Tag Archives: furniture

Quick Answers to Questions from Google Search 3

G Site Kit has a section where it recommends blog posts to answer real Google searches. Here are some questions and some answers. The answers should be taken as my opinion rather than as anything reliable.

Question 1:

Can you leave furniture at curb on trash day for pick up can anyone pick up furniture if left at curb on trash day?

I know you’re muttering to yourself, “Objection–compound question.” But I’m not an attorney, so 🤷‍♀️.

In Los Angeles, you can leave furniture out on trash day for the city to pick up, but you have to call the city in advance to let them know that you will be doing so, or they will not pick up the bulky items. They will not pick up construction debris.

And as far as picking up abandoned furniture goes, I don’t know how to answer this because if I say that you can do it in Los Angeles and you do it in Los Angeles, there’s less for me to grab, and I like my woodworking projects to be as free as possible.

Question 2:

I have a ton of Wall Street Journal dating back to the early 1970s to 1989 are they worth anything

Throw those away! There are few reasons to retain old newspapers. One of them is if you’re quoted in them. Another is if your restaurant is reviewed in a favorable way so you can hang it up and show everyone.

Hoarding is not OK.

That all said, if you can figure out a way to turn them into chairs or other furniture by encasing them in epoxy, that might be interesting for a coffee shop. Turn the stacks of trash into stacks of cash!

Question 3:

We own a 12 room inn can we put out the outdoor furniture cushions for our guests will they need to be cleaned

If you have ask, you gotta clean it. It’s like when I ask Calah if I need to shower after spending a long time sanding. Of course I need to shower.

But this is something from an inn. As innkeepers, you have to clean things even if you could get away without cleaning them at home. People stay in your place and expect things to be clean when they arrive. That’s one of the things they pay for. Yikes!

Keep the quetions coming!

Quick Answers to Questions from Google Search 2

G Site Kit has a section where it recommends blog posts to answer real Google searches. Here are some questions and some answers. The answers should be taken as my opinion rather than as anything reliable.

Question 1:

What is cost of staining wood furniture?

The cost is revealing the beauty of the wood itself.

Many of my woodworking blog posts are about refinishing furniture I got on craigslist or, in rare cases, purchased. I took off the stain to show what was underneath and work with that.

This pair of tables shows natural finish compared to the old stained finish. You can read all about these two in my woodworking blog.

Question 2:

Why does NYT daily online puzzle expire so early?

I live out in California, so I don’t have this issue. The New York Times Crossword Puzzle expires at midnight Pacific, and the new Spelling Bee appears at midnight Pacific. I imagine you live somewhere like Hawaii, and if you do, these things might end earlier. If you live in like Japan, it’s going to be way earlier. The only advice I have for you is to wake up early to shift your day to be in coordination with the time zone that Los Angeles is in.

Question 3:

Why has my crosswordnexus clue solver be taken off my app s and will not let me re install?

I am unfamiliar with this app, but there are few things I can think of as to why this happened.

First option: The app changed from the crosswordnexus clue solver to the crosswordpixel clue solver. I had a Google Nexus phone, and now I have a Google Pixel phone. Even Rob Zombie changed the lyrics in More Human than Human from I am the Nexus One to I am the Pixel 5. I understand that from the problems with the Pixel 6, Rob Zombie is holding off on a new version.

Second option: This is a puzzle by itself. Maybe they want you to demonstrate that you can solve puzzles in order to get more help. Sure, they run the risk of you realizing that you can solve them on your own and therefore not need the app, but maybe it’s worth learning to code? Maybe make your own? Sell it? Make a million bucks?

Third option: There never was such an app. It was all a dream.

Keep the questions coming!

Woodworking: Finally finishing a small table from woodshop class (Part 1) (Originally published 12-15-2020)

I’m rerunning this post from a year ago this week. I will return to the cutting board project in the new year.


I took woodshop in the summers after sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. I made a chessboard the first summer and a small table the second summer. I tried to turn chess pieces the third summer, but that went poorly.

This series is about the small table project from the summer after seventh grade.

The year was 2001. At age 12, I was woodshop veteran heading back to Horace Mann School in Beverly Hills as I had been awaiting eagerly to do. But unlike the prior summer, I was going to be able to figure out what I wanted to build rather than choose from a list.

After a conversation with my folks about it, I think I came up with a stepstool or footstool or the like. My mom came across a picture of a stepstool in like Architectural Digest and asked what I thought. I remember it as being painted green, but that was coming up on 20 years ago, and I’m doing the best I can here. Whatever I made was not going to be painted green.

Equipped with the picture of what was probably only 7″ tall and with a 8″ x 14″ top, I went to the first day of summer school.

A note here is that I looked forward to a repeat of Mr. Bartkoski’s first day explanations of safety measures and how you can know how good a shop teacher is by how many fingers he has. “But don’t worry–I’ve got all of mine!” he announced with a huge grin as he displayed his hands to the whole class. I remembered gasping in horror along with the rest of the newcomers the prior summer because Mr. Bartkoski had expertly shown us the backs of his hands but curled his fingers in so nothing past the first knuckle of each finger was exposed. I was eager to hear the setup and enjoy the reactions to the punchline. And when it happened, it was wonderful. There’s really nothing like scaring the shit out of a roomful of boys and girls who are 10-12 years old.

When I showed Mr. Bartkoski the picture of what I wanted to make, he said that something taller and bigger would be more versatile.

There was some wood available as part of the class, but anybody who wanted to make something out of better wood was required to provide it.

It was off to House of Hardwood to get some birch. Of course I didn’t go alone. My mom took me there. I was 12, remember?

I cut, glued, clamped, planed, sanded, and routed my way through assembly of the table over the course of that summer. Per the advice of Mr. Bartkoski, I used screws to keep the leg panels in place while the glue was drying. The idea was to remove the screws afterward and fill the holes with wood putty so I could finish it.

And that’s what happened. Except that I stripped the head of one of the eight screws. So it was seven screws out and one in.

That’s how it stayed for about two decades.

Over time I used it for things like holding speakers to listen to music while I was in bed.

Later I used it under the CRT TV/VCR combo my sister used in college so I could play PS2 in my bedroom.

After a long while of the PS4 blowing hot air on and surrounding where I’d glued the top together, a crack developed along that seam.

So I had an unfinished table with a stubborn screw and new split. Eventually I’d be able to take care of it, I’d hoped. Maybe I’d get to sand off he head of the screw and go from there. But I took no action.

It stayed as an unfinished bedside table for years. And it’s not very good for a bedside table. There are no drawers. There’s no lower shelf. But it does keep things off the ground and closer to bed level, so it qualified.

This year changed everything, as 2020 has tended to do.

I had to purchase stripped screw extractor bits for the redo of the end table. It worked well for that project, and I figured there was a good chance it would work on this one.

More next week.