This Old House Tuesday

Ok, that's probably stretching it with the theme title. I have some housey things and didn't want to call this post "House Update" or something horribly boring like that. I don't really plan on sticking to house updates on Tuesdays.

First things first, we got a new table! (Please ignore the food on the floor. It's breakfast time.) We have been wanting a larger table for quite awhile. We sit down together for our meals, and I prefer to have all the food on the table rather than on the counters. But most of the time we just didn't have room for even one dish, let alone a meal. And as the boys get bigger (and more of them), it got a little more cramped.

We had found a very nice table at an unfinished furniture store. It was $625 dollars and it was very pretty. A nice farmhouse style one, with a leaf (might have been 2 leaves). But we had to finish it ourselves, which we were avoiding because of all the work it would be. Or I should say, Ben was avoiding it, since he would have been doing most of the work. I usually get to keep the kids out of his hair. ;)

 

So we put it off and put it off for months. A lot of the people we know have gotten furniture - very nice looking furniture - at Big Lots. And I did remember seeing things that I liked last time I was in there. So we decided to go down and take a look, see what we could find. I showed this table to Ben and he liked it. So we decided to get it, at $250 (woohoo! WAY under budget), and would deal with it if it was cheaply made. After all, we figured, we have fairly destructive boys so it wouldn't hurt as bad if it got beat up.

We got it home last night and Ben sat down to put it together and, to our surprise, it's almost all solid oak. It's a VERY nice table. We thought it would be the particle board-and-laminate Target construction. But no! It's very nice, and very sturdy. It's a little more modern than I was going for. But I do like the beefy farmhousey type style. It's just the color that doesn't go with our stuff. Although it is a very nice color in itself. Ben said we could refinish it if it really bugs us.

We will replace our chairs once we find some we like. I am so happy with this table. Eating dinner on it last night was so nice. It's so big! We could very easily fit 6 people, and probably 8 if we needed to. I was hoping to one day have an island in the kitchen, but it won't fit now with this table. However, there is enough working space on this table it can work as an island for me.

And here is the yearly picture of our house. We have lived here over a year now, and I want to take pictures every year to see how much it has changed. Our flower bed looks gorgeous with all the colors. And Ben has babied our lawn so much it's a beautiful emerald green now.

One of these years we will redo the siding and stucco. We are thinking we will do a grey color scheme, with grey brick replacing all the stone. Then black trim and accents. We also need a new roof, so I'm hoping next year we can swing that. Here is our house when we bought it: 

Much better, don't you think? :)