Finally a place to sit and eat

We bought our house in September 2006. The closing was just a couple of weeks after my mother’s funeral. In our excitement of being new home owners and a need to smooth out some of our grief, we invited the entire family up for Thanksgiving. Then we realized that we did not have a table big enough for everyone. We had a corner unit similar to the one below.

Definitely not big enough for the 10-12 people we were expecting so we went and bought a bigger table similar to this:

It was 5’ long without the 18” leaf and we purchased 2 extra chairs.

With this monstrosity fully extended, a folding table off to the side and a few extra chairs, we could accommodate everyone. Oh yeah, the dining room is only 9’ x11’. We bought new white dishes for the occasion. We bought new furniture for the sitting area which is at the end of the dining area. We were set and ready to go.

21 people showed up on Thanksgiving day, not 12. Thankfully it was in the upper 60’s outside, a miracle for Colorado in November, so we hauled a 6’ folding table out to the deck and half of us ate inside and the other half ate outside. There weren’t enough of the new dishes for everyone so we broke out the paper plates. It was the best holiday I had had in years.

So for the next 4 years, Evelyn and I pushed the table up against the wall so we could get around it and into the kitchen. We pulled it out when we had company.

About 8 months ago, Evelyn got tired of having to walk around the behemoth so she posted it and the matching side board for sale on Craigslist. Over the years, she had slowly gotten rid of the furniture in the sitting area as well so when the table was gone we had zero furniture in the upstairs area.

Since then we have used a 4’ folding table and canvas camping chairs that I brought in from the garage.

Think this:

 

and this:

 

By the way, I did warn her this could happen if she got rid of the furniture before she had replacements lined up. My redneck survival skills had kicked in.

It was a war of wills. We have had no dinner guests in months because Evelyn was embarrassed by our dining setup. I can’t figure out why? It was a perfectly functional arrangement. Portable too.

Well about 2 weeks ago, she caved in (Yes! I Won!) and today we found a new dining set.

I pick it up on Wednesday. Starting next week, we are taking dinner reservations from any family and friends.

Small groups only, please.

 

 

While writing this, I was listening to "The Big Light" from "The Legend [Columbia] Disc 2" by Johnny Cash