Sawdust in My Shoes

The hard part is hours and hours of sanding. These aren't your typical boards from the big box home improvement store. This wood is black walnut from a specialty wood store, only they obviously don't think their wood is special enough for a little TLC, as it is rough cut and uneven.
The wood  in this photo is really beautiful to me. It has so much movement;  the grain seems to ebb and flow downstream. The piles of sawdust look like the sandy shores, waiting for the waves to lap across .






Lest you think that I put in those hours, let me just tell you...not even close. My job was to keep the ice water flowing as it was a high 90's  kind of day. I got the easy job and some of us got the hard job, but that's the way it goes.
I can't wait to see the finished
product; I think the worst is behind us (him), but there is still a little more sanding to go. Soon I will post some updates that will hopefully be the final "after" shots! I am excited !


I love these hands....

Love For The Wood

Once again, we are deep in a project.  We, is a bit of an over statement...I have very little to do with it except the picture in my head. Lucky for me there is a special man in my life who is very talented in many ways, and one happens to be working with wood. You may recall from an earlier post, he made me a beautiful easel, which you can see here . Recently I was lucky enough to finally get rid of my horrific 80's green laminate counter tops. I have hated them from the day I moved into this house, but my budget prevented me from making a change.

I finally got my beloved granite countertops...they are very earthy and natural looking to me and I love them. There is bar between my kitchen and living room which didn't make the transformation. Partially because of expense, but also because I didn't want that "kitcheny look" from the living room side. So I got the bright idea to do a wood  pub type looking countertop. In my mind we wood buy a few boards, nail them down, sand a little and voila...so simple. Right? On advice of the wood expert, I had my heart set on a walnut; we made a trip north to a specialty wood  yard, where you sift through stacks of boards and pick out what you want. It did not look like what I thought, dirty, rough cut, uneven and warped boards.

I can't wait to see the finished project; only time will tell if the picture in my head comes to life on my countertop. If I didn't have so much confidence in the carpenter I would be skeptical. But he knows what he is doing and he has some love for the wood. That's what it takes...love for the wood. I have a whole new respect for bygone days when people built every piece individually. It seems labor intensive as well as full of love. Will post update in a day or so.