Work, Work, Work

54, clear after a day of heavy rain and showers. The heat, thank goodness, has broken.

Since it rained all day yesterday, we spent the day mainly on furniture projects, and I of course mixed in some eBay work. 

It was one of those frustrating days. You know the kind? When everything you touch seems to be more work than it should be, or just doesn't go right? That kind of day, at least for me. Larry worked along smoothly, thank goodness, getting some metal chairs cleaned up and ready to paint, and fixing the issues I kept running into.

There's this one cabinet, you see.  The one we should never have bought because it needed so much work. 

The cabinet, after many, many repairs. Almost ready to go at last.

In progress. The shelves are out, being polyurethaned. 

Like a new back, new shelves, veneer removed, bracing added. It was a shell of its former self, but what was left was so pretty, and I really thought we could fix it. Such optimism.

Larry did repairs, and I began to paint. And ran into one problem after another. A trim piece needed to be replaced. The body putty work he'd done on the side was not good enough. He redid it, twice. It still looked bad so he sanded it off entirely and removed the veneer. The new shelves weren't right. Well, you get the picture. Frustration after frustration. 

Then there was the piano bench. This will be quick, I said. Strip the top and stain it, paint the base and done. But no. The old finish was a bear to remove, some would not come off, there were flecks of white paint that wouldn't come off without sanding through the veneer. So after much work, I just painted the top too. And now the mahogany veneer is bleeding through with pink in some places. 

So I will have to sand, shellac, and re-paint. And it's not even a great piece, just a simple bench that I thought I could get done and sell reasonably. 

After all that, eBay should have been easy, but even there...I got out a set of 8 plates to ship, dropped one and broke it. So there went that sale. Fortunately, the rest of my eBay work went smoothly, I got quite a few listings done and three packages packed and ready to go this morning. 

The good thing about such days is that, unlike a regular job, I can just stop and regroup, move on to something else, take a break, or even just look outside and realize how fortunate I am to live where I do, doing things that I usually enjoy. 

The view from the workroom.

Yesterday was a day of many breaks, tea or coffee on the porch, doing a word puzzle, etc. The cabinet is almost done--it won't be our best work, but it will be okay, the piano bench will have to wait while I think about what to do with it, and two little tables are ready to go. 

So in the end, all was almost well. That's good enough for me. And then, there's this cool dresser waiting for me. Surely it will go smoothly? Fingers crossed.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.