Keeping it Simple

I have been looking around online for a new outdoor table for our deck. They're not cheap, at least not the ones that have a hope of remaining rust-free in our damp and foggy climate. One I liked was $1,000. Then the other day I went to a potluck lunch with a group of school mom friends at one of the moms' house. We ate on her back deck, surrounded by fragrant climbing roses, at two very funky, rusted, flaking, warped tables. They worked fine. So today on a whim I stopped at Urban Ore to see if they had any funky, rusted, flaking, warped tables. They did. It cost $15 and I strapped it on top of our 1997 Mercury Sable station wagon and drove home across the Bay Bridge. On the way I had to pick up the boys at school, where my sixth-grader was very excited to see a table strapped to the top of the car. By the time we got home, he had talked himself into helping me sand, wash and paint it. He spent an hour in the backyard wearing yellow dishwashing gloves, vigorously sanding and then enthusiastically scrubbing down the table. After some thought, he decided we should paint it silver, to match our Ikea aluminum chairs. I will get the paint tomorrow so he can paint it. By the time he finishes painting it, he will have gotten more out of that table than anything I bought ready to use. And think of the $985 we saved!