Thing of beauty

Last weekend, Steve & I went in search of a table base for a kitchen table. We've been eating every meal in the dining room for quite some time and while that is so very civilized of us, we longed for more casual meals in our kitchen. Actually what we really long for is not having to carry everything into the dining room for every meal.

We headed to a magnificent place called Architectural Artifacts. If you haven't been, go. You won't believe it. It's not cheap, but it is the best salvage place in Chicago and that says something. They have everything from $30K garden statues (I'm not kidding) to tables sprawling with antique tile to rooms filled with an amazing multitude of fireplace mantels. I glazed over at the sight of a half dozen or so polished cast iron fireplaces.

The owner, Stuart Grannen is constantly traveling the world in search of treasures. It shows.

They had a pretty good selection of table bases that I found to be pricey and nothing spectacular. Then, we came upon a selection of English pub tables. As you can see, we took one home with us.

The first thing we did after bringing it in was cut a plywood top for it. This served two purposes. One, we could use the table this way and two, we needed to determine the optimum size for our space. We started with just under 38" and that was too large. The scale seemed a little off in the room.

Steve cut a few inches off and the table size now seems perfect. Today, he went to another favorite place of ours, Owl Hardwood & Lumber to select some bird's eye maple for the table top he will be making. As I said, a thing of beauty, a forever table I am calling it.

As I'm writing this, Steve has just come home and is bringing in the wood. Bird's eye maple... He really knows how to get to me.

Some Small Improvements

This weekend, we finally got to do some things on the first floor, one of which was replacing the sad Charlie Brown light in our bedroom.

We had another fixture, but it shorted out a while back and we never bothered to rewire it. I'll probably sell it on eBay at some point. What you see at left is what we've had there for about a year.



We decided on the Grant Court a ceiling mounted fixture from Rejuvenation. I actually like my bedroom now. I truly believe that holes in walls are bad for one's psyche. The only reason I believe this is because when we eliminate them, I inexplicably feel better.



I also installed the rustic shelves I ordered from Wisteria this summer.



Our bedroom is not very big. Someday, when we refinish the basement, we may create a master suite downstairs. To tell the truth, that's a ways off. We have to save some money for that project.



I used the shelves to display my collection of finials.

I also installed some hooks in my closet, installed a new door stop in our bedroom, and did some more clearing in the yard. I've been doing it in stages this year.

It's nice to finally have time to work on "little"-er projects in the first floor now that we have people living upstairs.

Footnote: Yesterday I came home and told Steve the entry smelled like paint. I realized that it was probably the marine varnish I had applied Saturday (to the threshold). Steve just told me that last night he had a nightmare that the tenants painted the entire apartment white but not the trim. Ah, the joy and serenity of being a paranoid landlord.