Another Lifetime to go

14th March 2020

Kelli had arranged to pick up a dresser in Grand Haven, so with a little trepidation we set off. The price of petrol has dropped by as much as forty cents a gallon in the last two days, it is crazy how it fluctuates so much and so quickly.

The small dresser was on the porch waiting for us. It was smaller than I imagined, and had the top drawer front missing, so guess what I will be making?

Kelli managed to find a store selling Just Egg the vegan alternative to what drops from a chicken, so she snapped up a couple of jars of that.

Next stop was Zeeland to pick up some small picture frames for pictures she had found at Goodwill.

Of course we couldn’t let a day go pass without going there again, but this time finding a small side table in desperate need of a new front rail to correct it’s out of squareness, guess what I’ll be doing?

13th March 2020

We are getting close to completing a number of furniture projects, so with green rubber gloves on I stained the pedestal tops.

Kelli was painting another dresser whilst I sanded back the top ready for staining.

We sold a small yellow dresser this morning.

I had worked late Thursday to try to improve the fit of the bottom drawer only to find that it was out of square, so it had to go as it was.

Fortunately the lady didn’t notice, and was pleased with the piece.

Later we helped Cameron move into his new apartment. Talk about Stairway to heaven, they were so steep I got a nose bleed halfway up.

This was a good opportunity to see the condition of rental accommodation close to the downtown area, and quite frankly I was not impressed.

There is nothing more depressing than seeing an apartment that clearly needs updating.

The place stank of gas, that needed immediate attention, but there was also a shortage of electrical outlets.

I had to hold my tongue because I did not believe the place was fit to live in, and if that was the only place he could get for over $600 then something is terribly depressing.

The Coronavirus is ramping up all over the country, rather late in my mind, but it’s down to individuals to make important decisions in light of the incompetence of Trump and his administration. It has not reached Holland yet, but it has already reached Kent County where the airport is, so it’s only a matter of time.

12th March 2020

Well all the toilet rolls and hand sanitizers in all supermarkets in Holland have disappeared from the shelves. I used to think Americans were smart, and more thoughtful about life, but no they are as dumb as shit as well as everyone else in the world.

Why toilet rolls? and even the thin ones. Many believe they will be holed up in their homes for two weeks sitting on the bog, but that is just the start.

It doesn’t help that the dumb president has confused everybody and no one knows who to believe. The stock market has dived, and even HM shares have nearly halved in value, where will it end?

There is underlying fear that is growing, and that is as infectious as the virus itself. There are many older people underinsured and many more not insured at all. These are the most at risk, and it is even effecting my judgement when deciding whether to venture out to search for furniture.

I expect a total lockdown of the country soon, there are so many blaming the Chinese, and it is slowly becoming a racial excuse yet again prompted by the stupid occupant of the White House.

11th March 2020

The Norfolk pine we got at before Christmas is looking a bit sad. Kelli has tended it every day, but it hasn’t made any difference. It had pride of place in our living area, and we had high hopes of it growing even through it is classed as a tropical plant. It looks like a pine tree, but the needles are soft and fine, but they turn hard a coarse if the temperature is right. Which makes us ask the question why they were available for sale in Michigan.

The whole thing is a reminder of watching something/someone that you care about, withering away in front of our eyes.

We finished another dresser which had the missing drawer, I had made a plywood liner to fit inside, and Kelli had found a basket that fitted inside. This was listed as a piece that could go in a small child’s room or nursery.

We also finished an small dresser that was painted in a daffodil yellow. There is a lot of activity in the garage with the desk pedestal conversions targeted for the weekend.

Later we drove round to Our Collective homes to collect all the pieces that we had there. It had come the time to go independent, Kelli had more success selling on Marketplace, so that was the channel we would be using from now on.

As a reward for all our hard work we went to Hop Cat, a pub, that did a wonderful veggi-burger. We got there at 7.30 and the place was packed, by 8.30 the place was nearly empty.

10th March 2020

The dresser top still looked good in the light of the day, so I kissed the ground, and the first job after breakfast was to attach it to the dresser.

We carried it into the living space and took pictures.

Kelli posted it on Marketplace and in less than an hour it was sold, to be delivered around 5.00pm.

I was busy on another dresser that had a missing drawer. I made a shelf to fit inside the space and Kelli had a basket that would fit in the space.

Concurrently I was also busy sanding the drawer front for the two pedestals.

I had previously cut the desk top down to make the two tops, and lovingly scraped off the green paint off one, and started on the second.

After I had completed the second top, the dust was everywhere, the floor was covered in a thick layer of green dust that I vacuumed up.

Just as I was finishing up for the evening I looked at the newly stripped piece.

“That looked narrower than the first one” I thought to myself, so I checked it with a tape measure, and sure enough it was over an inch different.

A cold sweat came over me, how could I have made a mistake like that? Then I looked around and saw another piece in my scrap bin, I rushed over and measured that, it was the same as the first top, I had put the wrong bit in the scrap bin, but it meant that I would have to scrape all the paint off that one tomorrow, oh joy.

Today was primary elections and Kelli had to exercise her right to vote.

It was all about selecting which candidate she wanted to run against Trump in November.

I went along to see what the process was.

There were similarities with the UK system, although the ballot paper was scanned electronically. I noticed that the ballot paper had all the original candidates even though all but two have quit, things move quickly in the US.

9th March 2020

There was a dresser that Kelli desperately wanted to post on Marketplace, that required me finishing a black stained top. She obviously didn’t hear that I never wanted to do another black top.

She had sanded the top and stained it, leaving me just to apply a finish on it, which I did. When it dried it was all patchy with shiny and dull patches all over.

I decided to strip it back to the natural wood and start again. It is a horrible job, even though I had a face mask my snot was still black.

This time I went over it with a wood conditioner prior to the stain. This seals the porous parts and lets the stain soak in evenly.

I let it dry before brushing on a coat of finish.

This went okay, and I was anticipating a reasonable result.

I let the sealer dry, and on inspection I saw a hair stuck in the finish. I de-nibbed the surface, hoping to remove it but all i succeeded in doing was to sand through the stain. This made me angry, that I had messed it up.

My only solution was to spray over a toning coat using a can of coloured polyurethane I had bought for the dining table that I didn’t use.

I set up a make shift spray booth and went for it.

The first coat went well, an even surface with an even sheen, as I attempted to move it into the house to dry, I noticed the area that I had worn through was still visible, so I had to put it back into the booth and give it more coats.

At the end of the evening the top looked as good as I was capable of, so I set it aside to dry.

Wasn’t it black in the first place?

Kelli just smiled, so I guess it was.

8th March 2020

The clocks changed last night, so the extra hour of daylight will be a welcomed change.

The temperature was a pleasant 57 degrees, so we were able to work with the garage door open. We had to do a little tidying as we were expecting a person delivering a large entertainment centre that they wanted us to paint.

I moved a lot of my timber out to the shed, as it had become a little out of control. The sorting out is good therapy and getting rid of the off cuts give me something to burn.

Around mid afternoon the lady arrived. The furniture piece was a good fit in her truck, almost too good, it was like it had created a vacuum when it was loaded, as three of us could not move it.

Only with a side to side action did it release its grip, and slowly we pulled it out.

After loading it on to a trolly we were able to push it into the garage, and then assess the work required.

It was a decent piece in good condition, and in its day must have been expensive.

These jobs are good earners as we don’t have any capital outlay, so it’s just a few hours work, hopefully this will lead to more.

Out in the back garden the squirrels were having fun with the peanuts that we had bought to replace the sunflower seeds. One in particular, a cheeky, vicious little red bastard was diving into the feeder, grabbing a peanut shell and running along the top of the fence. He then ran through a small hole in the shed, a few minutes later he repeated the same route over and over again. In between he would chase off black squirrels that might have been thinking about grabbing some food.

Later, when I needed to go into the shed I could some of the shells stored in an old bicycle saddle.

7th March 2020

There are some days that are ordinary, when it is hard to find something interesting to comment on, but others, when at the end I have to say, “ did that really happen?”

There was one big event that I knew about, and prepared for.

About a week ago there was a post on the Saugatuck home page about the dismantling of a wooden sculpture outside the Arts Centre.

This was a very interesting piece that had been on show for a couple of years. In the post it was offering the timber free to anyone who wanted it. This was an offer too good to miss, and Kelli was on to it immediately, and we had the first choice on it. Well today was the day to collect, so I was getting prepared to meet the 1.00pm collection time.

Suddenly Kelli burst in to the garage all excited.

Now this means many things, from a duck in the back yard to a squirrel gnawing it’s nuts, but this time it was a Marketplace post for six mid century chairs for $20.

She held up her phone with the picture on it, they looked pretty good, and I agreed that it was too good a bargain to miss.

The sale was in Allegan about a half hour away. It was now nearly midday, so we tried to agree on a plan to get the chairs and the timber. We went through different scenarios but eventually settled on collecting the chairs, driving back to Saugatuck, leaving them in the flower shop, where Kelli sometimes delivers for.

The store was closed for the day, so that would be very convenient. We would then load up the timber close to our allotted time, and drive it all back to the house, off-load it, then drive back to Saugatuck to collect the chairs from the flower shop.

It may appear long-winded, but it worked.

The timber was a combination of different size painted wood strips.

The material I was interested in was the four by twos of which there were a lot. I selected the best lengths that we could fit into, and on top of the truck.

Kelli picked through the thinner pieces selecting different coloured lengths.

Originally I was planning to build a structure in the garden so that Kelli could see over our next door neighbour’s fence to view the lake.

That was a better idea than her original one of cutting a large port hole in it, certainly less controversial.

There was also the plan to use the big stuff as the base structure for the patio decking, but at the moment how we use it is still open.

The chairs will require a good clean, and a polish, possibility some re-gluing, but what I’ve seen so far is they are in good nick.

Not content with driving all around the countryside, we then drove to Grandville so that Kelli could sell some of her old clothes at her favourite place Plato’s Closet

This, then becomes the reason why the postman keeps placing boxes outside our front door. Kelli is the ultimate Re-use, Re-sell, Recycle person, it it hadn’t already been a thing, she would have invented it.

6th March 2020

Dharma, one of the two “bitches” was acting a bit strange. Being the Alpha, her nose was into every opportunity for affection, even to the point of pushing Phoebe out of the way to get a pat on the head. It started last night when Kelli noticed how difficult it was for her to get on the spare bed.

By the morning she was not active at all, deciding to stay in her basket and resisting all calls to move around. Her appetite was fine but it was out of character for her to be so quiet. Kelli made a call to the vets surgery and arranged an appointment.

Loading both dogs into the truck we headed off.

The vet was an old guy, I thought he was the cleaner, because I usually expect them to be wearing white coats, however he was a kind chap. He asked to see Dharma move around outside including trying to get into the truck.

He believed she had hurt her back somehow and prescribed some anti-inflammatory tablets and advised her to take things easy.

So with a bottle of pills and a significant bill we headed home.

We dropped off the dogs, and then drove to have my hair cut.

It had got a bit long, because I couldn’t be bothered to get it done sooner. I had run out of excuses to get out of it, but it was a lot less painful than the dentist last week.

By the time we got home, the lady was waiting to collect the pair of side tables.

Then it was back to the garage to do a bit to pay for the vets bill.

5th March 2020

Plenty of things to do, there are chairs ready for collection, so a good week so far.

I was intending to start the priming on the new pedestals, and generally getting ahead on things.

We off-loaded the black dresser from last night, and assessed what needed to be done.

The piece looked to be spray painted which makes it difficult to strip. The damage to the corner of a drawer front was the worst thing wrong with it.

Our delivery from Imperfect Foods arrived which made Kelli excited, it’s like opening a present at Christmas, although you know what’s inside.

Kelli went off shopping, which means Aldi and Goodwill, when she returned, she announced that we had to take the chairs and meet someone in a car park on the north side of town. Carefully we loaded them into the back of the truck, placing padding in between. That is when the places that were missed became visible. Then it was a frantic effort to touch it up.

Whilst she was out Kelli found a small dresser at Goodwill but it didn’t have a top drawer. She didn’t buy it at the time because she wasn’t sure we could do with it, and besides we have three waiting in the garage.

Delivering the chairs gave her a second opportunity to think about it again. So with less than thirty minutes of opening time left we stopped off to get it.