Move day was yesterday. Today I'm back at the house cleaning for the new owners in preparation for their walkthrough before settlement. Here's a look back at an old post with special memories.
**************************
This post first appeared in December 2008. My Mom was still alive and a widow for just one year. The post was written just before her 90th birthday. She lived until almost her 95th birthday.
Joining Tuesday Treasure.
The Bench
(December 5, 2008)
Almost two years ago Dan and I took a woodworking course. It was a lot of fun and I made some nice things. Afterward I helped Dan make tables for our shop. I also promised Emily a deacon's bench for her house. That was the summer of 2007. She found plans for me, I purchased them, and then filed them away.
Last summer Dan encouraged me to take the plans out and order the wood. We bought some very nice oak instead of the pine it called for. In reading through the plans we both realized I had not done enough woodworking to tackle the project on my own so I gratefully became the assistant to him.
We presented the bench to Emily and Matt at Thanksgiving and they took it home in their car.
It is a very special present because it was made by us and it was hand-painted by my mom, Emily's grandmother, who will be 90 years old on Sunday.
Before we did the final finishing of the bench, we repaired, sanded and refinished an oak antique table I had purchased for use on the porch. We realized it had been made by someone from pieces of wood they had around and we wondered about its history. So no one would wonder about the history of the bench 50, 75, or 100+ years from now we burned on the bottom who it was made for, when, and by whom plus we added who did the painting. (Sorry we didn't take a picture of that part.) We know it will be an antique for someone, hopefully a descendant of this family, one day.
*****************
2016 Footnote: The bench still resides at Emily and Matt's home in New Hampshire. I have a lovely photo of my granddaughter sitting on it.
The referenced antique oak table has gone to ReStore for someone else to use.