Hanging Table

The kitchen is finally coming together. We tiled last weekend and installed the table this week. The table idea came out of a predicament. When tearing down drywall we discovered that the wall between the kitchen and dining room was load bearing. Never something you want to learn after demolishing the rooms. So we had a two choices. First choice was to hire a structural engineer to design and hang a beam from wall to wall. Big bucks and a lot more time. Second option was to install a post. Against the pleading of family we decided to put a post. I think they did not like to post because they thought we'd walk right into it not noticing a huge post in our way. We knew we had find a creative way to incorporate the post into the kitchen. So we installed a second post thinking to install a table making it a permanent fixture in the kitchen.

Finding a table top was the fun part. I like the decorating and shopping, not particularly the hard labor. Steven had the great idea about a year ago to make a table out of a door. The problem with that is most doors have holes for the door knob already cut out or they have the door knob installed. Luckily on an afternoon drive we came across Passport Imports. They had dining room and coffee tables already constructed out of doors. So we purchased one, sawed off the legs and with the help of my parents (the table weighs as much as a baby elephant) hung the table between two beams.

The hanging table is colorful and unexpected. Just the touch we are always looking for!

Kitchen Update

With all the construction workers out now we're in control of finishing up this project. You can see from the update a few days ago that the pink tile is out, the wall is gone and two posts were put in its place. It room has drastically changed. Steven and I sit on the floor of the kitchen and try to imagine what it use to look like. It is almost a figment of our imagination. Luckily we remembered to take before pictures to remind us (this is the step we usually forget).

We had a few hiccups with the remodel but now were back on track. One of the major hiccups was finding out the wall between the kitchen and dining room was a load bearing. We replaced it with one post to hold the beam but decided to add a second post to even out the room. Between the posts we plan on hanging a table as a built in. We purchased a table top that is actually an framed antique door. The goal, as always, is to put something where it is least expected. I've started looking at chandeliers for above the table but I know there are a lot of things to get done before we even get to the table, let alone decorative lighting. The next step though, now that we're done painting, is to put the cabinets in and then tile this weekend. By the way we discovered some exceptional paint called FastHide. It dries in an hour which allowed us to paint the whole room twice in one evening. It saved us some of our lost time for our contractor woes.

Sewing Table

Since we're in the middle of a remodel I thought I would share some of our past projects every few days. Here is one of our first projects. It was a drafting desk purchased at ASU Surplus. We took it apart, painted, added a new top and some useful accessories. The cutting board and ruler are screwed to the table and then we had fun with checkered upholstery. Enjoy!

Renovation Chaos

Things are a bit chaotic right now. We decided, out of nowhere, to remodel the kitchen. I took a nap and woke up to Steven proposing that we redo the kitchen. This is despite being midway through updating the yard. I guess I have more time to wait for (stalk) Ahmed Hassan from Yard Crashers at the local home improvement stores on Friday afternoon. Here is where we left the yard a few weeks ago. We bought a Pencil cactus and two Totem Cacti (they look like a giant melted candle as they grow). Add to that a mango tree, two Fan Tex Ash and a quickly growing Cottonwood (I think I want another Cottonwood because they are absolutely beautiful). The rocks are almost gone and we are slowly filling in with a few other small plants.

Back to the kitchen. The remodel was supposed to be a 3.5 possibly 4 week project but it has turned into a 6 week project. At least that is the projection right now. It took 5 days to demo the entire kitchen and we’re on week three of waiting for our handyman to finish up. So six weeks if our handyman decides to finish in the next few days. Hiring him was a huge mistake and we're paying in time for his speed and blunders. Home improvement lesson 17 is do your homework on hiring out and lesson 18 is be more specific in a contract. Hopefully we'll be able to paint and tile this week but we're not holding our breath anymore. I've been living and working in a construction zone and it's driving me nuts.

Before:

After demo:

Card Catalog

Sometimes you don’t know what you are looking for until you find it. Recently at Merchant Square (our favorite antique store (Yes, Steven likes antiquing, not that he will admit that.)) we happened upon a card catalog. For those of you who are either too young or for those of you who never stepped into a library before the desktop computer a card catalog was a box of cards. Located in a library, a card catalog filed book titles on cards using the Dewey Decimal System. We are avid book collectors/lovers so we had to add this to our collection of random projects. On a side note we are still avoiding our New Year Resolution list. We are working on it but we love excuses to avoid it. We’ll give you an update soon.

Steven and I transformed the card catalog into a jewelry box night stand. After visiting Lowes we left with threaded steel rod for the legs and some other fixings to finish the table. We added the legs, adhered a metal top and upholstered the drawers with deep purple velvet. Steven finally has a light on his side of the bed and I have a place to hide my goodies.

The White Elephant

For a recent work event there was a potluck and a white elephant exchange. I am not the white elephant exchange type of girl. I do not like surprises! Ask Steven or my mother. The contently tell me I ruin surprises. In this case, it is the fear of giving an unwanted gift. I like to give gifts that make people smile (like most people). The white elephant exchange makes me fear the coworker cringe. You know, that look of unhappiness when they open your gift and it was not one of the 'prize' gifts. So I had no intention of participating. Plus I had no time to purchase a cool gift for under $20.


The day before the potluck I broke down. I was going to participate. There were a few road blocks. First, I had no car to leave the house to buy a gift. Second, it was my late night of work. Third, Less than 24 hours to make pizzelles and get a gift. So I had to be creative and see what we already had in the house. After completing the book table we had a few left over hardcovers. I then remembered we had a few sheets of cork. All I needed were picture hangers. When Steven came home from work I made him rush me to Lowe's for the picture hangers in between evening appointments.


During the NASCAR drive and 5k race to and from Lowe's I asked Steven for a bit of help. Less than an hour later I had these cool cork book boards. They did not make me cringe and I had a hard time wrapping my gift because I am going to keep them. But it did not matter what I thought, it was all about the cringe face. What do you think?

Coffee Table of Books

Any of you who know us know we love books. We recently bought a new couch and needed a new coffee table to accompany the couch. We had an idea to create a coffee table where the base would be constructed out of stack of books. We thought this would look really interesting but we needed to find something to make the table top out of. We visited a couple of antique stores and came up with a brilliant idea. Why not use a picture frame as the table top. Not only would it be interesting visually but it would provide functionality as the lip of the frame would prevent roll offs and the glass would be easy to clean. We had a picture frame we were unsure what to do with so we knew we could use it. We painted the frame blue and started collecting books and looking for a picture for the frame.

We originally estimated we needed about 50 books. The books needed to be hard covered and we wanted them to be of various size. Well we started buying cheap used books we found and solicited others from family. Our goal was to use only books that we would never want to read, as we could not stomach destroying a book that we wanted to read. After getting 50 books and beginning to stack them we quickly realized that we needed many more books. Our estimated total number needed jumped to about 150. Now out to hunt for 100 more books.

On a trip to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore we saw they had a sale of used books for 50 cents each. I bargained with the store manager and was able to get 100 hard cover books for 25 dollars. We now had our collection of books needed to start our project. We bought a ¼ inch piece of plywood and cut it down to the size of the frame, this would be used as the base of the table. We stacked the books and nailed them into place. Some of the books with interesting titles we turned the cover out, and the others we showed only the pages. The stacking of the books proved to be a little more difficult then we anticipated. Having many different sizes creates a good look but it makes it difficult to create a level surface. Good thing Liz and I are good at puzzles.

We decided we wanted the coffee table to be able to roll. Liz had the amazing idea to put huge industrial castors on the bottom. This would fit with the look and bring the table to a more appropriate height. The castors also had to be heavy duty because the table made of 150 books ended up weighing a couple hundred pounds. We bought six castors, which was the most expensive part of this project, and mounted them to base of the table. We chose to have six castors as we didn’t want the table to sag in the middle over the extreme weight.

To finish off the frame we needed a picture in the frame. We live in and love Tempe, Arizona so we wanted a Tempe themed picture. We chose to try and get something that would remind everyone of historical Tempe. At the Tempe Historical Museum they sell a replica of a real estate map made in the early 20^th century of Tempe. This was the piece we had been looking for and it looks great in the frame.

We love this table. It rolls great, looks great, and is a great addition to our house and our wonderful lives.