Building a Coffee Table
I hope everyone had a wonderful and happy holiday this year. With a few extra days off of work, I spent some time working on a new build. This time, a coffee table to match the dining room table. I got the plans from Ana White’s website, much like the dining room table, but I did do some slight modifications. I changed the overall size of the table, since ours needed to be a bit smaller, and I also changed out the legs. She calls for 4×4 legs, which for a coffee table just looked huge, so I used 2×3′s instead.
I headed over to Lowe’s to get my wood, and all in all, it cost me about $20. I had a few spare 2×4 strips, so that helped, but building a coffee table for $20 is not a bad thing. After cutting all the wood to size, I began to lay out the project.
Note, that doesn’t include the 2×4 strips that serve as the table top. Those I cut after I put together the legs and built the frame. Here is a very important hint when building this table, and I wish I had paid more attention to it. It’s very important to get the straightest boards you can find. I wish I had a lumber yard close by that sold furniture grade lumber, but I don’t. So a few of the 2×4′s I bought were practically useless due to some bowing. It took me a long time to get the boards cut properly and placed in due to the warping. Once I did, I screwed everything in using my kreg jig pocket holes and secured it up. I also added 2 45 degree pieces on each end to match the look on the dining room table.
Once everything was all assembled, I started to put on the stain. I stained it exactly the same as the dining room table, which was one coat of minwax’s English Chestnut, followed by one coat of minwax’s gunstock.
Sorry about the bad shadow, the house was blocking the sun. Now that the table is stained and drying in our basement, all that is left is to put a few coats of polyurethane on it and we’ll be good to go. That’s my plan for next weekend, assuming that the weather is decent enough to drag it outside again. Once it’s poly’d, it will find its new home in our living room. Huzzah!
Read MoreThe rug really ties the room together
Our rug was delivered yesterday, and I have to say, it helps break the living room and dining room apart. We had bought the rug on super sale (because they couldn’t find the price tag), but that also meant we got the dirty floor model. So we sent it off to Hadeed Carpet cleaners, and in less than a week, we had the rug back looking brand new.
A little about Hadeed Carpet. We went with Hadeed for a variety of reasons. One, we had them do our wall to wall carpet before we moved into the house, and they made this awful carpet look good. Two, I had actually done their commercials way back when, so I’ve seen how the clean rugs up close, and they do a great job. And lastly, it was 20% off. I can tell you that, while their jingle is slightly annoying, the people and the customer service were fantastic. We recommend them.
Well, this room is really coming together. Still to be done, add some sheer curtains behind the brown ones, change out the light fixtures in the hall, get some chairs and a rug for the dining room table and finally hang some art/pictures in the room.
Read MoreA Livable Living Room
After being in the our house for 9 months now, we FINALLY have living room furniture. It’s been a long process and a lot of should we/should we not with various furniture, but in the end we found what we loved and went with it. We took our semi-annual trip to Belfort Furniture for their warehouse sale. It’s where we have found most of our furniture for a great price. In their showroom, we had been eyeing a couch and chair for a while, that was in white, and our big hold back was getting white furniture. This time, however, they had the same set, but in a light blue, and we loved it. We decided that now would be the best time to hunker down and move forward…and that’s what we did. Before the unveil here, first let’s take a quick look at how the room was when we first moved in, shall we.
Love the carpet and red curtains, the full wall to the left. Ugly. And here’s what it looks like now….wait for it….
Drastic difference. Obviously the paint, the floors and the curtains make a bold statement, but it’s nice to see some furniture in there. I will admit that we almost sent the cahir back because we thought it was too cluttered, but after our friend Kim convinced us that it wasn’t and that it was perfect, we slept on it and decided to keep it. We also bought a rug, which will be delivered to us this week, so once we have that in, I’ll be sure to update the photos.
We got really lucky with the curtains, for two reasons. First, the dark brown matched the dark brown in the pillows and the blue dotted swirls perfectly matched the furniture. Second, and more important, we got them from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Why was this important, well, because we saved our 20% off coupons for a long time, and you can use one per item and as many as you have items (did you know that?). So, we had to buy six panels and three rods. We had six 20% off coupons, and three $5 off coupons giving us a savings of over $60. Nice catch! The rods are actually double rods, as we plan on buying some sheer white curtains to go behind the brown ones, but we thought it was just a bit too much for this trip (plus we’ll wait until we accumulate more coupons). For now, we’re really REALLY happy with how the room looks. Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, MC put yet another Christmas tree in the room. That makes three in the house (so far).
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Trimming the tree
Well, this past weekend we got our tree from the local Lion’s Club. I let MC pick out the tree, and when we got it home, wouldn’t you know, it was too big. Okay, really it was only a tad big, and there was a tall thin branch poking out the top that we trimmed off. Once that was done, it fit like a glove. There isn’t much to say about the tree, except we had a good time decorating it while watching Garfield’s Christmas special, and a Claymation Christmas featuring the California Raisins (both were Christmas presents from MC to me last year, and they are awesome). I have to give MC all the credit on the tree decorating, it looks great. So here’s our tree, along with some of our favorite ornaments.
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Let there be (a new) light
Our house is inundated with brass/gold fixtures, and I really don’t care much for that look. One of the biggest offenders was our chandelier in the dining room. The same one in which water came pouring out when we had our major bathroom leak. With all that said, and the fact we had bought a new chandelier when we bought the house and never installed it, it was time for it to go.
I should also mention that I was purposely waiting until the table was done to put up the new one, because I hit my head on this so many times and broke a few things on it. With the table done, I gladly moved it out of the way and pulled this monster down. Then, I dusted off the box that has been sitting in our basement since February, and got to work.
Here is a note to anyone looking to replace a light fixture, do it early in the day. I started this project around 2:30 in the afternoon, thinking it would take me all of about 30 minutes. I actually had to put it and take it down twice because I forgot to put the little screw on the chain to hold up the mount. Brilliant. By the time I finally had everything ready to go, the sun had gone down, and all the lights on that floor are on the same circuit, hence why there is a flashlight aimed at the ceiling in the second photo. Needless to say, it’s up there now, and that’s what matters.
Ultimately I wanted to add a dimmer switch, but I had to wait another day to attempt that, because I had no light. When that time rolled around, I pulled the switch off the wall (with the power off) and much to my surprise, found that there were more wires than I had anticipated. I called my dad, who is good with electrical, and asked him to talk me through it. The funny thing is that neither of us could figure it out. Dad, I told you I’d send you a picture, so here it is:
My confusion is the wire that is in the screw. I unhooked it, capped it, and turned on the power. The chandelier worked, but all the remaining lights on the floor didn’t, so I guess it’s a relay. No idea, again, I am no electrician. I’m open to suggestions though, and even IF I can add a dimmer or not. Anywho, that’s the new light, and we like it so much more than the brass ugliness that hung in our dining room for so long. Next to replace, the brass “boob” lights that are all over our house.
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About Matt and MC
We just recently bought our first home, and we decided to share our story of our adventures with you. The ups and downs of home ownership, and all the fun we'll have in between. Ignore the typos and just have fun, that's what we're here for. 
