Steve has spent much of the last two days working on our new dining room table. Today he realized that some of the boards were not completely flat which meant that that the table top was bowing up in opposite corners. This was not a real surprise since we are working with 60 year old wood that used to be a floor in an airplane hanger but, still, it needed to be fixed. He and Jeff and I decided that a diagonal support was needed.

My dad built small planes for fun and when he died he left a variety of aluminum 'things'. Steve has held onto them for more than 20 years, using pieces when he found the perfect place for them. This is one of those places. That's an aluminum I-beam that Jeff is screwing to the underside of the table. It is strong enough to pull the table flat! Steve added a couple of additional supports at each end, inside the wood apron.

He has also been stripping the paint off of the porch posts that will be the table legs. This task is taking an innordinant amount of time but he's patient and thorough and he's making progress. Tomorrow they may be ready to stain.

And here is the tabletop with apron attached resting on two recycling bins. I've got this part stained. I may be able to start putting the polyurethane on tomorrow or Thursday!