Coffee Table

A long time ago, our friends the Staffans bought an old table, chopped the legs off, and made it their coffee table. We really liked it, and the design seemed simple enough, so I decided way back then to make it. I never found the time, until Stephanie's birthday was around the corner, and I didn't know what eles to do. So, I snuck over to the Staffan's one night to take some recounassaince photos. They aree below. I took more than this, but this was really enough information.




The next day, after the paper route, Jonathan and I went on a secretive lumber hunt and winded u p at Menard's where they had an incredible selection of pine. They blew Home Depot and 84 Lumber out of the water. We hurried to the Hall's house and began working. Stephanie was sleeping upstairs thinking that I was working on my car.



We routed grooves about 3/4" deep into the legs, and used a chisel to square the bottom s of the grooves. I enjoyed using an old hand tool. I bet Jesus used chisels. We simply glued the 1x6s in and clamped everything really tight. We did put brad nails through the 4x4 on the inside to help.





In order to fasten the top, we layed the 1x10s wrong side up on the saw horses and then layed the table on them. centeres the table to the top and used strips of 2x2 that were sitting around to fasten the top, as well as glue.

I sanded the crap out of it using the sander from my previous garage sale post. It worked awesome.


Here it is ready for varnish! I was working late into the night!

Our camera lend broke... So, I had to stand outside to fit it into a picture--not to mention that is is huge. It looked normal until we put it in our living room. Stephanie wants me to shop a few inches off of the legs. That may be a good idea.

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Ho Ho Sheet Cake

Usually a person would take a picture of the whole cake and then one of a nice fresh slice. Hindsight is 20/20. Oh well, this captures how good it was. We bought a piece of this many moons ago at the little bakery in town and Stephanie found this "Ho Ho Cake" recipe on allrecipes.com. I took a picture of the last morsel right before I devoured it.
The bottom is just a box cake, but the top is glorious. It was quite a bit of work, but it was totally worth it. This recipe is a keeper. One step in the process was too add 5 Tbsp. flour to 1 1/4 cup milk and cook stirring continually until thick. It became a really neat goop. I thought it was cool.
Anyway, if you are looking for some good dessert to make, give this a try!