Another Lifetime to go

11th September 2017

The start of the working week! (Ha! What’s work again?)

A number of jobs to do today, including paint, stain and glue.

A visit to the local Starbucks to get some mixing sticks, and a coffee.

Kelli called the court in Allegan County to get more details on the window tint issue. Looks like if it is removed, and validated by a local cop, then the citation is sent to the court, she will avoid a fine.

So armed with a razor blade and a hair dryer we started the task.

Picking at one corner, it came off really easily. I had visions of trying to peel wallpaper one inch at a time.

The “Lincoln” cabinet was finally finished and ready to go to Lakeshore tomorrow.

10th September 2017

Today I got to do some socialising, I met up with an old friend Steve Kubica. Steve worked at Herman Miller, and during late 1985 through mid 1987 came to Bath to lead the engineering of the European version of Ethospace.

I always tried to keep connected with him, even when he left HM and moved to California.

He recently bought a house in Saugatuck so I called him and arranged to meet for lunch.

He gave me directions to his new house, which was pretty amazing. Situated on the river bank it was no ordinary place. Built on three levels there was a self-contained appointment on the ground floor. There were bathrooms galore, you could go to the bathroom on the way to the bathroom.

Steve was the same as ever, smiling and full of wise cracks. We had a great lunch talking about old times. He was flying out on Tuesday to return to LA, but coming back at the end of the month, I see more beer drinking to come.

9th September 2017

Saturday is supposed to be a rest day, but it’s hard to enforce when there is a new project waiting to be worked on.

The dresser we collected yesterday needed a lot of attention, so first the loose veneer was removed from the drawer fronts, and the Bondo was mixed up to fill the imperfections.

Project “Lincoln ” was well on the way to being ready for delivery to Lakeshore Marketplace.

In between the ” Lincoln ” there were viewing of YouTube videos on removing tinted window film.

It looks so easy, yea right? 

Did a bit of a recon’ of a possible place for Kelli to sell her furniture. It is in a prime spot in the town.

It turned out to be a bit lame, plenty of tat and stuff that would not sell (my opinion) but words like “cool” and “oh so cute ” were coming out of her mouth, I was beginning to think I was in a different place.

We also saw some pieces that Kelli had donated to Goodwill a few days before on sale again in this place.

I had suggested that for small things that don’t sell she should have a “bargain basket” with everything priced at $5, it’s better to get something, than to give it away.

8th September 2017

Michigan State Officer Lincoln Miller was having a shit day. The most exciting event of the day so far was witnessing a squirrel speeding. He was a portly man with an immaculately ironed shirt, he spent his day driving up and down the township of Glenn, a place so small the library had to close down because someone borrowed the book.

Imagine his delight when, entering his sad and sorry existence was Kelli and Pete out to collect a chest of drawers.

Lincoln’s podgy fingers reached for the flashing light button.

“What the F***” exclaimed Kelli, ” I wasn’t speeding”

Concealing his excitement, Lincoln took his time, he wanted to enjoy this moment, he was in control, the master of the situation.

“Driving licence, and insurance documents please” he said stifling a smile.

“Why have you stopped me?” Asked Kelli fumbling in the glove compartment for her documents.

Glove compartments are the same the whole world over, a Pandora’s box of forgotten treasures that never seem to end. One thing after another was handed to me, like a game show prize conveyer belt, including a cuddly toy. but amongst that are the documents you need, that become small and difficult to grab hold of.

“Illegal window tint” replied Officer Miller.

“Illegal window tint?”

“Yes illegal window tint”

From then on it got a little more surreal, needless to say a citation was issued for illegal window tint. 

Confused, tired, and pissed off we continued on our journey to pick-up the chest of drawers.

It was a sorry sight, the veneer was loose and rippled, but very solid.

We decided to call the cabinet Lincoln, loaded it into the truck, and headed back. 

Earlier in the day I had attacked the severely water damaged “Chinese ” style cabinet.

By the time I had finished it looked like furniture of the apocalypse with very little of the original left.

Mmm I might have wasted my time, but I’m convinced it will turn out great.

7th September 2017

It is raining, so I’m consigned to the garage repairing the desk pedestals that Kelli wants converted into a pair of bedside cabinets.

Drawer front knob holes filled, sanded and new holes drilled ready for painting. Not the most taxing, but it clears space and has to be done.

Mid afternoon, I decided to tackle the big red bastard Maximilian.

The task ahead was to cut the unit to reduce the depth. I had purchased a double faced pull saw to do this. I have read that this type of saw gives the user more control, so I was going to find out if this was true.

The biggest problem was it’s height, at 1930 mm (76 inches) it required leaning over to tackle the top part.

The pull-saw was a great tool, I was able to follow the line with minimal breakout.

In just over an hour the task was done, Maximilian was in two pieces.

I still have to make shelves and fit a back panel, before I hand it over to the creative department.

6th September 2017

Trains going through Holland are as frequent as Haley’s comet, but they are long, very long. Today was the day when the train came to town.

This requires patience, or a good book to read, waiting in the long queues of cars, watching carriage after carriage, after carriage roll past.

Patience is something that Kelli does not have much of. Within a few minutes of joining the stationary traffic she was twitching. “I know another way”, and with that she pulled into a left turning lane. As we sped off, I’m sure there was a smug look of satisfaction on her face. Unfortunately we were going in the same direction as the train, and soon we caught up with another line of parked cars that were wanting to cross the railway track, but were also blocking the other traffic. More twitching, but soon the train cleared the crossing, and the traffic began to move. Off we sped, taking the scenic route, only to join another queue of stationary traffic held up by the same damn train.  

At the end of a day of drop offs and re-staging the Painted Farmgirl booth, it was a ride to the beach to view the sunset. Watching the sun sink into Lake Michigan is a breathtaking sight, the sky is on fire, the clouds form the curtains the sun hides behind.

5th September 2017

“I’ve sold that dining table at Lakeshore” Kelli shrieked, ” I need more stuff”.

That was the start of trawling through stuff at the Goodwill donation centre. This place can be a goldmine for furniture that can be transformed and then re-sold.

I am fascinated by the number of walking sticks, crutches and walking frames that have been donated, no-one has come up with an ideas to re-purpose those.

she came across a large coffee table that could be “flipped” quickly. This is the nature of the beast, I have to be prepared to stop what I am doing on one thing, and take on another at a minutes notice.

Within ten minutes of getting back I had started to sand back the top. Twenty minutes later I had rubbed in a dark stain, and whilst that was drying, started on sanding back another top. This was solid oak, but there was a crack that couldn’t be clamped, I will run that through a saw and re- glue. 

Sometimes there is a little beauty hidden under layers of paint, and when that is exposed, it’s really satisfying to see it have new life.

Another job awaiting my attention were two desk pedestals that were to be transformed into bedside cabinets. These were cruelly ripped away from the desk, so required a bit of repair, plus I had to make new tops.

4th September 2017

Today is Memorial Day, which is when summer winds down and all the Halloween crap starts to appear.

Today also marked the start of my project work.

Kelli had found a matching pair of tables that had tiled tops. Those were consigned to the rubbish, so my job was to make wooden tops. The units would then be painted.

I hunted through my stock of suitable timber, and found a suitable amount.

I set up the thicknesses/planer but I didn’t like the idea of all the shavings going all over the place, so I had an idea for an improvised shaving collector using an old cardboard box from my chop saw. Just as well I didn’t take those to Ron’s skip.

It worked perfectly, so dazzled by my brilliance, soon I was feeding in rough wood one end with smooth finished planks at the other, with a box full of shavings in the middle.

This is a useful piece of kit, for the type of work I am doing, so it will get plenty of use.

I just have to think of where I can get rid of the shavings.

3rd September 2017

I think it is Sunday, I genuinely have lost track of time, I only eat when my leg shakes, and I faint.

It rained overnight, but by 10.00am the roads were dry, and it looked like another great, sunny day.

There was a stack of old boxes and off-cuts of plasterboard still resting in the garage.

I asked Kelli if there was a recycling centre where I could get rid of all the junk from the garage. “I think there is one on the North side, but you have to pay”.

That’s one of the problems with America, even though the state encourages household recycling by giving out yellow plastic bags, anything larger is harder to dispose of, and someone will make money out of you for using it. 

However good old Ron had a skip near his store that would take the cardboard

I loaded the truck, and drove down to Saugatuck to do that deed.

Kelli had to work a few hours in the bookstore, so I walked around the town, stopping at the local coffee shop for some refreshment.

“Common Grounds” is a popular place, with a good choice of blends to satisfy the most fussy coffee snob. However a coffee only lasts a short time, so kill a bit more time I went back to the bookstore and found a book called “Route66 The Mother Road” This was so appropriate at that is one of the things to do in the next year or two.

This is a fascinating history of the famous route from Chicago to Los Angeles. The route disappeared in 1985, bypassed by a network of new interstate highways. Many of the old diners still exist, and probably still serve the same burgers they did in the fifties, although a bit more mouldier.

I finished putting the planer/thicknesser together, and tested it out.

The finish was great, but I realised that the shavings had to go somewhere, and most was deposited over the nice clean space I had just cleaned.

So the next piece of kit I need is a vacuum cleaner.

2nd September 2017

It is no good, I need to clear the garage out so I can start my projects. This is a task easier said than done.

The build up of returned stuff from Kelli’s spaces, mixed with the work in progress, and things to do were all thrown together.

Like a clever three-dimensional game, each item seemed connected to the others, so if one thing fell, many did in sympathy.

With patience, I eventually sorted everything into piles on the driveway.

My organisational mind slowly became content as things began to make sense.

Once the garage was cleared of the junk, the extent of the work I had to do, to turn old furniture into saleable product hit me hard.

One cabinet caught my eye, it was a Chinese style unit painted bright red, I was excited at the prospect of working on that, until I saw the condition it was in. The sides and back had suffered badly from water damage (this seems to be a common problem, and why, I expect Kelli gets so much of them)

A quick assessment showed that the only usable parts were the drawer and door. Everything else would need replacing. 

This is the careful balance between spending too much money bringing things back from the dead and letting it go. However, I don’t have much sense, and I like to see if I have the skill required to make it good. I have the material, and my time is cheap.

“P.S Pete, this is a hopeless case, you really should just burn the bloody thing”

Looking at my stock of timber, I decided to purchase a machine to plane and thickness the wood into usable material. So a quick trip to Lowes, my favourite DIY supplier.

It is definitely a Man’s toy shop, I spend many hours, making lists of new tools and materials for the jobs over the years.

It was bloody heavy, and it strained the “greens” getting it into the truck, but like a kid with a new toy, couldn’t wait to try it out.