Do You Want To See My $20 Table?

Bought this table for $20 last February.  It was a Craig's List find.  When we went to pick it up it was in pieces and had no hardware.  Once I got it assembled (without hardware), I realized that it was way too short.  For what it is worth, it turns out that a standard table is 30" tall and my little bargain was topping out at 28".  So, it lived in the garage waiting for me to deal with it for 8 months.

In the meantime, last spring I took a woodshop class at a local high school so I could learn how to properly use all of Superman's cool garage toys.  (Made a folding Adirondack chair...it is super cool.)  I really enjoyed the class and the instructor allowed me to sign Valiant up this fall.  While he's been busy learning to use the tools and making his own Adirondack chair, I brought my table to the experts for a little guidance.  One 'lift kit' later, I have a table that is almost counter height.  (Hearing them tell me I needed to make a "lift kit" immediately made me thing of "Pimp My Ride" and, ever since, I've been thinking that I was pimping my table.  Weird, I know.)  Anyway, the lift kit was made of scrap wood and a few of my hours, so the newly lifted table is still a $20 steal. 

I didn't even have to refinish the table...it just needed some orange oil and elbow grease.  It worked out so beautifully...I finally became one of those people who found something fabulous on Craig's List.

Don't you love it?   The table ended up being 33" inches tall, which might be too tall for a lot of you, but actually worked out to be terrific for us.   (Oh, and the chairs are from Target...so it is NOT a $20 dining room.)