A Tale of Two Tables

As with most children, I would often visit my grandparents on holidays and would end up at the infamous "Kid's Table". Now, there is nothing wrong with having a table for the kids, and in fact I'd reccomend it for most large gatherings. Let's face it, the kids just don't want to listen to you blabber on and on about how drunk your Great Aunt Matilda got at her birthday party.

Anyway, at my grandparent's house the kid's table was more accurately reffered to as a game table... it was about 4 feet across, in the shape of a hexagon, and stood all of 25" high. Now, for those of you that are measurement challenged, that's just a little over 2 feet. Most dining room tables are closer to 29-30", and it is amazing the difference those 4-5 inches can make. Luckily, this table came with the "cool" chairs.

The "cool" chairs were two toned. The seats and back were a lovely avacado green vinyl. Supporting the seat and back was a truely amazing frame made of fake wood... painted a nice bright yellow. At this point you might be saying, "YIKES! Yellow?!?!?" Don't worry, it matched the base of the table. It really was an amazing table/chair combination. Also, the chairs were built so that they would work with such a short table. A little detail that will become important later on... (Hey literature types, this is called foreshadowing right? Okay, on with the story...) And no description of these chairs would be complete without mentioning the wheels on the bottom. Yes, as a kid you could jump into these chairs and suddenly find yourself on the other side of the room. Great fun for when the adults were in the other room at their boring "Adult Table."

The table and chairs served us well for many a year at my grandparents. Then one day, they decided it was time to replace them. They weren't in bad shape, but it was time for a change. Actually, I think it was because my grandparents were moving to a smaller house and no longer had room for them, but I honestly can't remember. Anyway, the table and chairs ended up at our house in storage. Why exactly this happened I have no idea. We really didn't have room for them, but I think since they were in fairly good shape, my dad just couldn't let them go. After a while the cats got to them. You see, cat's have this tendency to claw at soft and squishy things. The backs of these chairs were nice and squishy... and after a few years, full of little kitty claw marks. I don't ever remember using the table or chairs while it was at our house. My only memories of it at our house involve trying to keep the cat damage to a minimum. Then, it was time for me to head of to college.

After my freshman year, I moved out of the dorm and into an apartment. (Shhhh, don't tell the housing people at SWT, but I moved out a year early. I just couldn't see myself in a dorm there. And from what I've heard, if they find out now, they might force me to move back into the dorm for a year.... even though I now I teach there and am married. Hmmm, maybe they'd let me use married student housing... but I'm not student, anyway, I digress.) So, where were we? Oh yeah, I was moving into my first apartment.

It was a lovely little townhouse apartment in San Marcos, TX. At the time it was called San Marcos Place Apartments. Now it's called something else. Really not important. Upstairs was a full bath, the bedroom, and a balcony. Downstairs was the dining, kitchen, living, 1/2 bath, and patio. Really a great apartment. And, as all good kids should do when going off to college, I took stuff from storage at home. This is cheaper than buying something and has the added bonus of clearing out space at home so the parents have room to store even more stuff. So, here I am, 19 years old, living alone for the first time, and I have this lovely dining room set. Not sure if it was the chairs or the people I was hanging out with at the time, but I kept hearing "cool chairs." And yes, they were pretty cool in their own way... not to mention the fact that they worked well with the table. Always a plus when the chairs work with the table.

Over the years I moved around to places like Colony Square (also in San Marcos) and Bristol Square (in Austin). Then I got hit by cupid's arrow... or email as the case may be. And soon found myself moving in with Ruth at Harper's Creek Apartments. Since Ruth didn't have table, and I did, the table and chairs moved once again. They worked well in this apartment, but then it came time to move. When we moved into Rockcreek Apartments (also in Austin), it quickly became apparent that the table and chairs were simply not going to work in the space we had. But, we had a lovely covered balcony that was rather spacious. So, yes, as you might have guessed, the table and chairs went out to the balcony.

Now at first, this might not seem like such a good idea. I mean, taking this lovely table and the four chairs and banishing them to the balcony... this just sounds like trouble waiting to happen. I will admit that over that year and half period, the chairs did get a "little" dirty from time to time. Okay, I wanted to take them to the car wash to try and hose off the dirt and grime a couple of times. But, over all, they held up pretty well. Then it came time to move again. Ruth and I thought long and hard about it, and decided it was time to let the chairs go. They had served us and my family well for well over 15 years (possibly 20?). It was time to move on in terms of chairs as we moved on to a new apartment. Part of this was that we felt the chairs were just too low. We could get in and out of them, but it was awkward with them being so low... not to mention the fact they had been sitting outside for a year and half... they needed serious help. But the table, well, tables are expensive. So, we decided to take the table with us but loose the chairs. We would just purchase new dining room chairs.

So, we moved into a duplex that had the perfect spot for our table. We set it up and then it hit us... No chairs. Okay, off to the stores we went in search of the "perfect" dining room chairs. We had purchased some nice, dark green furniture for the living area and were on this "dark green" kick at the time. We found a great deal on some chairs at World Market, so I spent the next couple of hours assembling dining room chairs. We were so happy and proud of our new chairs. We smiled and patted ourselves on the back... Ruth thanked me for putting them together, I thanked her for letting me...

And then the time came to put the chairs with the table. Now, as you might recall there are a couple of little details about this table that quickly jumped to our attention. First, the dark green frame of the new chairs just did not go with the bright yellow (although now somewhat faded) base of the table. This was really the main thing we realized. Easy to fix... we headed down to the store, picked out a lovely shade of paint that worked well with the carpet and walls of our new place, and headed home to paint the base of the table. The top was a nice dark wood... well, imitation dark wood. We got the base painted, put everything together, got it situated in the dining area of the duplex, and sat back on the couch to rest.

Now, as you might recall from earlier in this story, this particular table is about 4 inches shorter than most dining room tables. It worked fine with the original chairs that were lower than most dining room chairs... but this fact had escaped us when buying new chairs. After all, we wanted the new chairs in part becuase the old ones were too short. Now, as we were slowly moving ourselves closer to the table we realized too little things... first, that our legs were scraping against the bottom of the table. (By the end of it, I think the table was resting more on my legs than it was on the floor...) Also, that it was hard to eat from a table that low if the chairs weren't low as well... regardless of the fact that we couldn't really get our legs under the table. And so, back to the coffee table we went. Sure we were sitting on the floor. Sure we had to use the couch to support ourselves. But it worked for us, and we made do with what we had. Then it came time to move again...

We looked at the table... we looked at the chairs... we looked at the table... we thought about moving it... we thought about selling it... we looked at the movers and said, "Put it on the truck." And so the table made another move. We had already figured out where the table would go in the new place, and kept thinking... maybe we can make it work. After 7 months in the new place and having never eaten at the table, we starting wondering if maybe we shouldn't just buy a new table.

So, we set out in search of new dining room table. $600 here, $750 there... oh we're in luck, this one is only $350... plus tax, plus delivery... So, what if it isn't the size, shape, or color that we were wanting to get... Okay, maybe a new table isn't the best approach to this problem for us at this point. What, oh what could we do to make the table usable? Well, the problem is that it is too short. So, we need to make it taller. Hmmm....

We could put it up on blocks. Let's picture that for a moment. A table sitting on blocks of wood... nope, not the look we were wanting. Ah ha! The base of the table just screws into the top. Why not put some additional wood between the top of the base and the table top... not a bad idea. Now, when can we find time to try this little project. Oh, maybe we should wait until after the wedding and honeymoon to tackle this project...

Well, as the months slipped away, we continued looking for tables. I kept thinking to myself, "Ok, this weekend I'll head over to Home Depot and buy some wood. Then I could put a piece on the table like this, and one like this... screw it all together and it'll be done.. oh, maybe next weekend I'll have a chance to do it..." And still the search for tables continued.

Then one day, we were wandering around the mall not looking for anything in particular. Well, okay, Ruth was looking for a khaki skirt, "flowy" dresses, and maybe something else. I was just there. So, we were walking by Pottery Barn and decided to go in and browse around. Again, not looking for anything in particular... oh, except Ruth might have been looking at flower like things. You see, my mom sent Ruth flowers for her birthday. There were enough flowers in this arrangement that it actually turned into 3 arrangements when it made it to the apartment. The flowers just added so much to the place that we decided (okay, Ruth decided) that we should look at stuff to brighten the place up.

So, we're wandering through Pottery Barn and I happen to glance over at one of their displays. Standard Pottery Barn dining room display. Plates set out on the table, placements, a few candles, etc. Then I notice it. The table that the display is on also has a price tag hanging from it. And this one says "25% off". Interesting I think to myself... still, based on our previous table looking experiences, I guess that it was probably $600 or so originally, 25% off... so, $450ish. Still more than we were wanting to spend, but oh, what the heck I'll look at the price anyway. WOW! Originally $449, special $336.75! And it's a nice table. Sure, it has a few dents and dings here and there... but still a nice table." As it turns out, it was a floor display and they were clearing it out, hence the 25% discount.

But wait! They hadn't updated the sale sticker on it. In reality it wasn't 25% off. It was really 50% off!!! That means, that this lovely, pine finished, drop leaf table was only $224.50! We looked it over carefully for damage. Sure, we noticed a dent here, a ding there, but still it was exactly the sort of thing we had been looking for. And the price was definitely the best we had seen. "And," I thought to myself, "this way I don't have to mess with the other table. I can stop worrying about finding time to try and raise the table 4 inches." So, we thought and talked and debated what we should do... should we get it or not... should we wait and come back later... are we crazy? This is a nice table, in really good condition, for under $225. Of course we want to get it. Now, how to get it home. It obviously won't fit in the Saturn... so, delivery it is. We can have pizza delivered, why not a table?

So, $300 later we're sitting at home realizing we have to clear off the old table and do something with it before the new table arrives the next morning. Oh boy, lots of stuff on this table. I think I'll wander off and let Ruth clear the table... wow, it worked! The table is clear. Now, what to do with it. I hate to just get rid of it. Not to mention the fact that the apartment people might not be happy if I just left a table sitting in the parking lot. Hmmm... well, it survived being on a balcony for a year and half before, why not put it out there again. Sounds good... so out it goes.

The next morning we awoke with eager anticipation. In only a little over an hour our new table should be delivered to our door. And so, we sat, waiting and watching for the new table. Then it happened. The phone rang. We rushed to the phone, eager to hear the latest about when our new table would arrive. The voice on the other end didn't sound like your typical delivery man. And, since her name was Nancy, you might guess that she wasn't a delivery man... "Delivery woman?" I thought to myself. "No, she's the sales girl from last night." Then came the bad news... the delivery company had backed out of doing deliveries this weekend. But, they were going to try and find a way to get the table to us. She was going to try calling her brother to see if he would deliver the table, and then talk with the manager about the botched delivery... Oh, and of course, the $60 delivery fee would be refunded! (Yes, this knocked the total for the table down from $300 to $240!!!)

After a couple of hours, the phone rang again. It was Nancy wanting to give us an update. Her brother was going to be tied up all day and couldn't do the delivery. But, we had two options. We could wait and have the table delivered later in the week... meaning one of us would need to take off work to be here when it arrived ... or Nancy and the manager could deliver it to us mid-afternoon. We chose the latter option. After lunch and a trip to buy groceries, we sat waiting for 2 PM. Sure enough, at just a few minutes after 2 the phone rang. It was Nancy and they were on their way. A few minutes later, they pulled up to our apartment and began unloading the table. By 3 PM, Ruth and I had our new table all set up.

And now, as I sit here typing this... Ruth and I are looking forward to dinner tonight. For the first time in over two years, we will be eating at home and NOT sitting on the floor!!!

PS- If you want a dining room table, that might be a little short, please let us know. You already know its history...

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