Another Lifetime to go

9th April 2024

It’s Kelli’s birthday, so decisions had to be made where we were going to celebrating it.

She decided on The Butler in Saugatuck, home of the Butler burger. The same place when I celebrated my birthday.

We had good news the we had sold the bakers table. There had been a number of interested parties so the first with the money in their hand won the day.

Close to midday an older lady turned up, and a few minutes later her husband arrived in a van.

He didn’t look too thrilled to be here, he thrust the money in my hand without saying a word.

They had bought from us before, but it was the first time for lady to meet us.

Whereas her husband who didn’t say a thing, she made up for it.

She told us all of her medical history including her stomach cancer, and the operation that removed most of her intestines, I was beginning to to feel quite woozy after a while. By the time she got on to her breast cancer, I was nearly gone. By the end there can’t have been much of the person left, but she was jolly about it.

Kelli managed to finish painting the long dresser and with the new handles fitted it looked quite good, I have to oil the top tomorrow.

We stopped off at the vets to collect some antibiotic tablets for Dharma who suffered a bite to the jaw from Phoebe on Sunday( they have a go at each other occasionally) but it became a absyss and needed treatment. It was a treat that the cost for the pills was quite modest compared to a surgery visit.

Then it was on to The Butler for dinner. There is always a disadvantage to eating early in the evening, loads of old people and kids.

We were seated at a good table next to a window looking out over the water, but next to us was a crying child who didn’t want to be there. It was tired and grisly all the time. We asked the waitress if there was a quieter place. We were seated in an alcove where the noise was less. However not long afterwards the grisly child and its mother paid the bill and left, much to the relief of the establishment.

We both enjoyed our meal, and were back home by six thirty, it felt like “ did we go out?”

8th April 2024

It is the start of another week, more scraping and sanding to come.

I made a start on stripping the top of the buffet we collected on Saturday. That was hard, it was the kind I hated the most, the finish was bulletproof. It took ages to strip, but underneath was a solid cherry top. That was the motivation to keep going, gradually exposing more of this beautiful timber.

Kelli was keen to get the other long dresser primed by the end of the day.

It was a wonderful day, the eclipse was supposed to happen in the early part of the afternoon. We didn’t have anything suitable to view it, but the light became strange, inside the house it was dark, and the bird began flying around quite erratically. I have to admit I’m not as fanatic as some people, it happens, as it should do at different times in a lifetimes, but it can happen without me getting excited about it.

As it happens Michigan was not in its totality path which explained why things didn’t go really dark, oh well back to the scraping.

We also found time to take pictures of the latest long dresser.

7th April 2024

The only things we were planning to do was prepare for Kelli’s birthday cake party.

Although her birthday was not until Tuesday, it seemed a good day to do it.

We took pictures of the bakers table and the old cabinet that we used to house the Audio Units.

Then it was cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning.

Kelli was making her own cake that had fruit on the top. It was a restful day, up until the family arrived. I was on server duty, making the coffee and cutting the cake. With mathematical precision I decided the cake making sure that my piece was larger than the others, I think I got away with that one.

Throughout the afternoon my cough was getting worse, it had gone on to my chest, I was sounding like an old smoker.

We managed to get some medicine from Deb our friend who lives nearby, so I’m hoping it will work. Kelli also hopes it works otherwise I’ll be spending the night on the sofa again.

6th April 2024

A customer arrived to collect the long dresser that we finished a couple of days ago, as we were making breakfast. Talk about unprepared, I hastily watered my hair to prevent scarring them off, and throwing on any shoes I could find.

I got out just in time to help load it into their truck, all the time I was thinking how hungry I was.

As they disappeared down the street we rushed in to finish the cooking.

Then we had to return to Hudsonville to collect another free piece from the person we just collected the long oak dresser from.

This time it was the bottom part of a display unit.

We didn’t want the top part, and there was no way it would fit in the truck.

As we were driving back I heard the words that I dread from my wife “ I have an idea”.

This could be the best thing or the worst for the day, so gripping the seat firmly, I waited for the words to spill out.

In essence it wasn’t a bad idea, she wanted to keep the piece we finished yesterday and reconfigure the living space, getting rid of two pieces we have currently and replace it with the new one. That meant that whatever we were planning to do in the afternoon was dropped, replaced with moving stuff around.

All the stereo units had to be unplugged, cleaned and reinstalled in the new piece, not a simple task, as there are a few different devices attached converting digital to analog. With some careful labelling it all went together and worked. No one was more surprised than I.

We then had an enquiry about the piece we had just placed in our living space, it was just what they wanted.

Kelli had to tell them it was no longer available, but added that we had a piece that we could repurpose for them.

The casting of that line hooked them, so they came round to check it out.

We explained what we could do, and they were happy with the idea. It happened that they had bought a dresser a few weeks ago, so they wanted it to match the colour of that one.

It all worked out perfectly, and with a deposit in our hands our work schedule for next week was all planned out.

5th April 2024

I’m at the hacking stage of my cold, the worst part. I can’t believe that with all the vitamin C and D that I have been taking I was still susceptible, but I try to ignore it the best I can. Over in my head I repeat “two to get, three to have, and two to go” so by rights it should be gone on Sunday, I will report.

It was a gloriously sunny day, still cold, but when that yellow thing in the sky appears, it’s a good sight to see. We took the dogs out for a walk, they had been trapped inside throughout the rainy period, I even imagined a smile on their faces.

We had knew that our latest long dresser had been sold, so there were a few last minute touches to do, like attaching the top, which was my job.

Kelli worked on the low entertainment piece that we’ve had for about a year. Trying several paint colours finally settling on a light green.

Once that was decided, she finished the whole thing very quickly. We dragged it into the house to take pictures

.

I started stripping the top of the long dresser we picked up yesterday, the top was in good shape, and the old finish came off easily, which was a relief because it was a good make, and well built, sometimes it’s like scraping through glass.

I started the staining process on the small table commission, I want to get that out early next week. It’s typical that the bottom surface is better than the top.

4th April 2024

With the latest large dresser nearing completion, I had to nip along to Menards to get some drawer guides. These are plastic parts that fit to the back of the drawer. They slide along the metal or wood track and stop the drawer from tipping when it is pulled out. These often break, fortunately new parts can be sourced easily.

As soon as I got back Kelli wanted to drive to Hudsonville to collect another free piece. It had been difficult to find pieces for nothing, although she has tried several times, most have slipped through her fingers.

As we pulled up there was this tall bearded guy collecting his mail. He showed us a collection of furniture he wanted to get rid of. The dresser we were interested in was another long piece that weighed a ton. With a bit of effort, and the removal of drawers we loaded it into the truck.

Kelli also found another buffet that we will have to return for.

It was another damp day, but I fitted the plastic guides to the drawers and finished sanding the table base ready for Kelli to start painting.

3rd April 2024

It was shopping day, the first since I have been back.

My unsettled tummy is now a tingly nose, which is not so bad.

Nothing at Aldi had changed, the same shelves that should contain the items we want, but are empty, even my tea!

How can they run out of tea? The Americans don’t drink it, they have the foul stuff served cold, with ice.

They must have got the idea from the Boston tea party, serves them right.

I continued sanding the table base, a mass of turned wood, like a wood turner’s ego trip.

The weather today was snow, snow? Yes snow. Not the pitching kind, the wet, thick rain type, but snow nonetheless.

2nd April 2024

I’m still feeling a bit off, the scratchy throat has become a tummy ache.

We had to pick up a table from a recent customer who wanted it refinished. It was not an old piece, but painted in a bronze paint. I was excited that the top was solid, which allows me to sand it flat and remove all traces of the previous finish. The customer wanted the top stained black with painted black legs.

Once I got it home and removed the top I found out that it was not solid, it had solid edging veneered bottom but at some time the original top veneer had been removed leaving the cross banded veneer as the top surface. That was a bummer as cross banded material is not the best. Oh well I will carry on and do the best I can.

1st April 2024

And I’m feeling like crap. I woke up with a dry throat, the first signs of a cold coming, that got progressively worse through the day. I usually feel a bit rough the first few days back, but I put that down to travel scank. I cast my mind back to my journey, noting the big man whose shoulders I was in contact from Chicago to Grand Rapids, could he have given me this bug?

I then remembered another big man dressed in cargo shorts who gave me an exclusive view of his arse crack whilst loading things into the overhead compartment, but as we were not in any contact, I filed it away as an unpleasant visual image.

Kelli had a few errands to do, so I went along hoping my sickness would ease, but it got worse.

I managed to do a bit of sanding to the top of a large dresser, the latest in a long line of big bugger pieces.

I soon began to flag, I spent the rest of the evening wrapped in a blanket trying to stay warm.

31st March 2024

After the disaster of yesterday I was determined to do something. I set about sanding the solid edge of a large dresser that we shouldn’t have bought. It had a bit of wood in it, not much. The top edge was solid but the rest was MDF and chipboard with a very thin veneer. The edge was curvy and groovy which is alway difficult to sand even with fingers. I did a bit until they got sore, then got ready to go to Kelli’s mother for Easter Day lunch. We took the opportunity to take a few pieces of furniture that we’ve been holding, and store them in her garage. The the pieces were for a lady who was due to move back into the area during March, but this hadn’t happened, but we needed the space.

Whilst we were there we loaded up a long buffet that has been stored for quite a long time.

This will give us plenty to do this week.