Another Lifetime to go

23rd June 2020

The first potential buyer for the white dresser arrived. She had messaged to say that she would stop and take a look at it.

As she approached it, I could tell it was not what she wanted. She talked about the blue room she wanted it to go into, but maybe the drawers weren’t deep enough, but it was the right height bla, bla, bla.

She promised that she would check a few things once she got home, and get back to us, which she didn’t.

We can usually tell within the first few seconds if a person is excited with the furniture piece in front of them. This was proven by the second lady who turned up. As soon as she got out of her car she was smitten.

We finished the second dresser, the one where I had to get rid of the swirl marks left by the sander. We brought it inside to photograph, and Kelli posted it straight away.

For the rest of the afternoon her phone was pinging with activity. Needless to say we sold that one very quickly and will deliver it tomorrow.

It had rained overnight, and in the morning there was a fine drizzle, that reminded me of my family summer holidays. For two weeks we’d be crammed into a small caravan at the coast looking out at the rain. The insistent drizzle that hung over the site, made for a depressing time, although I did get to read a lot of books.

22nd June 2020

I spent time working on a veneer jointing jig. I have alway wanted to do more with veneer, and as Dave had a massive stock of material in his basement workshop, I thought I could use it.

His years at Herman must have had some advantages, and he was not one to miss out on an opportunity to blag loads of off-cuts.

There was a dresser that we picked up that had a painted laminate top that, I thought it would be an opportunity to try using the sheets of veneer to resurface it.

I thought it would be easy, armed with a new sharp blade in my knife I tried to get a good edge in order to make a perfect join, but it didn’t work. The blade followed the grain, so the edge was neither straight or sharp.

I put my thinking cap on which wasn’t easy as I was wearing my wide brimmed gardening hat, designed to keep the sun off my neck.

I knew what I had to achieve, but I only had stuff in the garage to make something to do the job. In the end I used lengths of plywood and clamps to make a fixture to hold the veneer whilst I used a block plane and a sanding block to finish the edge. The end result was great, and I was able to fix the sheets together with masking tape.

Now I have buy contact adhesive to finish the job.

Whilst I wait for the opportunity to visit the shops, I continued to work on the under structure for the new patio.

The first area I am working on is directly outside the sun room. The height of the structure is governed by the sliding doors, so I am able to use the timber we got from the sculpture at Saugatuck. This Area will be the lowest point, but it will step up to the main deck space.

21st June 2020

It was Father’s Day over here, and quite surprisingly I had messages from both my boys. Over the years I’ve not always had any wishes at all, mainly because I’ve been able to see them. Anyway it was pleasing to read, and I appreciated them.

I had work to do on a dresser top to get it ready for Kelli to paint it. In between that, I started work on the patio by scarf jointing some of the timber I had. I plan to pre-make the sections prior to assembling in the final position.

Later in the afternoon we had a family dinner at Mom’s house, so the gathering of the clan was expected.

Greer arrived from Grand Rapids waving some cans of beer as my Father’s Day present from her. This was unexpected and fully appreciated, as I opened one up, I needed to get into the right frame of mind for the upcoming event.

I had been volunteered to set up a wireless printer, which is normally relatively simple, but not for me. I spent loads of time trying to get the phone to pair with the printer, and it just didn’t want to do the only thing it needed to do. As the evening was drawing in, I admitted defeat, and decided to put it off to another day.

There is the nightly ritual of watering the plants, pulling the hose through the garage, trying not to get it twisted, and remembering to water everything.

20th June 2020

The day for the collection of the dining table had arrived. Around lunchtime they arrived, I greeted them with nervous apprehension, as I alway do when I’ve worked on a specific customer requirement. Was the stain too dark?, fortunately they were really knocked out by it. Even the husband, who I thought would be all over it, was impressed. I was relieved, and as we lifted it into the back of their truck, I was sad to see it go. It had taken up a lot of space in the garage, and I had gone through a lot of pain sanding the legs, but it disappeared down the road to start it’s new life in a new home.

It was really hot, and not the best day to lay down the mulch, but we struggled on.

We set up out green snake mister on the end of the hose. This was the one that we got last year, and kept splitting the hose.

This was pleasant to get the occasional waft of water vapour, well it was more like steam, as the water in the hose was heated by the sun, but the idea was good.

We had an early bite on the dresser we posted yesterday, but that fizzled out leaving us questioning the choice of finishes. Optimistic as I am, I’m sure there is a buyer out there somewhere.

19th June 2020

With enormous effort we turned the dining table over. Now it was ready for the final stage of the finish, the polishing.

Armed with a pad of steel wool and some beeswax I set about getting the mirror like surface that the table deserves.

The hours of endless sanding, coating and re-coating have come to an end.

Working on the legs have left my fingers sore and aching, it will take a while for those to heal.

The temperature today was at its highest so far at about 85 degrees.

We have our walk around the garden looking at the new blooms before breakfast, with Kelli getting excited at every new arrival.

We had a trip to the post office, we had some presents to send back to the UK. This was the first time I realised how expensive it was. Although the stamps are cheap, they make it up on the parcels.

After handing over the last of my dollar bills we headed off to Lowes to try to get some cedar border edging to match what we already have, but we were out of luck on that.

Although the website showed a small quantity in stock the reality had nowt.

Instead we got four bags of mulch and some drawer components for a new project.

During the evening Kelli had a crazy idea to get an inflatable pool so she could bask in the hot sun. She then went to Amazon and ordered one, I can now expect “is it here yet?” for the next few days.

18th June 2020

For once I’m sitting in the patio area with a cold beer after a busy day.

Earlier we had our realtor round to help Kelli fill out a form to get me put on the deeds to the house. I don’t remember why we could do it at the time, but she had found out that it was a simple process, so all that was filled out ready to be sent out.

I finished the dining table legs and re-assembled it ready for its final waxing.

I finished the repairs to the drawers and Kelli did the paint job, so that dresser will be ready for posting tomorrow.

We stopped off at a local garden centre to look for apple trees. The ones for sale looked a bit sad, so I didn’t get any. Instead we got a Fern leaf buckthorn, whatever that is. We plan to fill a corner of the garden where the hounds go to shout at the other dogs, this will grow nice and thick, and fill the space.

So now I’m taking a rest, beer in hand contemplating other projects.

I must start the patio soon, I keep saying it but other things get in the way. I really thought I would have plenty of time to work on it but it’s amazing how the time goes, I’m not feeling guilty about sitting down, I have to have my thinking time.

It’s unusual to see the vapour trails in the sky, for so long I was used to seeing them as part of the cloud formations.

There will come a time when things will get back to the way they were, but I’m not rushing to get there, yes I miss seeing my family and friends, but I don’t want to risk my health and Kelli’s. It will happen, I’m trying to be patient.

17th June 2020

Phew! Another warm one, but I love it. We planted our new green things, although the fern that I thought was a good price was a bit shrivelled, and when I took it out of the pot, the rootball was as dry as a bone. I don’t hold out much hope for that. The same has to be said about the raspberry sticks that I have been religiously watering every day. Today I inspected them, and the sticks snapped off. I guess they won’t be baring fruit anytime soon.

We took pictures of our latest dresser, and posted it straight away on Marketplace.

She also found another one very close by, so we had to go and collect that one.

We did a bit of pruning of our rhododendron bush, it, like all the other things in the garden had suffered neglect, but with Sweeny Todd with loppers it was transformed into a slightly different shaped rhododendron bush.

There was a new dresser to start, Kelli had stripped the top and some drawer fronts, my job was to stain it.

Later in the evening we walked up to Mike and Lesley’s house for his seventieth birthday. I cannot remember much about it other than it being a collective of ex brits winging about the good old days .

16th June 2020

It’s nice to wake up to the sun shining through the bedroom window, and it’s good to know that it is warm outside.

The growing season is a month later than in the UK so the flowers haven’t burst into bloom yet. I excited that the elderberry plant is really started to go wild, there are two florets ready to blossom.

The raspberry plants don’t appear to be alive, so I will have to dig them up.

I have ordered two gooseberry bushes from a store on-line. Most of the garden centres around do not stock these type of fruits, so it’s down to specialist growers to supply them.

I’m really surprised how difficult it is to buy plants I am used to getting in the UK. I have tried to look for espalier apple trees to grow along the fence, but I can’t find any. It looks like I will have to train them myself.

The garage was alive with activity, we started work on the two dressers we picked up yesterday. Kelli tackled the sanding of the long black unit. Soon, both her and the floor was covered with thick black dust.

15th June 2020

Many people went back to work today, for many, the weeks off was not enough time to tidy up their gardens. Instead they sat around complaining about wearing masks, like it was a big deal. The whole mask issue has become so political because Chump does not wear one. This becomes the reason why Republicans refuse, or don’t see the point of wearing them, or keeping distances, they really are thick as shit.

The stores will do their best to keep space, but knowing people, as I do, they will ignore it.

We delivered the tall dresser just around the corner, then later drove to Muskegon to pick up two more.

I finished sanding the last table leg, I’m really pleased about that because it hurts my fingers for days afterwards.

I managed to apply a couple of coats of finish to the three other legs so the end is in sight.

14th June 2020

It was work on the garden day, the weather was good and my loppers were sharp.

The target was a large forsythia bush, it was out of control after years of neglect. We had watched videos on pruning techniques and instantly forgot all of them.

The bush hadn’t flowered this year and was full of dead wood.

I started small, focusing on the old wood first. That made a difference straight away, but then emphasised the tallness where the leaves were, and the woodiness where there was nothing.

We discussed if we should go the whole hog and cut everything back to the stump. Kelli was concerned about the wild birds that used the bush to hang out and fly between it, and our holly bush. In the end the full cut was chosen. Kelli couldn’t bare to look as I snipped away. When she saw the result she burst into tears, not a reaction I usually get doing work around the house, but she was afraid the birds would leave and find somewhere else to congregate. But the job was done, I was left with a huge pile of branches to cut up and dump in our temporary green tip.

I left a few shoots just to mark where the tree was, and knowing the forsythia it will soon start to show shoots, just like the butchered lilac is doing.

We finished the small skinny dresser, and that went on Marketplace only to be snapped up a few minutes later to a person a stones throw away, so a good result all round, even if the birds don’t have a place to rest.