Well, we did it.
Who would have thought we would manage it. Even my daughter was impressed because she thought this was a "down the road (but wouldn't really happen) project." She was wrong. It took us a couple of weeks to finish it but here's how it broke down:
Sunday night. . ."So hon, do you think we want to work on the table tomorrow while the kids are at school?"
"Sure why not?"
"Ooh very cool. We could have a really pretty table for First Communion" (Hmm, when did I think the benches would be made? I guess I was planning all along on them being a faster and easier project than a table, right?)
Around 9 am Monday morning I told him I was almost ready to go. Then we had to stop to print out the plans and figure out the changes we were going to make. Because after all, plans are just guidelines, right?
At 10 am we walked into Home Depot. I went straight to paint while he went looking for woodfiller. He refused to ask where it was. When we couldn't find it, we moved on to other things on the list. Then I asked where we could find the woodfiller. . .not while standing by my hubby of course.
We got all the little things then went down to the lumber area. We got started on our list, confirmed they could do the cuts for us and we were off. Time spent at Home Depot? About an hour.
I picked up just 2 splinters in this process. We also amended the "plan" again as we were selecting wood. We had decided earlier that we didn't want an 8 foot long table but that a 6 foot would be plenty long. And then we changed our mind and decided that a 6 1/2 foot table would be perfection. While we were selecting the wood we decided that the side aprons would be right at 6 feet long and we'd have just a touch more overhang.
When we got home we emptied the garage and unloaded the wood. We laid the pieces out and marked things then we were ready to assemble. Except the instructions just said "glue and screw the frame together." Oh dear. The little problems began. We don't have a countersinking bit. Pre-drilling holes and countersinking and then screwing it together sounded ghastly. So he went back to return the first set of screws and pay just a teeny bit more to get countersinking screws. That was at noon.
After that little errand we decided to have a quick lunch and head back out to start putting it together. The first ones were really tough. But we fell into a pattern with it and it got easier. Had to pick the kids up at 2:30 so I had a little break. When I got back we finished the last 4 screws for the frame then decided to add a couple of pieces before we put the top on. By 4:00 we were done putting the top together and had an appointment for a consultation with a woodworking mastermind to sort out the legs. The plan called for 2x4's for legs and we settled on 4x4s. Just a tiny issue. We got a friend's help with notches in the legs and then it was time to set the project off to the side for a bit.
The next week we did woodfiller and lots of sanding. We got the legs attached. And then we sanded a little more. We stained the top of the table using the leftover custom color from our build so it matches the pantry door, trim and baseboards and coordinates with our hardwood floors. The apron and legs had to primed then painted "Cracked Pepper" from Lowe's (Valspar semi-gloss paint). End result? We love it!
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