Off to a good start

So, amidst all the excitement of selling, moving, buying, closing, moving (it was complicated) of all the things I wanted to do in a new house the first was build a patio table. A big shiny one, that you could sit and drink around for hours on summer nights with plenty of your favorite drink cold and within reach. Why, with two kids who keep the wife and me up all hours of the night and too tired to drink anything if we ever had the chance, this project got stuck in the top slot was beyond me. But as the clouds parted and it started to look like we'd actually close on a new house in mid-December of '15, I started making plans...

And a scarce 4 months later, my brother-in-law and I were carrying this beast out of the garage and up the steps of our deck. And thank god too, b/c it was one of three projects I had in there at the time and I needed the space.

Ta da!

Although it was at the top of my list this wasn't quite the first thing I ended up doing. There was the moving in and getting settled, finding a new home for our mounds and mounds of boxes, all the good stuff that goes with moving in less then 10 days before Christmas. By March, things were actually together to the point where I had room in a garage to work and I thought I was ready. "Thought." Most of it came together in a day with additional time spent slowly getting the sanding done, then staining, then sealing, to the point where I finally finished it just before we had a bunch of people over for the boy's birthday party.

First day, March 7th, w/the beginning of a console table too

I say "thought I was ready" b/c it looks good (it looks great) now, but there were some questionable moments in getting it finished. This seems like a good time to mention I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to wood working, power tools, building or fabrication of any sort. I saw this project and my brain just wouldn't let go until I finished. My wife, bless her, was more than happy to let me work on this with the agreement that if she was not pleased with the final result it was not going on the deck and we'd be purchasing our table. There were a few moments starting out where the likelihood of that happening seemed pretty high. But eventually, when I got the legs on and flipped the whole thing over, I knew we were in good shape.

March 20th, legs on and about to get trimmed for a straight edge.

The legs were actually one thing that changed; initially I planned on using 4x4 timbers but they were so bad looking at Home Depot I ended up just using 2x4s glued and kregged together. I don't think it hurt things structurally but it definitely tells you the thing was DIY.

One thing that surprised me was this project's ability to spiral into more and more purchases to get it done. Of course, I had to pick up some basics to get started. A kreg jig (love it), circular saw, clamps; basic tools that help you get any job done. And I justified it by saying I was saving hundreds by building a set that would cost us a ton with $100 of lumber. But then there was sanding. And stain. And sealing. And each of those was a purchase/design decision with the potential to derail the whole thing. Initially all I wanted was to see if I could do it. By the time I finished I wanted things as close to the picture in my head as possible.

April 9th, 4 coats of seal and ready to move.

So now it's on the deck, with a matching bench (also from the shop) and new chairs, and we ate outside last weekend and it was great. We need an umbrella, b/c it was hot as balls on an amazing 80 degree Sunday, and I can't imagine every having enough people around it to warrant 60 inches of planters in the middle to fill with ice, but for a first DIY project this one hit it pretty much out of the park.