DIY Life

It was a day of woodworking yesterday. Simple stuff. I’m building a small deck to serve as a foundation for the cabinet holding the pool supplies. The previous deck along the fence had degraded and needed replacing. Fortuitous because I’m rebuilding the fence. So, the new deck will be up by the pool deck and out of the way, mostly. And actually, most of yesterday was spent obtaining supplies, screws and braces. With luck, I’ll finish up this morning.

I like building stuff, and I should do more of it. Although, mostly what I’ve built have been decks, fences, bookcases, and the odd table or two. In fact, one of my first construction projects was a coffee table and two end tables built out of pine and four by fours. They must have looked like something because we used them for a good while before they went off to live with my wife’s brother and his new wife. They’re gone now, but they were sturdy if nothing else. And I don’t believe they will ever turn up on the antiques roadshow.

What puzzles me is why we didn’t just go out and buy new living room furniture. I had a good job at Shell; we probably could have afforded it. But nope. I had to do it myself. And my wife went along with it. Wow. It probably explains how we managed to live together for fifty years. Two middle class kids who liked hand-me-downs and homemade furniture. And I still have the dining room table and chairs we bought at Furniture in the Raw and stained ourselves. I guess you could say it was a marriage with a lot of sweat equity in it.