Make do and mend

In between going for a ride on the Harley in the rain I've been giving Marlane a hand with her latest innovative idea. I don't know where she gets them from.
This time I must admit she is doing the lions share of renovating the creaky old dining room chairs. I've done some of the sugar soaping and sanding (she bought me a brand new 'Mouse' mini sander, it's absolutely brilliant) but we realised before we do any of that to any more chairs we need to sort out the loose joints.
So, four are sugar soaped and sanded so I started on them. Unscrewed the bars at each corner, if there's a gap I pushed it wider open and rammed in some great stuff called 'Polycell Wood Repair', not just a filler. It sets solid, it can be sanded but it's hard work so the best way is to get it poked into the joint, as much as you can and deep in there. Bash the joint with a rubber mallet and the resin all goos out around the joint. Screw up the retaining bar that goes across the corner.
You can then scrape the excess off, poke it out of the decorative routing and smooth off with a damp rag. 
We've put them aside so they can set really hard and we'll start on them tomorrow after Buddy and Hendrix have gone.
Marlane is then painting them with a special paint, Frenchic paint in Hornblower blue.
As I said, don't know where the ideas come from but the result is always stunning. The chairs will all be painted and the lower part of the table.
I promise to do a before and after when it's all done.

N.B. the dining table and chairs are old, not antique but they must be very old. We got them from the vicarage of St John's church in Churchdown, Gloucester, probably about 24 years ago.
And if I see any children rocking on them the number of grandchildren we have will decrease accordingly! (I wouldn't really of course).