When my neighbor asked for an estimated date of completion for her table, I thought for sure I could finish it in 3 weeks. What I failed to realize is that 1) holidays are a difficult time to get into the garage for me and 2) you never know when your kids will get sick, and then get sick again.

When I went over to get measurements of what she was looking for, she said she didn’t have a specific chair that she would sew in yet so we estimated the height. I told her I would err on the side of too tall and then we could just shorten to what she was looking for. Once the table was completed, I took it over to her house one afternoon.

She met me downstairs carrying a chair from her office. It was clear that the table was too tall so I asked to measure her desk in office since that was a comfortable height for her. The table seemed pretty short to me, but I went with it (28.25”). The next issue was that the wood around the hole for the sewing machine to be placed in had swelled when I painted it so the machine was a little too snug for her liking. Not a problem, I thought- easy fix. Then came the biggest problem. I asked her how it operated. Was it battery powered? Or was there a cord to plug it in? She pulled a cord out of her bag and of course, it needed to enter the machine right where the apron to the table was….

I took the table back a few days later. It was now 5” shorter, had a hole in the apron for her power cord and I had sanded to the hole larger for the machine to be more easily pulled out. I was only home about an hour before I got a text. “I have bad news. I need another hole drilled for my foot controller. I can’t use the machine without it.” If only had known anything about sewing machines. These would’ve been bumps in the road I could have predicted. So, 2 weeks after I told her I would have it completed, I carried it over for the final time and she seemed excited sewing her first stitch with her new table. Then she asked about the cutting board table to go with it…

What did I learn?:

Ask lots of questions about what a person is looking for when you are building them something- ie all sewing machines have to be plugged in…
For now, I should double the time I think it will take me to complete a project.
4 hands seem almost necessary for a glue-up of this sort (thanks, hubby!)
Don’t waste 2+ hours trying to find a way to route a mortise- just go ahead and build the jig.