Woodwork, moving, and ISP Issues

As seen by the title, I've been a little bit busy doing... something, but I'm back, and thought I'd start sharing again all of the little things here and there that I have been working on.

*Might I add that I none too happy with COX who has had to come here twice since I moved in, which wasn't very long ago. That is what happens when you have services change a couple times and 4 guys come in, all re-doing, re-working, messing up, what the previous guy had done... although I cannot blame them for not 1 but 2 broken modems! $65 for a new one at Walmart, wish they'd make them cheaper than that :)

So GB is a carpenter by trade. Boredom and begging led him to fixing my table, which I inherited from my aunt. According to my mom, it was once lovely but nearly a decade of neglect, sun, and rain has turned it into this:

  
At this point I had already begun sanding it. I obtained this hunk o' junk before meeting him, worked on it for a solid 3 days, then gave up. Then he came into my life and woopee! Easy road for me (just kidding). I was planning on doing as little work as possible and call it "rustic." But I hadn't realized how much work could have and needed to be put into it, and apparently this is good wood, and I wanted it to look its best.

You can also view the table here, in a video taken by my old roommate with the amazing, handsomest cat in the world, Butters:



Here the BF has began to take it apart:

As you can see, it's two small squares of boards, top and base, connected by a square column. Not exactly proper lingo but you get the idea ;). Here are the 4 boards that compose the base.

I guess he had to take apart the whole thing, re-notch the pieces up top (to get rid of the gaps), and glue and clamp the hell out of it. Also, it came with no chairs. Although I still think a tables a table even without any chairs, I really wanted to eat on the thing. I was going to pick some cheap ones up from Wal-mart or the thrift store but he thought that benches would be a good idea :).

He said the table appeared to be masculine, and thought some masculine looking benches would suit it. I liked the idea especially because the benches can be pushed into and under the table entirely, keeping a very low profile.

So... after several hours of sanding, 2 coats of stain, and about 50 clear-coats later, here is the completed piece. Ta-Da! I love a dark finish, and my catlicious.

 And another for good measure:

I'm very happy with the table, even though I couldn't take it with me. Butters loves that table and harasses the fishes from it. I think it is in good hands and will be well taken care of. As for COX, we apparently are VIP now and have a special phone number for every time we have an issue. HURRAY!

<3