Thanks To My Woodworking Husband!

A few Saturdays ago before Michael got sick he got a little fire under him and had to go spend his Christmas money from my parents. He ended up buying over $300 in tools at Harbor Freight tools. He was so cute he laid them all and took a picture and texted it to my Dad to show off his haul! Boys and their toys! 

After buying all those tools he really wanted to put them to use. So he started asking me about the benches that I was going to built later this year with my Dad. He started drawing out what they needed to look like to match the table and then he just said...."I'm going to go buy everything!" Off he went to Lowes and another hundred and some dollars later and he was home with all sorts of lumber and a few other tools. 

He first figured out how to make the legs match the table legs. They came out perfect. He also bought a new saw blade and that thing cuts like a warm knife through butter. The cuts are SO smooth! He also made the side rungs look like the underneath part of the table as well. 

Here's a look at both of the frames complete. He was working on them every night. The first night he finished the 4 sides and then the next night he finished the frames. 

I had gone to Costco and done our monthly shopping and Zeke was having fun messing around with one of the big boxes while Michael worked in the garage. 

Michael is trying to get the boys more interested in helping with these types of things. Owen is getting there, but Jackson didn't want to help. 

He observed though! 

The coolest tool Michael got was this Kreg Jig. It's a tool that helps you make pocket holes for the screws to go in. Like professional furniture has. If you are going to build any type of furniture it's a definite must have and it wasn't even all that expensive. I think Michael said it was $39. 

It's also fool proof....you just set it to the width of the wood and clamp it down and it will only let the drill go in so far and then it stops. Super cool!

I'm not sure if he was able to complete both tops in one night or not. But there they are both finished! 

He told me to take a picture of him laying down because he was so tired! 

Next came the stain...we got a color that matched the table perfectly! That had been my biggest concern when it came to purchasing this table so I was really happy that it worked out. 

Looking nice and dark! After that it was poly time. Two coats later and a couple more days to cure in the garage and then it was time to assemble them and bring them inside. 

Bench #1 coming in! 

Jackson wanted to take a picture of me sitting on the bench. Not quite in focus, but so nice of him to want to get a picture of me with my benches! 

His turn....I didn't do much better with the focus. I guess my focus was more on...

Bench #2 coming in! 

Sitting at the table! 

Here a look at the supports and how they match so nicely! 

So to celebrate we had ice cream cones! I had a bunch of heavy cream and half and half that was going to expire so over the course of 2 days I made homemade chocolate ice cream, vanilla with chocolate caramel chunks and mini chocolate chip. I also got the kids ice cream cones which I never buy. I think I will buy them more though....first they are cheap and second they make it so the kids don't eat as much ice cream. 

Zeke is not so good with a cone though...he likes to let his melt into soup. No cone for you! 

Chocolate ice cream! 

Jackson is the only one of the kids that doesn't really like the benches so he is sitting at the end of the table in one of the chairs. 

Owen is enjoying the mint chocolate chip ice cream and I have to say that it was my favorite ice cream too! 

A couple more pictures of the table with the benches. They are just gorgeous! I'm so proud of Michael! He worked so hard and he has never really built anything like this before. He just amazes me! 

Now you might say...I thought you wanted to built them with your Dad....and the answer is yes I did truly want to do that, but I wasn't going to stop my husband from taking the reigns over. I think it was bugging him that the table project wasn't going to be done for months and months. Funny because that stuff would usually bother me, but it didn't. Also Michael built them WAY faster than I think my Dad and I could have built them. My Dad is very familiar with metal....he is a welder so that's his preference when it comes to building material. My parents didn't even know Michael was working on them until I texted them a picture of the finished benches. They were both thrilled. I think in a way my Dad was relieved. It was a big project and to start something like that right after he retired wouldn't have felt like much of a retirement now would it! My Mom did mention something about how he wants to weld us a new mailbox so maybe I'll have to get in on that! 

The sad thing about our benches is right after Michael brought them in was when all the sickness stuff really got going. We literally were so sick we were just eating in the living room and really eating is a relative term. It was like snacking throughout the day when we actually felt hungry which wasn't very often. It was over a week before we actually sat down at the table and had a family dinner! 

There are a few things that I still have to get used to. Like when I was doing the laundry the other day I went to go lay one of the kids shirts over the backs of one of the chairs and went...AHHH. There's no chair backs. I always lay each of the kids clothes on separate chair back so it's easier to take them up to put them away since they are all separated according to child. Well now there's only two chairs instead of 6! Jackson was in the dining room when I realized this and he being the not loving bench boy that he is said, "See the benches were not a good idea!" Of course you can imagine the look I gave him and then I promptly pulled out one of the benches and started laying the clothes on them instead. Goofball! Another thing is it's harder for me to get out during dinner time as quickly as I could before. Where I sit the quickest way for me to go to the kitchen is to go to my right, but to get out of the bench I have to swing my legs over the bench. So now I have to go to the left and it's just not as easy as before. But I think it's a blessing because I'm now asking the kids before dinner...."Do you need anything else because once I sit down I'm down?!?!" If they end up needing something it's Too Bad So Sad or you can get it yourself! 

I'm so so SO happy with my benches! They turned out amazing! Michael is already thinking up designs for end tables for our living room so I think he's got the builder bug! It will be fun to see what he comes up with!