Lola's Table

Diane's mom has lived with us since March of 2000. For those of you bad at math, that means she has lived with us for just over fourteen years.

Trust me - fourteen years is a very long time to have your mother-in-law living under your roof. I call her Lola. Her real name is Loretta, but she made the mistake of telling us one time that she had dreamed of being a showgirl when she was young. She had already chosen her stage name.

You guessed it - Lola.

So while she's Loretta, or Lo, to most people; she's Lola to me.

The Old Table

Lola uses a flimsy, cheap bed table as a primary piece of furniture in her living room. She eats most of her meals while watching television in her living room, so the table serves as her dinner table. It also serves as her solitaire table, side table, library table, etc. In short; she uses the table constantly.

We bought the table for Diane's dad while he was largely confined to a chair; or, later, a hospital bed in their living room during the final months of his life. It was really flimsy and cheap when we bought it and it certainly hasn't gotten any sturdier in the last thirteen-plus years.

The table is quite unstable. Lola tips it over at least once a week; sending her juice, books, snacks, etc. to the floor. She made several attempts at rigging up some sort of lip around the table's edges to help keep her from pushing things off the edge to the floor.

The table, though, is well beyond its expected lifespan. (Of course, so is Lola...) Last week, Diane asked me to take a look at it to see if there was anything I could do to make it a bit sturdier. I tightened down all of the screws and bolts, and added a brace on the suspended end, but the table is simply beyond repair.

Diane started looking for a replacement online. It's amazing how expensive cheap tables are!

I mentioned to Diane that it would probably be no more expensive to just build her a new table instead of buying another cheap, flimsy table. Plus, building one would allow us to size it to her needs and install quality casters.

Great idea, right?

Diane decided that a new table would make a wonderful gift for her 91st birthday. The problem is that this idea came about in the middle of last week. Lola's 91st birthday is this coming Friday. That left a very short time to do a lot of work.

Actually building the table wouldn't be the hardest part. Finishing it would be. For anyone not familiar with woodworking, the sanding, staining, topcoating, letting it cure, sanding again, putting on a second topcoat, letting it cure, sanding again and then putting on a third topcoat and letting it cure is not something that can be rushed. Building the table and finishing it traditionally simply can't be finished by Friday.

Diane is undeterred.

We bought the wood last Wednesday and I put it into the basement shop to acclimate for a couple of days to prevent warping and twisting. We cut the pieces Friday and prepared for the initial sanding and assembly when a problem reared its ugly head. We had picked a mix of oak and maple for the various components. Diane decided, though, that she didn't like the wood we had chosen for the table top.

That took us back to the lumberyard Saturday morning to get more oak to replace several pieces that were originally going to be maple. Once there, I found a finish I've never used before that will allow me to sand and recoat in as few as six hours.

Maybe Friday isn't completely out of the question after all.

The New Table Awaiting Finish

Lola doesn't know we're building her a new table. She thinks I'm working up some scheme to build a new lip around her current table. (My blog entry doesn't really risk spoiling the surprise since Lola, like most 90 year olds, doesn't go on the Internet.)

Come Friday afternoon, we'll head into Lola's living room and tell her I need to take her table downstairs to put the new lip on it. After a delay to make it seem like I'm actually doing something, we'll bring in her new table.

She said we are not supposed to give her gifts since she's over 90. I suppose I could tell her that the gift is really for Diane so she doesn't have to come in and clean up the spills caused by her unstable table.