Under the Window

Yesterday started in the parking lot of a local lumber yard.

Once a year they have a huge sale, and if you’re planning to rebuild a deck, as we are, it’s worth getting there early. We arrived before seven. Before coffee. Before breakfast. And we joined a long line of people waiting for the doors to open.

We were there for deck boards.

We came home with a butcher block too. They only had a handful left, and they were less than half price. We knew exactly what we were looking for.

It wasn’t the first butcher block we’d brought home. There was supposed to be one before any of these. It was to be the anchor of the kitchen on the island.

It never made it into the house. It had been paid for, designed, expected. But it was never ordered, milled or installed.

Then we bought one. Not for the island now…we have changed direction there. The first one we actually bought was for the bench under our kitchen window.

I clicked the wrong box when I ordered it.

Not the wrong measurement. The wrong box. I thought I had ordered a 60 inch slab. I actually ordered a 50 inch slab.

It arrived a few inches too short. Too short for the bench. But exactly the right size for the old dresser in our front closet.

A week ago, during our impromptu spaghetti dinner, one of our friends stopped in the entryway.

“I love this,” she said, running her hand across the top.

I smiled and thanked her. She had no idea that piece of butcher block had once been meant for the bench under the window.

So, when we got home yesterday, I measured.

Then I measured again.

I made the cuts.

Nancee sanded.

Every so often I’d run my hand across the wood. “That’s good.” She’d shake her head. “Not yet.” Back to sanding. Sixty grit. Then eighty. One hundred and twenty. Two hundred and twenty. By the end it was buttery soft.

Honestly, I would have been happy to install it just like that.

Today we’ll seal it. The finish won’t make it beautiful. It will reveal what the sanding has already done.

By tonight, the bench under the window will finally have the top it was meant to have. The dresser by the front door will keep the one that wasn’t.