Genesis

This is Lynne's table.

It won't fit in her new house.  Well, no duh -- it's 9 feet long, 4 feet wide and weights about 10 million pounds. This leviathan of a table wouldn't fit in any reasonably-sized dining room.

It's really a tragedy that Lynne and Paul can't take their table with them to their new home in Utah. They had it custom built to be the perfect complement to their stunningly beautiful home in San Diego. The table is solid (and I mean solid!) maple, built from 8/4 lumber, resulting in a 1 3/4" thick table top and pedestals and benches to match.

Lynne approached me a couple months ago about the idea of modifying the table to fit in her new home. I was excited about the idea, but had reservations, not only because I'm only a (very) amateur woodworker, but because any time you take a blade to a thing of art it feels like you're taking someone's life into your hands. It's a scary thing. Then we had an idea that changed our entire course. But first, some background.

My brother Farrell had a tree. A towering, glorious silver maple that shimmered in the afternoon sun and made their front yard the toast of the neighborhood.

After a couple of windstorms caused near misses with broken branches, Farrell and Laurel decided keeping the tree wasn't worth risking their roof, home, and lives. With great regret, they had the tree cut down.

I had just moved back to Utah and asked Farrell if I could have the wood. We hired a sawyer out of Cache Valley, and two days after the tree touched the sky, it was sitting in my garage.

After a long year and a half drying time I finally made my first project out of the tree: a treasure chest for Dane.

Now back to Lynne. I suggested to her that we build her an entirely new table. We discussed the idea but it didn't seem like exactly what we wanted to do, until I brought up the idea of using the wood from Farrell's tree. She and Paul were sold. Immediately.

And so we're doing it! Lisa and Seth bought Lynne's old table (and it looks like it was custom made for their dining room) and I got my shop set up for my biggest project yet. And last night, I finally planed the first board. Woot!