Today, We Pour.

Booze?  No, even more fun.  Cement. It seems our chimney has (had) a huge crack in it, and Preston determined that it was not going to make it through one more winter; a fact that was proven when he got on the roof and was able to almost push it over with his bare hands.  I have a video of that, but for some reason it won't upload.  Anyway, we hooked it up to the truck and with very little force, down it went with an anticlimactic "plop".  I was hoping it was going to make a big crash and shatter into a million pieces, but none of that happened.  So this is what the back of our house looks like, minus that big wart of cement you see here.  The reason the bottom half of it is black is from all the creosote that leaked out, hence the need for a new chimney.  So last night he built a form, and today we will pour a footing. A fun way to spend my Sunday, I like playing in the cement.

I found this table in a yard sale and it just begged to be rescued.  It's a good thing there are no yard sales in winter, or I'd never catch up on my projects!  It's a well-made little table, and it even has a drawer!  It is definitely handmade, and pretty old, and surprisingly sturdy.  Usually I avoid those turned legs, because they're a bitch to sand, but I couldn't resist this poor table.  It has issues, of course, but that's the way I like 'em!  There are a couple of places where there are digs in the wood and whoever painted it just painted right over them, so I'm going to try to fix those as best I can. I have this stuff called "Quick Wood" (stop giggling), and although it smells pretty foul, it hardens like cement.  Also the bottom of the drawer will need to be replaced.  The color is just WRONG, and it's no mystery to me why it got relegated to the basement (or maybe the tool shed), as evidenced by all the spider webs and crud on it.  I AM going to finish the tea tray project first, but I wanted to see what was under the hideous paint so I started sanding the top and found that in its first incarnation, it was stained and varnished and had a nifty design painted on it!  I wonder why someone covered it up.  We'll never know that answer, but now I'm debating between two different plans for it.  Which way I go depends on how the top looks when I finish sanding.  I'd really like to stain the top and paint the rest, but can't tell what condition it's in yet.