New Kitchen Table

This was by far the most time consuming project I've worked on.  I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to complete it.  Last year, Kim and I decided that instead of doing anything for one another for our anniversary, we would get wood instead to build a table.  I got a lot of the work completed in the fall but the weather got cold and stayed cold...and cold...and cold.  During the cold time I couldn't stain or polyurethane because the garage isn't heated or cooled.  Finally, after it warmed up, I finished the project and it's awesome having a table this big!

Here it is after stain

Nice and shiny after the polyurethane.

There it is in the house

Kim had one major request with this project and that was for the benches to have storage.  I won't tell you how long I just stood in the garage staring at these benches like an idiot trying to figure out how to make it work while hiding the hinges and keeping the seat flush.  I finally ended up using my router to trim out an area on the inside of the seat and outside of the bench apron.  Worked like a charm.

It's not the most elegant or extravagant table ever built, but as an amateur wood worker, I have to say I was pretty pleased with the results!  

Elise having her first meal at the new table.  This is the reason we wanted to build it.  It's super easy to get caught up eating on the go and gathering around the tv to eat.  We do it ourselves pretty often.  But, we at least wanted to have a nice big family table to sit at and enjoy some meals together as our kid(s) grow older. It's not that we couldn't have done it with the old table.  But, it was small and this is something that we (Kim and I) made.  Without going into all the details, the table top is poplar wood planks.  I used a Kreg jig to drill pocket holes and Kim helped with that part as well as helping me screw and glue the planks together.  In fact, she was there when I was trimming the table top and accidentally sawed a small divot into it with my skil saw.  I was using an attachment on my saw to make straight cuts and it blocked the guard from automatically coming back down.  I set the saw on the table when I was done thinking the guard was down, but it wasn't.  I was devastated.  Kim told me it was like having my signature in the table.  That it was.  I added putty and it looks like a small imperfection that makes it our own.  And we'll remember things like that over the years as we sit at the table.