I'm a handy guy to have around.

I'm a handy guy to have around. - Jonathan

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March 23rd, 2005

01:38 pm - I'm a handy guy to have around.

I hate this table I have in my kitchen, but I haven't replaced it, since it was in the condo when I bought it. I was pondering putting in some more cabinets and a countertop, but when the girl downstairs whose condo is laid out identically did it, it came out kind of awful. I wanted something different.

So I was driving around with my parents for sunday brunch on the south shore, and passed by this kitchen supply place that went under, and sitting against a dumpster to be tossed were these 2 nice pieces of 2 1/2" thick countertop, that originally were one giant 5x5 foot counter. This gave me an idea. I tossed them into my truck. Well, maneuvered them, they weigh a bloody ton, but "tossed" makes it sound like I'm much stronger and macho.

"

You can see where the hand joined dowels were before some bozo cut it in half.

So I stopped by Home Depot and bought a 1/2" dowel. Cost: $0.18

A little bit of wood glue, and a rubber mallet to pound the dowel in. (followed by trimming it off, but I didn't photograph that)

Stopped by BJs and got a Rack/Cart for the base. Cost: ~$50

Hrm, the countertop looks a little bit too big for the cart.

Built the cart base just to check. Yeah, its too big. I think it should jut out over the base the same distance on all sides, so I'll trim it down.

A bit of cutting, planing, and sanding later...

Voila! A little bit of non-metallic steel wool, and a bit of steaming the top cleaned the top and got all the dings and dents out. Plus, it turns out to be a great height for sitting there while on the stools!