There's just nothing like new furniture to make you feel cooler

This morning, I took this picture of my dining room.

That table has a history. My older sister bought it many years ago for her apartment. Then the tub or something overflowed in the apartment above hers, which caused a leak that ruined the seat cushion of one of the chairs. As a result, her insurance company bought her a whole new dining set (you see why our insurance premiums are so high) and the old set went into our parents' storage building. When we moved to NC, we resurrected it and put it in the new house since we needed another table and chairs. Then we moved, and moved again, and I finally replaced the chair covers. Unfortunately, the original screws wouldn't stay in and the new screws were a bit too long, so you had to be careful how you sat on those chairs. Then we moved again and the table was getting more wobbly and the girls were adding new stains and more of the finish was being stripped off every time I cleaned the stains. So it was finally time for the table to GO.

This afternoon, I came back from lunch to find this in my garage.


Hummmn, when I ordered the table and chairs from the furniture store, I didn't expect them to come so completely disassembled. So this afternoon, this is what we did.

(L likes to get a little artistic with her photographs.)

You know, when I ordered the dining set, I was shocked that they were going to charge me $129 for delivery. If I had known what a beast it would be to put together, I would've gladly forked over the money. We worked all afternoon just on the chairs. Then we took a break and went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, where Mr. at Home, K, and I discussed the difference between Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr. Why yes, we're high-brow intellectual like that (ahem!). Of course, I can't say much since I put the first chair seat bracket in upside down, but let's move on.

After our dinner, we came back with renewed spirit and tackled the table.


And tonight, this is what our dining room looks like.


Mr. at Home and I are sitting at our new "pub height" table and chairs with our laptops and beverage of choice and I am loving it. You know, we now have seating for six at our table, so we're ready for company. When are you coming over?