Making It Work

Jim the handyman was back today to do a few more things...and I enjoyed hanging around watching him work.  One more visit and our current todo list will be caught up.  

Making our condo feel like a home is pretty important to me....and I spend a lot of time and creative energy on things like arranging shelves and hanging balls. It's all part of my joyful puttering...so I can't help but share it here. So today you're going to get some house stuff.....carry on if it's not your thing!

Paul and I have been pretty lucky finding things for free along the roadside....and then making them work. There are lots of stories of our finds....one of my favorites is about our coffee table.  Consider yourself warned if you link....it's a LONG story: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2021/04/no-1123-12-d.html

We've had one bookshelf in the living room that we picked up for free. It's not very deep so not all that stable...but we've made it work for years.  At the time I just spruced it up with some white paint and it's been just fine....but I always thought it could be improved.  It was just a white box.

So one of the things I had Jim do was cut a top for it...and make a bit of a base so it would be up off the floor...and a little more stable.   

The bookshelf is found...and the boards are old and repurposed and full of character....and it's so much better than building or buying something new.  

 

I love it when there is someone in the condo helping us with house stuff....and making it work!

Jim is also going to help us shore up up our dining table....which is repurposed from an old pew from Paul's first church here in Falmouth.  It's sentimental story and I've written about it many times.  

But if you want to read the story and see why my name is carved in the corner you can read this post: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-pew-story.html

We have these fabulous hickory chairs from Paul's grandparents and we absolutely love them. Not using them is not an option. Trouble is the arms wouldn't fit under the table because of the skirt so we've had the table up on blocks since we moved in 3 years ago.  Not using the table is not an option either.

We got a few estimates for having a new base built....but in the end decided to just make it work.

I found these little wooden pumpkin boxes (they came with little lids) in an online wood store. 

I painted them to match the table base and Jim installed them (upside down) today.  

And other than the table being a bit higher than is ideal....

I think it looks pretty darn good. No more blocks....and it only took three years!  

 

Jim assessed the underside of the table to see how he can make it more sturdy. It was so interesting to see all the different versions of the wood reminding us how much work Paul had to do to get the top stripped and looking good.  

Paul took the pew apart and built it himself over 20 years ago....but he's glad we've got a professional helping now to shore it up.  

It's made from three wide pine boards that were the three parts of the pew: the seat, back, and kickboard. Just the boards on the underside of the seat were raw...the rest had been painted many many times over the years.  The pews were original to the church which was built in 1811....so we estimate that the tree originated at least 300 years ago.

And we're making it work today!