you're not gonna believe this

I want it to be known to the world that I, Maria Watkins, finished a project this weekend.

Complete, DONE. Not, done until I can get to the store to pick up some finishing touches. Not done until I have more time/energy/motivation. Not done because I'm tired of working on it and I'm just gonna call it good enough because I don't care anymore. (Well, maybe a little of that last one..)


We moved into our house 3 years ago. Two years ago we decided to build a deck. And of course we needed furniture to go along with our new deck, but buying what I wanted was waaaaaayyy too expensive. So I thought to my stubborn, stingy self, "I don't need to buy those.. I can easily build my own. It can't be that hard. I mean, if HGTV can do it in like, a half an hour, so can I."

So right away before I lost motivation and moved on to another thought, I went and bought all the boards and started working away. Two years ago...

The first summer I actually completed the table and benches. But as I was pregnant with Ella I didn't want to stain or varnish with anything that could be toxic. And Hitler my husband wouldn't allow me to start the sectional until the table was completely done. So they sat for a whole year. Somberly waiting to be used and loved.

Last summer since I wasn't pregnant, nor busy at all with 3 little kids, I decided to get the table and benches stained, thereby giving me freewill to start the sectional. After learning that you really do need to stir the stain like the can says (not just shake it up a little) they turned out great!

The sectional shackles broke free and I was released to begin cutting again  I started out with a bang, working diligently all weekend, vowing to have it done by the 4th of July, and got so much done. And that night the same wind storm that blew our barn over, also blew my hard-worked chairs off the deck, through the yard, and across the road.. busting them to pieces.

Minor setback.. ha!

As there was barnwoon strewn across our yard, branches littering the grass, and every kind of toy, ball, trash imaginable everywhere in between, the chairs had to get the backburner for awhile.

Eventually I must have finished building them, but not in time for much use before the cold weather came. So away they went again to the unoccupied chicken coop for another year.

But THIS summer... things are different around here.

Neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow 

nor heat of day nor dark of night 

shall keep this builder 
from the swift completion of her appointed chairs. 

I present to you... my FINISHED sectional

with cushions (and palete coffee table)

and the table and benches too (and kids picnic table)!

Just don't look too close.. these are so so far from perfect it's not even funny. (maybe a little...) The corner's aren't square, the legs aren't the same length (nor straight), there's blobs of polyeurothane where I didn't get it smoothed out, there's screw holes where I had to make them sturdier after already staining them.. but they're done.

I'm just happy they didn't fall apart when we sat on them this weekend. 

I will certainly not be posting a tutorial on how to do this because I am no expert, but thankfully there's someone who is. My all time favorite building website is Ana White. She is AMAZING and I want to build every single thing on her site, but I think I will take a little much needed, 2 years in the making break for now...

Oohhhh... except as I went to link her blog I just saw a few more things I need to make.like NOW. including.. what is THAT?  Captains chairs to go along with the exact table I built???.... Whaaaaattt.....

*Sigh... 

side note: This sectional was classified as a "weekend project." HA! I love Ana White, but she really needs to redefine those classifications. Like, maybe 0 kids-weekend project. 1 kid-month-long project. 2 kids-6 months. 3 kids-2 years.....