Woodwork projects 1, 2 and 3 (plus 4, 5, 6)

At the beginning of this year, necessity dictated that I build some trestles to use for signboards. A spark! A new interest in woodwork ignited.

Project #1

I moved into a new place at the end of January. As this house didn't have a stove, I bought a gas stove top and decided to build a cabinet, with drawers, for this to sit on. I pulled pallets from the factory, sanded the planks and turned them into this:

This is my first real furniture project and my own design complete with two drawers on full-extension runners that I got right first time. What a blessing YouTube is. I'm thankful for content creators with their how-to videos.

Using pallet planks has its pros and cons. Sanding is a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. But it is also satisfying to transform a rough plank into a smooth plank with pretty wood patterns and it can be quite meditational. 

After making the trestle legs (sanding by hand), I bought an orbital sander. I recently borrowed a belt sander to give this a try - works a treat and saves time. I've got a new project planned that I'm struggling to get to but it will need to use a lot of pallet planks.

Pallet planks are also not quite uniform, not quite even and edges are not entirely straight. But this is, for me, part of the charm.

Their best feature: they're free.

Project #2 - Toy Cupboard

I really needed a cupboard for my camping gear, paddling gear and other toys. Partly to neaten my garage and use space better but also practically to make it easy to access gear to take out and put away. I am so done with crates stacked on top of each other.

When I'm working, I don't like digging for tools. I use a 'tool table'.

For this project, I ordered wood. I drew a design, worked out the measurements and bought MFC (melamine faced chipboard) from a wood store and got them to cut the pieces to size. They also drilled the round holes for the concealed hinges.

I got the carcass built quick-quick and enjoyed using my corner clamp. I only have one so I used two clamps and a corner plate to hold the second corner. 

I learned the set-square trick to check for squareness from a video on YouTube. Yes, it isn't rocket science but if you've never thought of it, then learning this neat basic is revolutionary.

I used inexpensive masonite for the backing and then got to work on hanging the doors. I was really nervous about this because I didn't want to mess it up. I watched a few videos and then got on to it.

The first one took me a long time because I lacked confidence to just drill those holes. After the first one, the rest went quickly and my doors hung beautifully.

I am into wheels. It is hard to move a heavy, fully-loaded cupboard anywhere. What if I want to rearrange my garage? I put the cupboard on wheels and pushed it into the garage. So easy. The wheels are worth every cent.

The front two wheels lock. This is actually quite a big cupboard.

I need to work on my inside-of-the-cupboard organisation.

For the shelves, I used dowels to attach blocks of wood on which the shelves sit.

Using MFC that has been cut to size is quick and easy. No preparation required. You can just jump in with a tape measure and drill. It suits the purpose of a storage cupboard. But, this material is not inexpensive and it actually costs quite a bit just for the material to make a big cupboard.  

Project #3 - Recess spice-and-jar rack

I've been drowning in guavas for weeks as a result of two prolific guava trees in my garden. I've done  lot of bottling and I needed a place to store full and empty jars. The spices have been in a small box since we moved and they really deserve an easy-access space.

Behind the back door, there is a recess where dry walling is used to block off an outside loo. It was the perfect depth to use pallet planks as shelves.

These shelves are not fixed to the wall. I took advantage of the slightly wonky shape of pallet planks to  create forces and tension that presses the side planks against the walls. It can't fall over and will take effort to pull out. The shelves sit on blocks of wood that are connected to the side planks using dowels. To keep the shelves in place I used dowels for these too.   

The spice shelf has a front and is angled to show the spice bottles, which have labels on their lids.

 I did buy a water-soluble white enamel for this project, which I'll be sure to use again soon. The wood was free and time spent on this was a pleasure. I have decided that I'm not crazy about the painting part of the project. It takes time waiting for paint to dry with doing a primer and then the real paint. When just doing assembly, a project can be completed in a few hours. With sanding and painting and cutting and measuring, it can take a few weekends to complete a project.

Project #4 

Project 4 will be what I call a cupboard-cupboard. It will go in the bottom half of the hanging part of my cupboard and it will have six drawers on full-extension runners. The aim of this piece will be to better facilitate my Marie Kondo-adopted tendencies and to make better use of the space. For this project I'm using two different thicknesses of plywood. I had them CNC cut to size. I haven't decided on the painting situation.

Project #5

I'll be building shelving racks in my garage on which to put crates. This eliminates crates being on top of each other that are hard to access. It is far easier to slide a crate off a shelf. I'll be using pallet planks for this project and I'm looking forward to the belt sander session.

I have this really super notebook with a pewter cover that a friend made for me years ago. It is my project book for my ideas, drawings and costings.

Project #6 is probably a tool holder. I have in mind a vanity-cabinet-style tool holder that can be carried and opened like a book to display arranged tools inside, on each side. I haven't got a work bench or workshop so my tools need to be able to move around where ever I'm working. I really don't like toolboxes. I'll try to create a mobile, workshop-wall pegboard.

My aim with these home projects is to use different types of wood materials and to try different techniques. They're all practical experiments that create useful items.

In the last few months, I've become a whiz with a drill and pretty proficient using a jigsaw and sander.

As my skills have improved, so has my confidence.

This past weekend I put wheels on a cupboard I brought home from my ex-office and wheels on an old cabinet that was in the shop at the factory but that I'm now going to use in my home office. I also replaced the old wheels on my gas heater with new ones better suited to the job. I drilled metal for the first time.

I haven't done a lot with drilling holes in walls to mount fixtures so I still find this a bit intimidating. Last year I installed kayak racks in my garage. It went really well and worked perfectly. This weekend, I installed a rack-and-hook set from the Garage Guys to assist in better organising my garage. A breeze.

I am really enjoying these woodwork projects - planning and executing. Measure twice. Cut once.

VAGABOND: Disappointing day in court

 I had my first day in court today. Except it wasn't really 'my day' in court. 

There is so much about the legal system and court system that I find inefficient, random and disorganised - and hard to understand. There is so much wasting of time and resources and money. This is from a brief glance. It makes me just want to fix, fix, fix.

The short version of a long story that I have alluded to in my post 'Can you be trusted?' (18 July) is that the factory that makes my Vagabond and YOLO products, as well as those for other customers, defaulted on their rent and the landlord took legal action. I cannot find fault with this as the landlord had every right to claim his money.

That's just the short version. The longer, real and more complicated version has more players, agreements, discussions, other parties, and behind-the-scenes intrigue going on for months. I knew of elements of this but I wasn't involved. To even begin to explain the long version (and there are different views and perspectives) would fill the pages of a book.

Regardless, the outcome of the legal action was that an eviction order was granted and everything in the building was attached under a warrant. That includes the assets, fittings and stock of the factory's customers. This was on 22 June 2022.

We submitted affidavits in July, which excluded our 'disputed items' from the auction of the factory assets scheduled for the end of July. The landlord purchased the factory's main assets, the three ovens, with the plan to run this as his own business. Yeah, I know, the beneficiary of the auction purchasing the assets of the tenant that he is evicting to take over the tenant's business. Contemplate that.

A week after the auction, the auction accounting was wrapped up by the sheriff. The auction achieved 99.92% of the total claim. From what I've read, it looks like auctions usually recover 40-60% of the claim...

It took us TWO WEEKS to get these documents with neither the sheriff's office nor the landlord's attorney handing them over. Was this purposeful denial of access? I have absolutely no doubt. 

We finally got the documents on the same day as we were served summons to appear in court specifically to defend our claim that our kayak moulds, fittings and stock belong to us - despite the 600-plus pages of affidavits submitted in July complete with invoices from suppliers for everything.

The problem here is that the auction should have been wrapped up two weeks earlier with a Return of Service and the fulfilled warrant which would have released all the customer assets. We have still not received a Return of Service.

My life, for the last nine of the 11 weeks that my businesses were locked down, has been all about affidavits, coordinating between the customers (two overseas) regarding legal submissions, news, updates, documents, information and trying to get ready-and-waiting orders released for container shipments. I've also had the excitement of an urgent High Court application, which we won with costs and then the appeal, which we again won with costs.

My focus lurched from lockdown to getting counsel, to coordinating eight affidavit submissions, then looking ahead to the auction, then to getting the auction papers, then to the summons and today's court date. Going from one checkpoint to the next has kept me sane. 

I have spreadsheeted and cloud-saved every document in this case by date, type of document, from whom, to whom and gist of the contents for easy reference. I have also extracted quotes from the documents that are relevant to our case and these are ordered by date and categorised with document, from whom, to whom, page/paragraph location and key words to make it more searchable.

Late last week, the assets of the factory's other customers - except Vagabond, YOLO and the ABC shop we started a year ago (ABC sublet shop space only) - were granted release through a letter from the landlord's attorney to ours. Yes, a few days before the court appearance that they summoned us, the factory customers, to because they disputed our claim to our assets. The companies excluded are all mine.

So that really leaves me isolated and still in the fight.

As it happens, court today was disappointing.

In the morning, my attorney and advocate met with the landlord's advocate. Note that my guys had made numerous attempts to get meetings to mediate. This morning's meeting seems to have confirmed the release of some customer assets with the addition of YOLO moulds (they released - not yet in my hands - only the fittings and boxes last week, which is no use to me without the moulds to make products).

They went into court and there the opposition stated that there was an amount still owing to them (keep in mind that they got 99.92% of the claim total of the warrant governing this case and also that this claim is not against the customers). It came out that an auction had taken place and a payout had been done, which they failed to inform the magistrate in the massive pile of documents that had been handed to her pre-appearance. She didn't know. She asked how much was really owing. They didn't know.

She told them to go away, confirm how much they think they are owed and to be back at 2pm.

We go back and this time I go inside. 

There was a show that I watched on Netflix recently. I can't remember which one but I can remember feeling so frustrated and shouting at the screen "Just talk. Just tell them. Just explain clearly". There was so much stupid stuff going on and only because they people did not speak up. I felt like this here. Running on a treadmill and going nowhere.

The opposition responds to say that they are owed around R24,000. You have got to be kidding! In five weeks, neither the sheriff nor the advocate for the landlord said anything about an outstanding amount. Not. One. Word. Instead, they keep our assets locked down and further compromise seven businesses.

According to the sheriff's accounts, another R806 (yes, eight hundred and six rand) would see them receive 100% of their total claim. They were paid out R1m and yet are holding on to the assets of the customers of the factory, who really shouldn't be involved in this dispute, for what they said today is only R24,000? The magistrate commented that this was decidedly less than what he'd said in the morning and she added, quite rightly, that costs more than this to appear in court. "Sort it out," she said. 

The opposition then goes on about the 'kayaks' in the factory that have not been paid for, which they are claiming. And this wasn't even the topic of the argument on the summons. The magistrate did ask him why he brought this up because it wasn't relevant.

Yes, I did half put my hand up to speak as the advocate was just so very wrong about these 'kayaks'. It is a pity that I didn't get to speak. These 'kayaks' are actually blemished, unfinished and un-outfitted shells that have not been invoiced because they have not been completed. Customers are only invoiced for completed kayaks that we order (A-Class) or agree to take (B-Class). There are only really shells there for three of the customers and two of the three want their shells to be outfitted and completed. 

So the magistrate is left thinking that there are a whole lot of kayaks there that haven't been paid for, and that the landlord is claiming, when this is not the truth or reality. 

How can a magistrate decide on anything when she doesn't have even half the correct information?

So then my advocate does a good presentation to bring attention back to the actual issue - something called the Landlord's Hypothec. Basically, it 'allows' the landlord to claim any items on their premises in the event of a dispute. But, thankfully, there are only certain situations in which this applies. And not this one, which is shown clearly in the law and with case examples too.

Of course, you'll be asking around about now, "If the landlord is claiming Landlord's Hypothec, why has he released the assets of the other customers except Vagabond, ABC and YOLO? What makes them different to the other customers of the factory?".

The answer? Nothing makes them different as they are all separate legal entities and they function as customers of the factory like all the others. 

Court didn't even get to this realisation because no evidence was shown. Today was not a trial but more of a instance to set a trial date. It feels to me like a waste of time and money.

We have a court date for 20/21 October.

I'm sure you see the problem with this date. It is for almost two months in the future. I've had no business or trade for 2.5 months already. We start to move into our main summer season in October. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to calculate the math on this and subsequent impact.

So, why is the landlord doing this? I have a few theories - and all are probably correct to some degree. I'm not going to put them down here because this still has to play out. But, they are not to do with being owed any money - the guy seems to have more than enough. Suffice to say, Vagabond is the one with the most versatile and marketable products.

My focus for the past 10 weeks has been on obtaining counsel, then coordinating the content of eight affidavits, then on the auction, then two weeks on getting the auction papers, then receiving the summons and then on today's court date. Focusing on one and then the next and the next has kept my focus - and kept me sane.

So, after court today, with no resolution, I cracked. I am feeling absolutely devastated and shattered.

We still have a step-by-step process to follow. We have to get the full accounts from the sheriff within the next five days. I don't see that these accounts can or will be any different to the documents issued a month ago on 8 August. Why would there be some other set of accounts? The outcome of this determines the next step.

And, all the while, I am the one that loses the most.

As you can imagine, I am neither very impressed right now with certain people or the law.

This whole case is just so absolutely ridiculous. 

I wish the magistrate had asked for a summary of the situation in plain English, which I would have been happy to provide. 

I wish that she had asked why some claimants' assets were released and not others if the landlord is claiming hypothec.

And, I wish that she had told the landlord's attorney that they were wasting the court's time, and our money by summoning us to court for R24,000 - owed to them by someone else - when they got paid out R1m - 99.92% of their claim.

But, she doesn't know this. If she did, I'm quite sure she would have put an end to this time and money wasting and life devastation. 

This is wrong. Just wrong.

Want to write, can't write, what to write

 I've written 28 posts this year. Only 28 posts. This has to be my lowest count - or close to - in the 17 years that I've been writing this blog. 

I want to write. 

It isn't that I don't have anything to say. I do. 

I think of topics to write about daily from observations and conversations. I just don't get to them and the topics flutter away like migrating butterflies. Topics in my head today are replaced by those that arise tomorrow and, if I remember what I thought of the day before, the themes later can seem unnecessary. I sometimes write them down but then the pages of my diary turn to the next day and the next and the thoughts are left behind.

In July, I touched on the legal issues that I've been dealing with. What was two weeks of documents, printing, attorneys and communications has now been eight weeks of the same. 

I have done a lot of writing. A serious amount. Affidavits, backgrounds, briefs and updates. It has been stressful and distressing, draining and exhausting, and yet it has also been interesting, challenging and exciting.

I have learned about Interpleader Summons, Return of Service, Vendue Roll, sheriffs, auctions, warrants and High Court applications. I also know how good it feels to win with costs (twice); something akin to winning at a casino, I presume. I've also learned about greed and the deceitful games that are played. And, I've learned about attorney fees.

We go to court on Tuesday to defend our claim to our assets - moulds, fittings, graphics and stock.

This has been all-consuming and I haven't been able to focus on much else. 

This situation will make for a good novella. 

Despite struggling to face each new day - uncertain of what new drama it may deliver, I have made it through one day at a time. This has been like running an ultra where each kilometer completed gets you closer to the finish line. I have also made a number of major decisions, spent time on trails with my dogs, found mushrooms, completed some woodwork projects, finished a book or two, and I have processed many kilograms of guavas from the tree in my garden. Life goes on.

I've now written 29 posts this year.

25th parkrun volunteer milestone at George parkrun

On Sat, 30 July 2022, I notched my 25th volunteer milestone at the George parkrun (my total is around 140). When parkrun restarted in George in about November last year, I jumped in to volunteer and meet the friendly George parkrun community.

My usual volunteer role is barcode scanning. This morning I enjoyed a role change as a marshal out on the route so I decided to take Rosy with me. I haven't taken her to parkrun here because this little black dog can be crazy-exuberant and a bit... unruly. Despite being a really good dog at dog school, Rosy's street-dog posturing comes out when other dogs are around and she is on a lead. When she runs off-lead, she is a well-behaved girl. Parkrun requires dogs to be on a lead and as I'm often volunteering, Rosy has been left at home.

Today, Rosy was exemplary. She ran almost beautifully on lead to parkrun and like a star to our marshal point. She watched the participants without barking and wasn't too bad when dogs came past. 

She was actually so good that I'm confident that she has matured enough to participate with me without being a maniac.

 
I'm very proud of this little girl.