new dining table is here

For months I've been searching for a dining table on craigslist to replace the so-so oval pedestal table we've been using.

The oval table is wobbly, and no amount of fixing and propping have fixed it.  It's too small to get all six chairs around, and Princess is always off in a corner (you can see her high chair back there against the window.)

I've wanted a farmhouse style table, which has been remarkably hard to find on craigslist.  However, months of searching finally paid off.  I came across this Pottery Barn table, with a protective glass top, for about a third of what it sells for brand new. (The seller advertised it as the Montego table, but I think its actually the Sumner table.) I snapped it up this weekend.

Ignore my crooked pictures, please.

When buying the table, I noticed that it didn't close all the way.  However, looking under the table, I noticed that the seller had never unscrewed the wood pieces that held it together in transit.  Plus, she told me she had the table less than a year, and honestly, it was in pretty stellar condition.

I figured that when we got it home we would unscrew it and push it together, and that would be that.  (Foreshadowing here.)   Unfortunately, that's not quite what happened.  We unscrewed the wood pieces, attempted to push the table together....and it remained immovable.

Many, many, many minutes of pushing later, we gave up.  We searched all over the bottom of the table to see if there was another piece holding it together that we were missing, but no.

See where the seams are?  We can get the side seam together---but the top seam is still gaping.   The table just doesn't fit together right.

The moving company (also known as the Mister and I) also managed to take a pristine condition table and put a bunch of dings and scratches on it in the space of 20 feet from the minivan to the house.

We filled it in with a wood pencil, and its better, but still there.

Its under the glass top now, so that's how its staying.

Despite the dings and the not-closing, we are really liking this table.  It looks pretty, it doesn't wobble, and my youngest can now actually eat at the table with us.  Its a better dynamic having all the kids at the table with us, and its also easy to have everyone at the table working on projects and spreading out.  Its not that much bigger than the oval, but the rectangular shape is just working much better for us.  I also didn't really care whether it had a glass top, but I have to say I'm really liking how easy it is to clean up, while protecting the wood underneath.  So, we are happy with our new table.