The Dining Room

We sold our “purple” house in 1989 and other than the four years we were in Nevada, MO, I have not had a real dining room since the purple house.

At both houses in Kentucky, the kitchen was big . . well, not at one house . . it was quite small but in both those houses it was more of an eat in kitchen. We had a little four seater “pub” type table that had an extension to add seating for two more but I honestly don’t believe we ever used the extension. That table was at the first house in Kentucky. Then, when we bought the other house in Kentucky, I needed an inexpensive table to use for a few years. Right! I bought the least expensive table and four chairs I could find and it served us well there but, that’s still the table we’re using.

In Nevada, MO, the dining room was really small so that table, that really should have been a breakfast room table, filled the dining room and we bought another small table for the breakfast room. I love that table and have been using it in my sewing room in Texas because, again, the “dining” room is really one end of a super small family room and we’re using the other table I had. Through the years . . 20 years now, it’s had bumps and scrapes and water spots and Vince, for about 18 years now, has said “All it needs is refinishing!” No . . that’s not all it needs. I think it needs to get donated and if someone else wants to refinish it — good for them.

When we were talking with the sellers of the MO house, they wanted to sell some of their furniture and their dining room table was one thing they wanted to sell. I seriously LOVE that table and am so glad we bought it.

It weighs a ton. Vince and Chad had a hard time moving it into the dining room and Nicole had to help. It was built by a family in Rich Hill, MO for this house in 2003 and even though Vince doesn’t build furniture, when we opened it up last night to get a leave out, Vince was pretty impressed with the gears and the way it’s put together to pull apart to insert leaves.

I need to get a bigger rug in there. I like that rug but it’s a bit too small for the table with one of the leaves in it. There’s still one more leaf and two more chairs. With two leaves, it will make the room crowded. We can do it if we need it but for every day use, I’ll keep just the one leaf in there.

With being able to comfortably seat 8 at the dining room table, 4 at the breakfast room table, 3 at the bar and probably 4 in the sun room, that’s 19 people. The most I can ever think of would be a holiday dinner if Nicole’s parents came and that would 7 counting Addie.

There were many years that having a dining room wasn’t important to me but now, I’m so glad to have it. I love sitting in the dining room, even when it’s just the two of us because the breakfast room table isn’t here yet, but I’m away from the kitchen, not seeing the mess I’ve just made and it’s more relaxing. With Chad having his own family, it’s nice to know we can all sit at the table without having to bring folding tables and chairs from the sewing room.

Since cooking, eating and family time are so important to us these days, I’m very pleased with the dining room setup here.