Another Lifetime to go

11th January 2020

The buyer for the Dresser/wardrobe arrived late morning to collect. They had driven forty minutes to get to us. When they saw the piece, they were so excited, really excited. Now I don’t get real excitement, I get happy, or pleased, but never squeal at the prospect, but I was happy that they were happy, it’s what makes what we do so rewarding.

Before they arrived Kelli announced “Should someone move the truck to make it easier for them to load the piece into their vehicle?”

I looked at the dogs, they looked at me, “Someone? There is no one else here.

I guessed it would be me, as the dog don’t drive.

I have assumed the title of “someone” when Kelli doesn’t want to do something.

Another lady came to collect a mirror that we had for a while, we offered it at a really low price just to get rid of it, she was excited as well, and thrust the money into my hand even before she saw it.

freshly flush with money Kelli had found a dresser in Zeeland that she wanted, so off we went in the icy rain to collect it.

Kelli knocked on the back door, no answer, I went to the front and rang the door bell, still no answer. I could hear the sound of children so I knew someone was home. Eventually a guy came to the door. From what I could see inside the house there were wall to wall kids, with children’s crap everywhere. The guy told us he had six, he must have been mad, or ran out of condoms.

The dresser was good and solid, so we loaded it into the truck and headed back.

10th January 2020

We lifted the dresser/wardrobe combo into the living space to photograph. Kelli posted the pictures on Marketplace, and within minutes her phone exploded with requests, it was amazing.

I had to do some repair work to a leg on the heavy oak dresser that Kelli had acquired a couple of days ago. One leg was loose, and the mounting piece had split.

We carried it into house so that Kelli could finish the top.

The piece was as heavy as guilt, even taking the drawers out required a hoist.

There was a matching side table, made to the same weighty standard, just about managed by a single person, as long as that person is Hercules.

At different times of the day buyers would arrive to collect some of the small things Kelli was selling. I’m amazed that people will travel miles for a piece for five dollars, then get back into their V8 and trundle back home.

We finally had a bite on the POS unit that I lovingly brought back to life.

The buyer was in Byron Center, which alway sounds to me like a health club, but it is a place. We were all excited, and loaded it into the truck, but first we had to hit the Goodwill stores, just in case something interesting turned up. Out of luck there, we were just about to start the thirty minute drive when Kelli received a message to say the lady had changed her mind. Bloody typical, it was fortunate that we were not further into our journey, but I cursed her loudly, and then went to New Holland for dinner.

It was Friday night, and of course there were no parking spaces. When I first came to Holland there were alway parking spaces, there were not so many cars back then. If you needed a place to park, you just kicked the horse, it would run off, then you could take its place. Those were the good ol’ days.

There is always a cross section of people there, I noticed a couple that were doing a stress test to the furniture. They were on the large size, with enough skin between them to re-cover a Zeppelin. Well the chairs stood up to the loading, and as they walked past, they cut out the light making it difficult to read the menu.

9th January 2020

Another day in the garage staining the top, drawer fronts and door. Sometimes I long to work on one of my project pieces just for the challenges they give me.

The forecast of bad weather over the weekend prompted Kelli to go off and do the weekly shop, so I carried on working on the dresser/wardrobe combination.

I only have a left handed rubber glove that I use for staining, and that suits me fine being left handed, but when Kelli has to use it she is right handed which makes it look like she has a hoof, I can’t look at her when she has it on, I crack on every time.

By the end of the evening it was complete, we had moved it into the sunroom as it was warm, so that I could mount the door.

The one drawback of our house is the lighting. We chose to have mood lighting rather than spots, which normally is the way we like it, but when you are trying to fit dark screws into a dark cabinet, it is challenging. I have to rely on feel, and sometimes I can be scratching around for five minutes before I find the hole.

That is the time when you wish you had back lit eyes to illuminate what’s in front.

Eventually I managed to fit the door, and the piece looked fabulous.

8th January 2020

Kelli turned up with other Goodwill finds. There was a solid oak dresser and a night stand. She had done another shady deal to secure them, that means they had to be sneaked out the front door, rather than the back where the manager would be. Unfortunately I was not with her, so she had find another poor sap to help her. I bet that poor sod had a terrible evening. She did point out that she knew the person, so as not to appear to take anyone off the street to help. Anyway the piece was as heavy as a tank, even the side table almost gave me a hernia.

I had been busy sanding the dresser/wardrobe unit ready for painting.

There a few areas of damage that needed fixing, but nothing that a pot of glue and some clamps can’t solve.

7th January 2020

The top of the dresser turned out okay, I went over it with a scotchguard pad and some beeswax and it was nice and smooth.

It sold in less than ten minutes, so we had to deliver it to Zeeland.

I helped carry it into their basement, it was bloody heavy, even with most of the drawers out. It didn’t help that the route was like an obstacle course, of tight bends and slopes, by the time we got it into the room my arms were four inches longer.

We also finished another dresser, stripping off thick layers of paint revealed a cute cedar piece.

It started to attract attention on Marketplace within minutes of Kelli posting it, so we were hopeful of another sale.

We went out to dinner with John and Patty, who do similar work to us. It is our opportunity to gauge how the market is doing. They sell in three stores, and confirmed how slow things are at this time of year.

6th January 2020

Oh bugger! I managed to crack off the top of the POS unit we were bringing into the store.

The piece had zip interest on Marketplace, so we decided on the other option.

I was being all macho and trying to carry it in all by my self, but I did not take into account the self closing jog the door.

“Snap” it went and fell on to the floor, I was gutted, all that work, now I would have to do it again.

The day started badly, because a top I had sprayed the night before had little pot marks in the lacquer. This meant I had to sand it back and start again. This took longer than the initial stripping, it was painstaking work, but it only effected the middle strip of veneer.

This was the case of one step forward, two hundred steps back wards.

By the evening I had regained the courage to try again.

This time it seem to go better, and no fish eyes, so I could have a more peaceful evening.

Although we did sell the chopping board/island unit, which was a slight glimmer of joy.

We had an inquiry to paint five tables which could be an interesting and quick job to do. Kelli quickly sent off the quote, so now we wait to see if we have the job.

5th January 2020

This was supposed to be a quiet day, a rest from the hectic week, but it didn’t last long.

A couple came to collect the TV cabinet, and another came for a dresser.

Our finished stock was rapidly dwindling, but Kelli always has her eye open for bargains.

With the things we had collected yesterday, and a trip to Grandville the garage was full with interesting projects.

Kelli had been in a conversation with a seller of a dresser/ wardrobe unit. She had been trying to get the price down a bit because there were some damage to the door and various other blemishes. The seller was adamant that the duck tape holding the door panel together did not effect the working of the door. Which was true, but it still had duck tape on it, and looked crap. Finally the price was agreed, so off we went to Grandville to collect it.

I finally got my nerve to spray coat the top of the large dresser. I had sanded and cleaned the veneer so was confident that the surface was ready for the finish.

I shook the can until my arm ached, and started the coating. I was quite please with the result, there was even coverage and I built up a couple of good layers.

I looked back an hour later and noticed some fish eye blemishes. That was depressing, I couldn’t understand what had contaminated the surface. I decided that I could not do anything until it had dried out.

4th January 2020

Kelli has a long list of places to go, timed to ensure a perfect use of our day.

This was a surprise to me, as she has a very casual attitude to efficiency, and things tend to lurch from crisis to chaos, so I must have some influence after all.

First stop was to pick up some mugs. I had no idea we needed mugs, okay I did criticise some mugs we had, because they didn’t have handles, so you needed a welders mit to hold them.

Anyway she found some mugs with handles.

Next stop was to deliver two dressers, including the custom one to an address in Zeeland.

This was a large chunk of our sales for the week, so was very appreciated.

Next stop was to pick up a dresser and hutch that was free out in darkest Hudsonville. The house was a bit creepy, with a basement even creepier. This was not the finest example, but the drawers were good, and not a lot of repair needed.

On the way, I said to Kelli that I would like to find Max DuPree’s house in Zeeland that had been designed by Charles and Ray Eames, but I didn’t know where it was.

Whilst sitting drinking my latte in Starbucks, whilst Kelli was off on another mission, I searched for it online.

When I found it, I was shocked to see that it was next door to the house we dropped off the two dressers at.

What was even stranger, we had passed it, and Kelli commented that it looked cool. I said that it looked like it was boarded up.

Herman Miller bought the property in 2010 with a plan to refurbish it back to how it looked back in the early 1950s.

On the way back to Holland we had to pick up another dresser. We just managed to fit it in the back with the tailgate tied with bungees.

Once we unloaded those we were back on the road to pick up more things, this time a pair of matching bookshelves. Now we really had a garage full.

3rd January 2020

We had a stream of customers turning up to collect things.

The chopping board/island unit was finished, so that went on to Marketplace straight away.

We were on a deadline to finish the custom job for delivery tomorrow.

I had to put the things together in the right sequence, which amazingly enough went like a dream. Even the plywood box slid into place like it was made for it.

Kelli was in charge of painting. She started on the recessed side panels that were to be black. I could hear some cursing under her breath, and a lot of huffing. Finally she stormed out muttering as she went.

I followed her into the house, and volunteered to trim the panels with masking tape to make it easier to paint.

It was not the easiest of jobs to do as the amount of wood around the panel was only a quarter of an inch wide.

I have learnt, watching a lot of YouTube videos, that you need patience. You also need a tidy shop, well one out of two isn’t bad.

I wanted to work on the bookcase that smelt of piss. I was carefully burning off the paint, I thought that would be a good way of getting rid of the smell.

Kelli’s nostrils twitched at the stench of heated pee reached her. For the sake of staying happy, I stopped working on it and opened the door to air the place.

We moved the custom piece into the sun room, where we could finish painting in the warm.

2nd January 2020

There were a succession of people turning up for the furniture they had bought.

As always it was down to me to greet them and confuse them with my English accent. Kelli would be in the bathroom making herself respectable whilst I would look like some dusty old timer who just stumbled in from the workshop. I had been doing a lot of sanding so I was definitely dusty.

We had one person who failed to turn up, but that is a risk, I don’t understand it when someone says they want it, then don’t collect,

anyway hopefully we can find another buyer.

I managed to finish the chopping board unit, and great progress on the customised dresser.