Making Room for More

This is an exciting blog post and is a little late coming but better late than never right!  The first weekend of May my in-laws came for a visit. We had a wonderful time as it had been nearing a year since we had seen them (way too long). We were all excited for their arrival and perfect timing with the kids off school for two days on conferences.
Prior to their visit my husband and his Dad love to come up with a project to work on together while he is visiting. One year they built toddler size bunk beds, they were amazing and many a foster children slept in them, and this year we were having trouble deciding what the project would be. We considered a woodshed, a fire pit and some storage areas up near all the livestock. Then it hit me as we were sitting around our table one night. As we add to our family we would not be able to fit around the table we currently had. Our Dining space was fairly large and I had actually been on the search for an antique dresser or buffet that I could use as storage/shoe rack and to take up some of the openness.  Then a brilliant (I say brilliant) idea came to me.  Why not get a table that was more like a big restaurant booth to fit our every growing family.  I ran to the computer and started searching booth style tables.  They all seems so small and I was not sure where we could buy one.  The space that I wanted to utilize was big.  So I brought the idea up to K.C. unsure of what he would think.  To my surprise he LOVED it! We started throwing ideas back and forth about the size etc and then got the idea that his Dad and him could build the benches, with storage underneath!  BRILLIANT! We of course searched the internet for DIY storage benches for dining room tables and found some wonderful examples!!  The excitement just built from there.  We sent an email to K.C.'s dad and told him our plan along with some pictures and ideas. He was onboard and excited too!
The weekend came and the planning, shopping, measuring,, cutting, painting, building took place.  Here are pictures to show a progression of all the hard work. These men worked hard!  MIL and I, we painted all, so we worked hard too!

After the building and painting we then knew we would have to have luck on our side to find the kind of table we wanted. We knew we did not want 4 legs on the table as with the benches it would get in the way and takeaway from the leg room underneath. We had researched and thought a trestle table would work out best. We also knew the table needed to be long and if we could find one wider than normal. So back to the internet searching. I could find nothing. When I did find something the prices were way more than we wanted to pay. We were trying to do this on a budget. I was getting freaked that we were going to have to get a table custom made for what we wanted. I tried to have patience, searching craigslist everynight before bed (haha, patience). Then one night there it was. A trestle table, with 2 leaf options, not the width we wanted, but hey you can not have it all right. The price though, there was just no beating the price. I noticed it was a call for the item only and so would have to wait until the morning. Ugh. Let me be first. The next morning I woke and waited until an appropriate time to call a person in the morning, lol! A lady answered and said yes the table was still available and I set a day to go look at it. The negative. I had to drive 40mins away, but I just knew this was going to be good. So the day came to go take a look at the table. I got cash in hand for the purchase just in case and set out after the morning rush hour was done. No joke where I was driving was out in the middle of no where and true story I sent my husband a text with the address to where I was headed and the statement that said, "Just in Case". It was in the middle of no where folks. We get there (baby and I) and a very sweet lady and her two young children greet me in the driveway. I felt instantly safer. She took me into their wood shop and I started checking out the table. I put the leaves in and like the children will do I started leaning on the table from this way and that way, lol! She was watching me for intently and so I explained to her that we would most likely be leaving the leaves in all the time as we were adding two new children to our family this year. We instantly started talking about adoption and she shared with me her brothers family is fostering their first sibling set and just in love with them and scared of the outcome. I shared our fostering history and told her to encourage her brother through the process. She then told me she would take $20 off the table as it was a little wiggly, I was beyond pleased. I knew my hubby would concoct a way to stabilize it a tiny bit more. It was not that bad and when leaned on with adult weight it did not even budge to flip or tip and that was the most important to me. We continued talking as we loaded the table up in my Mommy (mini) Van. The littles were running around playing and enjoying their time together too. She then offered me some homemade baked bread she had just pulled from the oven. It smelled delicious and how was I suppose to pass that up. Baby and I got our bread and loaded up saying goodbye to the friendly strangers who just added a huge piece to our journey of making room for more!

We still have a ways to go finding 5 chairs, lol that usually come in sets of 4 or 6 and also getting cushions made for the benches so they are a little more comfy to sit on. We are so in love though with this new space that will fit all 5 of our children and more (don't tell K.C.). I can not wait to see our family sitting around this space that was made with love. Made with our future in mind, right at the center. We will have many meals, and many, many memories made right around that table! Thank you Grandpa Cliff and Grandma Denise for all your help in making this idea a reality.