Another Lifetime to go

11th September 2020

We had a man from the boiler company coming round to quote for fitting a heating vent in the sunroom.

This is the only problem we found last winter as the sunroom does not have any heating other than an electric heater.

As the house uses the crawl space as a giant heating duct, we should be able to punch a hole low down in the wall and allow the warm air to enter.

The man said it should be possible and only cost $150 to fit two vents, which I thought was a good deal.

The alternative that we’ve looked at is an underfloor electrical heating pad which, to be effective has to be switched on all the time.

The additional vents should give some take the chill off the air, and be warm enough to stop the plants from dyeing.

I managed to get a drill bit suitable for the size of insert to finish the bed side rail repair, now it just needs painting.

I decided to add a veneer to the drawer fronts we were having problems with yesterday.

I sent time laying up the strips of veneer into sheets to bond to the fronts.

I quickly tried one out to see if I could clamp it well enough.

I was quite happy how it came out, so only another three to go.

Donald Trump continues to dominate the new with his crazy actions, this time an audio recording of him admitting that he purposely played down the severity of Covid 19 is all over the news networks.

With the death toll nearly at two hundred thousand he has a lot of blood on his hands.

Every day there is something more unbelievable, I don’t know why I’m not going mad.

10th September 2020

The weather continued to be grim, the sky grey, it was like being back in England.

I had to work on the bed side panel, aiming to get it finished by the weekend.

I did all the machining, but was unable to finish as I need a drill bit for the holes to fit inserts.

I still had plenty of other work to carry on with.

We’ve had two dressers that had a really tough paint finish, even with a heat gun it was difficult to remove.

Normally it is quite satisfying to peel off the strips of old paint, but this finish just smeared with the heat making it a horrible job.

Kelli was not happy with the way some of the drawer fronts had taken a stain. Some of the old paint had sunk into the soft grain of the wood, this is impossible to remove, and of course the dark stains does not penetrate.

This is very demoralising, so a new creative approach is needed, more evenings of head scratching.

9th September 2020

There was a break to our usual routine, instead of “Stein night” we went to an Indian restaurant for a curry with Mike and Lesley, our English friends from down the road.

They suggested it knowing how much I missed my curries.

The place was Pind in Grand Rapids, somewhere they had been several times and recommended it.

This was a pleasant end to a frustrating day. There are days when creativity has a day off, and today Kelli experienced it.

We had been working on a dresser that we picked up from the side of the road. I had cut off some rotten wood and made new back legs, Kelli was experimented with different stain colours and none seemed to inspire her.

I was busy making a new top, and I could see she was a bit fed up.

This was the time to walk away, and work on something else, and we had plenty of things to choose.

I was messing around with another roadside find making new legs for it.

This dresser had a drawer missing, it was easier to cut the height down and add some legs to it.

We drove to Grand Rapids to meet Mike and Lesley who also brought a friend of theirs to join the party.

Pind is a small restaurant, that wasn’t very full, although it was was six thirty, a bit earlier than we normal book, but it was a change.

Kelli had been to an Indian restaurant before, but a long time ago. The waiter helped her to negotiate the menus and found a korma that was not too spicy. I chose a vegetable biryani, which was superb, and massive, even I couldn’t finish it, thank goodness for doggie boxes.

Kelli worked her way through her korma, nose running, she made good progress.

As we drove back, I was trying to decide whether to have my left overs for supper, or leave it for tomorrow’s lunch, choices, choices.

8th September 2020

What a difference in temperature today, it was too cold for shorts, so I guess the tan on my legs will start to fade now.

We traveled about today picking up some folding chairs for our forthcoming party, and another dresser.

We continue to corner the market in the damn things, so the garage is now full again.

It was a dull rainy day, the right kind of day to start new jobs. I needed to make a start on the replacement bed side rail. Part of the job was to repair another part that had inserts that had torn out. The only way to do a good repair is to set a new piece of wood in, do that is what I started to do.

Then I had to make a new top for the dresser that Kelli is working on, and while the adhesive was curing I had to fill old handle holes on the drawer fronts, by six thirty I had had enough, I needed a cup of tea.

The sad fact is tea does not taste the same here, it has to be the water, the teabag or even the cup, whatever it is, it’s not as good.

7th September 2020

Well here it is Labour Day, when nothing is done. People sit around burning meat on their grills saying “Happy Labor Day” to anyone they meet.

Labor Day is the official end of summer when the seasonal shops close, and they start fixing the snow barriers on the beach.

It also means the the security guard at the entrance to Point West is no longer on duty, so we can drive in and take the dogs for a run along the beach.

We had Kelli’s family around for a luncheon consisting of vegan quiche and smoked salmon on French stick. Wow, it was fabulous, the smoked salmon was in fact made with carrot, and with some amazing wizardry she made them taste fishy. The quiche was made with JustEgg and was just like one made with eggs, I know there is some still left in the fridge, so later tonight……

6th September 2020

It wouldn’t be a normal day unless we had to collect something.

I was busy repairing a the large dresser that we collected on Friday when Kelli ran to the car jangling her keys.

This is her version of scrambling to go into battle.

The engine of the truck burst into life as I ran for the passenger door. I left behind a cloud of sawdust hovering in the air as the car backed out of the driveway.

We sped along Lakeshore drive towards the lake.

Kelli found a dresser really close, so there was no question about it we need another one to add to the five we already have.

I am told that there will be a severe shortage of dressers in the autumn and winter months, but we will be prepared.

The weather was expected to turn rainy this afternoon, but that never materialised, which meant we spent more time than we wanted working outside.

However we did make sure we ticked another job off the list by putting tiles behind the cooker. We had found them at Goodwill a while ago, and they were just the colours we were looking for.

I had the adhesive for months waiting for this special day.

Kelli’s job was to scrape off any grout that was left on them, I just had to stick them to the wall.

The gods were looking down on me because they fitted perfectly in the space, I could not believe it, there was no tweaking or anything, I was a happy man.

We managed to sell the tall entertainment centre that we finished a couple of weeks ago.

There had been no interest in it, and in the end it languished under a sheet.

It seemed like the whole family turned up, Mother, father and daughter. Kelli had dropped the price quite a bit just to get rid of it. Fortunately we didn’t put a lot of work in it, but paid more than we should of, but it was a sale and gave us more space in the garage.

5th September 2020

Kelli cannot do anything quietly. Granted the pool was a little cooler than yesterday, and was noticeably harder for me to enter without a severe intake of breath followed by a bout of heavy panting.

When my darling wife tried the same thing it was a completely different performance. First the slight squeal, followed by a louder shout then a full blown scream, I expected the police to kick down the door to investigate.

Once in she avoided any additional contact with the water other than what was already submerged, we both just drifted around like two enormous leaves.

We had already done our chores, collecting a book case, visiting Menards and Goodwill, so the pool treat was our way of extending our rewards.

We spent a bit of time in the garage working on stuff, mainly stripping and sanding.

I laid up some timber to start making a replacement bed rail, I’m hoping this goes without any problems.

We took a bike ride up to the cemetery to visit Dave, Kelli took some flowers from the garden, but we had problem finding the plot. As there is no headstone, we had to guess the location.

We are not sure when the headstone will be placed, hopefully it will be before the first anniversary.

It is the start of the Labour Day weekend, a time for fireworks, family gatherings, and the spreading of Covid19.

4th September 2020

Kelli was off doing some errands leaving me to work on various pieces in the garage. As entertainment I started watching the second season of After Life. Wow, some of it was an emotional rollercoaster for me, I could barely see what I was doing. I was hoping that Kelli would not return until after I pulled myself together.

We nearly finished an eight drawer dresser, and even started on the one we got yesterday. There was crap everywhere by the time we finished.

We sold the two white side tables this evening which helps us get off to a positive start for the month.

We managed to get twenty minutes in the pool, this was more a point of principle and we didn’t care how loud we were getting into it.

3rd September 2020

“ There a dresser on the corner of 17th and River” Kelli exclaimed bursting into the garage.

I was busy getting the dresser ready for our trip to Grand Rapids.

“Cameron messaged me, it’s blue” she added.

We weren’t confident that it would be still there, so we loaded up the piece in the back of the truck and headed out.

We could see that the blue dresser was still there, and as we stopped we saw that it was missing a drawer. It was not high end furniture, but it was something that had potential, so we loaded it into the back and drove back home to drop it off.

Kelli had correspondences with the person who wanted the green dresser, firstly to advise that we would charge $15 for delivery, which is a fair charge. The buyer didn’t want to pay that as she was paying full price for the dresser.

I never understood this logic, even though we sometimes we drop the price a little to hook the sale, but we factor in extra for that.

But Kelli said that if we were going anywhere close we would make the deal.

That led Kelli off looking for stuff close by, which by chance she found a cheap dresser in Hudsonville, so it could work out.

This also meant that Kelli could stop off at Grandville to sell some of her cast-offs at Plato’s Closet, what perfect timing!

I could then have my coffee at Starbucks, although the real reason for that has changed since the pandemic hit, they no longer have the stirring sticks out, bad news.

We picked up the dresser in Hudsonville, a heavy beast, that means we have a total of five furniture pieces in the garage. Okay please stop now Kelli.

2nd September 2020

Time for another hair cut, according to my wife was starting to look a bit wild.

Out came the sheep sears, and soon the floor was littered with my hair. In many case it looks better on the floor than on my head.

We managed to get a buyer for our latest dresser after a few minutes on Marketplace, a good start for the month.

We were able to get a short time in the pool, these will become rarer as the sun changes its position in the sky.

The water temperature is quite noticeable cool, especially when you’ve previously check it by sticking a hand in, to immerse a whole body in it is a shock. Floating around is okay as long as you minimise contact with the water.

There are a couple of dressers in progress, and the drawerless dresser is nearing completion after nearly a year, so it will be good to get them out soon.

As it was Stein night we went to New Holland, but this time we were joined by George and Cathy. George is the walking miracle, who should not be sucking air, but by various drug experiments has beaten off different cancers.

It is alway fun spending time with them.