When I moved to Colorado, I downsized. I honestly needed to “purge” quite a bit before the decision to move. But in Texas, I had a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, house, with a 2 car garage, and a fenced in yard. 1900 or so square feet. My condo in Colorado is not as big, so I did some more purging.

That lead to a search for a table and chairs.

Everything I found was too big for the space or it was ugly or inexpensive and cheaply made. I found some that I liked, but they were all “some assembly required” and I am not the person for assemblage.

But I bought them anyway.

I have put together the following pieces of furniture:

A 3 legged table from the 80s/90s – without assistance

A desk and 2 nightstands – with help from Dad

A desk chair – without assistance

A small 2 shelf bookshelf – with help from Dad

A TV stand – without assistance (and I still don’t have the door attached)

As you can see, not a lot of experience putting things together. I decided to jump right in, and the dog was anxious to help, but you know that goes, soon they are laying on the directions, or falling asleep on the job.

I started with the chairs. They were more complicated thank they looked. My Dad wasn’t here to help me. It is tricky to put a chair together by yourself. I kept feeling like there should an easier way to hold it steady and use an Allen wrench, but there wasn’t and I got the 4 chairs done and only the table remained. I started out putting the chairs together, sitting on my ottoman, then moved to the floor. That was a mistake. Don’t get down on the floor without a plan!

The next weekend, I worked on the table!

I was gaining confidence with my efforts and felt like I was a furniture builder extraordinaire.

Now the boxes took another couple of weeks to get rid of, bit I got it all set up and ready for guests.

And I was so dang proud of me! I did it by myself. My Dad had to have been laughing at me putting it together.

Now, the store people helped me get the boxes in the Jeep, and my daughter and son in love brought them in for me. And the kids got rid of them all yesterday.

I really liked this set, there is seating for 4 ands it’s perfect. I felt as if I could start my own business putting furniture together and then I remembered the floor and the feeling left me. The best part of this dinette set was this,

The goal is 60 new things before I turn 60 and I have 29 more to go and I can’t wait!