The New Workhorse - A Dining Table

It's been too long since updating but we have a new member of the family here - we upgraded our dining table!  This is a long time coming, so let me give some quick deets. The Old Table was a hand me down from my parents.  It was a solid wood oval extension table with 2 leaves.  It also had 4 chairs that were in some rough shape, needing glue, screws, and new fabric for the seats.  The finish on the table was a bit finicky too, I was usually worried about scratches and whatnot.  

We found our perfect table at Ikea.  Of course!  I usually to love Ikea's simple lines and great prices and this table is no exception.  The grand total for the table was just $329 (of course, it's on sale now for Ikea Family peeps) - you can check it out here.  Considering that the thing will take quite a beating, I figure the price is just perfect.  I'd have a heart attack if my kid scratched up a brand new $1500 dining table.   We were able to fit the boxes neatly into the back of the minivan.  And assembly was a snap.   But what to do with the old stuff?  Well we had discussed the possibility of selling it on CraigsList, but the truth of it was that we really didn't want to bother.  A table & chairs would take up quite a bit of space in the basement while we chased emails, so we decided to put the table and chairs out on the front lawn with a big "FREE" sign on them.  Literally as we were carrying the furniture out of the house, we were approached by a neighbor.  He gladly took the table and chairs and gave us a case of our favorite beer as a thank you!   It's been a few weeks now that we've had the table in place, but since it's always covered with kids eating PBJ, honework, play doh, crafts and other clutter, it's been tough to find a few minutes to take some nice pics.  Well I finally did!
So far we're loving the table.  Without the extension, it's a bit smaller than the old one, which is just perfect for the four of us.  And with the extension, it's about the same size as the big one!  I love the beefy legs and the dark color.  It's already got a few scratches from the dog (she thinks crumbs left on the table are hers for the taking) and from the 2 year old (who thinks it's cool that his fork makes four tiny dots), but we'll call that part of the "distressing process".  LOL!