Julie LaRie: A Coffee Table Story

After Clyde so successfully built my first little table for the patio, I thought it'd be nice to have a bigger, more substantial coffee table for the outdoor seating area. This led to me doing some strong hinting, suggesting, and maybe just a little bit of nagging (not much!).
Like everything Clyde builds, there is a story behind it. So, here is this table's story.

It got it's start from the flooring taken out of the old Safeway store in town.

Clyde did some of the demo work when they tore down the old building a few years ago. There are lots of underground tunnels in Astoria and this is what was under the building itself. They lowered a small excavator into the hole to clean up the debris.

Clyde salvaged some of the original flooring from the store. It's tongue and groove old growth wood, so it's kind of special. The lumber has been stacked behind Clyde's shop waiting to be repurposed.

There was some work involved in prepping the lumber.

Clyde pulled out the nails....it's a good stress reliever, hitting at things with hammers.

Not sure why he's wearing a dust mask for this part of the project....maybe it's more of a fashion statement because admit it, it does look good.

Brushing off some old gross stuff came next

Here's where the dust mask is needed...for sanding

and more sanding...

Next, he cut the lumber into manageable lengths.

Oh boy, look at that grain! That's old growth wood for you.

Then we handed the lumber off to my dad to put it together into a table top.

Dad is THE man when it comes to carpentry projects.

Dad cut it down to size and glued it all together. The back looked almost as good as the front.

Clyde slapped some oil on that baby.

Then he made a frame to hold the table top.

And wouldn't you know it? He happened to have some old rusty, vintage wheels hanging around his shop. If you were ever to ask Clyde, "Do you have any rusty old wheels just lying around?" his answer would be, "Why yes, I do. I have them in three sizes and diameters. Ones attached to carts, ones attached to wagons...".

Then, he drilled some holes into the frame to fasten on the wheels.

Now, you'd think he's almost done assembling the table wouldn't you? For the normal person, yes. For Clyde, no. See these shiny screws? Well, they don't match the style of the table. No, they should be a square head screw, old style. How do you make a screw like this into a square head? See below...