The Wonderful World of Chairs

My friends, Paul and Lynette, brought me two of these beauties last week to use as accompaniment to the grocer's table I've been working on.

I wasted no time and got them painted white and waxed, and then decided to go ahead and create a dipped effect for the legs so they would connect better with the table.

In case you forgot or didn't see it before, the table looked like this:

Now it's basically finished, but it's causing congestion problems for the living room traffic pattern.

I had to move it here for photos because it's too heavy to keep carrying outside without hacking it up, besides, the yard turned very brown this week once our torrential rains subsided. Brown weeds were not the backdrop this table was looking for.

 It's not the greatest setting for my new table and chairs, but you get the picture, right?

Of course you get it, because I keep including one more shot. I'm sure you've seen enough, but I hate to see it go. Where it's going is yet unknown. I may get it to enjoy for a while.

 
Well, here's a final recap of what became of the pedestal table and the chairs.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

...Lynette and I have been very busy on those cool chairs I picked up curbside on Thursday.

A little worse for wear, you might say. These must have been living outside for some time.

We spent all afternoon on Saturday removing the fabric and the gazillions of deep staples that held it on, not to mention cleaning up drink spills. First, one of Lynette's sons spilled his frozen Coke, then I spilled my Coke, then Lynette set her large iced tea on the floor and discovered later that it had spilled and she didn't know it. Tea soaked up into the curtains and everything. Quite problematic. Then I set my new drink in the middle of the table away from where it could land on a seat or the floor, only to have my elbow hit it in flying attempt to yank a staple out. Yes, the liquid in stemwear glasses can fly across and over the edge of the dining room table with the greatest of ease, especially with the physics of staple pulling behind it. Luckily, most of that spill landed on the waterproof table cover. The "no drinks in the work area" rule from our cropping days didn't seem to stick. I don't think we ever were very good at it. Maybe we've learned now.

Despite our trouble with liquids, we got a lot done. There was a humongous mess left behind from our labor though, even though we cleaned midway. At one point I was standing downwind of the fan as I scraped the old finish off this chair. Not smart, but it was boiling out and our intense efforts were sweat-inducing even in the air conditioning. We needed that fan.

The old finish flaked off quite easily for the most part, and that is where we had to leave the project for the time being. We are considering not putting fabric back onto the backs of the chairs if we can figure out what we want to do about the indentation where the previous fabric was. We're considering our options and will make a decision once all our prep work is finished.

On another note...my daughter reminded me that I left you hanging in my last post.

Which two items out of these five sold at our recent garage sale?

The answer:

The gumball machine and the little mid century table with the missing top! I was over the gumball machine since it was taking up space, but I do lament the loss of the table. Oh well, other stuff seems to have already taken up the space it freed up. I know! You just want to say, "oh, brother!" My kids want to say, "Oh, Mother!" And they do.

I had already decided to keep the globe but I put it in the sale just to see if anyone would pay what I wanted. Since I had included a picture of it in the ad, I figured I should at least offer it. No one even seemed interested or asked my price, so it is still in my keeping along with the three tiered silver tray and the stool with the cute Ikea bird fabric among many, many other items.

That is what is happening here in the wonderful world of chairs. Yes, there are more chairs... I got these last Monday on the way to work:

They could be soooo cute, if only had the time any time soon to work on them. Not likely, but they are patiently waiting in my friend Kathryn's garage.

 This one had no back and is tilting. I hope we can fix that problem because I have a similar problem with a rattan chair at home.

Today on the way to work I found this. It was way roached out - literally. One roach scurried across the road as I started to drag it to my car. I froze in fear but carried on hoping it was the only one. Yeah, right. What is that that makes us believe what we know good and well isn't true. Risky business, to be sure. I got this for the doors and the drawer hardware. Did I take a pic of the front before I tore it apart! Of course not. Here's a shot of one of the cute little doors:

Love that little pull. This will make a great little hook holder or something.

A couple houses down from the nightstand was a giant pile with the much of the contents of a house out front. It looked like the house was being entirely remodeled by a new owner. I was already borderline late for work so I grabbed what I could without digging and got this monopoly game, the jeaopardy game and the reed placemats. They will be good for some sort of project.

Then please humor me while I tell about the one (two) that got away. 

I'm really sorry to say I did not have had the proper screwdriver in my glove compartment. The one I had would not do the trick to turn the screws on the cabinet sitting in the median. It was too pointy or small or something. So sad. You see, the cabinet couldn't fit in my car, but the doors were wonderful and only about 3 feet tall. They each had six panels and they would have had made a great architectural addition to the end of a cabinet or an island or something. They could have made a cute tabletop too! I hated to leave them, but the trash truck was closing in and I was late for work. That'll teach me to dawdle on Monday mornings! And I have got to put a better variety of screwdrivers in my glove compartment. Just after I got the roachy nightstand, I also had to pass up a perfectly good humongous mirror that I couldn't fit in the car. 

Oh, if I only had a truck...

Check out some of these parties this week: