I've Been Building a Table

It's a really strange thing to do, I know, but I have been building a table. There is a lot of history to the table and it goes back thirty something years to when my parents first built their house. They had a timber decking around the pool which was made from Oregon timber. Back in the late eighties the timber decking was replaced and I had the unenviable task of pulling down the old timber, which was so nice after being weathered for 20 odd years out in the weather. So I put away some of the timber and meant to make something with it. When I first moved out of home I didn't have much (or any) furniture but I did have some tools and a lot of free time, so I decided that I should build some furniture for my new house. Intially the furniture I made was very rustic (read would fall apart at the slightest knock), but as I developed my skills I learnt more.

The table was the very first piece of furniture I ever built for myself and it still had the original paint and stain from the decking as I never sanded it back. Needless to say the table was wonky and very rough so it had a table cloth over it constantly. Then in about 95 I decided to sand back the top of the table and varnish it. It took me days of hard labour to get the top even slightly smooth, and it was a rough and ready as they come, but at least it looked ok. Because I had never reallu understood how to build things the legs of the table were pretty much nailed on as an afterthought.

The table has sat it my Kitchen through five different houses where I have lived and I have never got around to finishing it. Finally last week, on the basis that we are moving to a nice modern place I decided that the table needed to be remade, so the boy and I went to the hardware store and purchased a whole lot of wood and other supplies. Starting on Sunday afternoon I started sawing, hammering, drilling and then sanding. The last two days I have been covered head to foot in dust from the sanding process and finally last night I applied the very first coat of stain and varnish. Now I am waiting for the fourth coat to dry so I can continue to apply more and more varnish to the top of the table.

I feel that the table represents myself in many ways, whenh I was young I knew so little and had experienced so little, but thought I knew everything there was to know. As I grew older I rebuilt the table as my comfort with myself and my life grew up. The last time I did anything to the table I was in a bad relationship and the table as wonky as it was represented this. Now that I am hitting 30, in a wonderful relationship, the table has been rebuilt properly. It still has its charcter and it still has it's little knots, and burrs in the wood, because they represent my character and my life. But finally the table represents me and the growth I have been through in my life till now. It means a lot to me this table, as it has been with me for years, it links me to my parents and the home I grew up in, it links me to the boy because he helped me make it and it links me to friends who have and will have dinner and many drinks on this table.

It may only be a table, but it is part of me and I love it very much!. So here's to the future of many happy nights and days spent on or around the table and of friends past, present and future!

12:38:00 PM