the prescribed method, at one point I nearly launched myself over the top as we settled it on-end near the main door, I did feel my feet lift off the ground.

I don’t like to think where I would have ended up.

Fortunately someone was entering through the door we wanted to use, so he held it open as we struggled out.

A quick change of position, and we headed down the path of even more steps, but also hampered by hedges both sides.

Finally we got it into the truck and headed back, stopping at Goodwill, we can’t resist the temptation.

There was no furniture, but Kelli found a few things to sell on including a cool retro style kettle. After a bit of research we found it was worth a bit of money. It needed a clean and a repair to the handle but it was potentially a nice little earner.

It was just before midnight that the mid century pieces were sold and paid for.

What a great day.