Mother's Day Picnic Tables

My husband, Bob, has always been very creative, hard working, and driven. When he was younger he was blessed to live in a home where scrap wood, metal, nails, etc. was plentiful. Starting in his early teens he built things for his mom's house (all out of scraps) that are still in use today like kitchen cabinets and bookshelves. He also built bench seats for his families kitchen table. He built many other things, but I would like to focus our attention to this:

This sad looking thing was once a lively picnic table. When Bob was 14 his mom showed him a children's picnic table and asked if he thought he could build one for his little brothers. He took a mental picture of the professional built table. Then he went home searched his yard for the perfect pieces of wood, and built it. It turned out perfect. Perfect angles, height, size! And all from a metal picture! He's amazing. The picnic table survived at least 12 harsh valley winters, teenagers sitting on the top, and neglect. Finally it lost it's top and was in jeopardy of heading to the dump. We saw it sitting all alone by the edge of the house when we got an idea.

We took the table home and I took it apart. I measured, marked, and cut new wood exactly like the old table. Bob helped me reassemble the picnic table into this baby.

We decided to give it to Bob's mom for mother's day. She is sentimental, like me, so we reused the bench seats and the top (which Bob miraculously found) from the old table. The structure is now safe, but it still holds all the wonderful memories. Now the grand kids have their own table.

We also decided to make a "super" sized table for Bob's mom (also for mother's day). This thing is 8 feet long and solidly built.

I REALLY loved working on these picnic table's with Bob. After we'd put Hannalee down for the night we'd head out to the garage. I learned a lot more about wood work from Bob, and he learned a little more about precision. :0)

Hannalee with her safety glasses on ready to help.

We enjoyed making the tables so much we had to make one more. This on is Hannie's. We love having lunch on it.