A Homemade Coffee Table

Sure, anyone can buy a coffee table; but in this day & age how many of you can say that you've actually made your own? And let's level-set here kids; following a 1-page set of directions to piece together something from IKEA does not count as "making". 


Several of you lucky few have seen the finished product, but heretofore (did I really just use that word?) I will describe just how we came about our latest piece of furniture. It all started back in early spring with our new sofa... yeah, exactly. Brand new sectional; looks great, love the color, very comfortable, fits well... but it doesn't quite go with our old coffee table. Sigh. We had lugged that thing all the way from San Diego, but even I was in agreement that a call to Salvation Army was probably in order. 


Thus began an intense two-week hunt on the web for it's replacement. Ami took the lead on this endeavor as I reverted to my "wedding planning mode" (read: please narrow it down to 2 or 3 viable options that you like and then I will be happy to provide input on those). I'm not sure I've ever seen my better half stare as intently at a computer screen as she did those 2 weeks; seriously, she might have focused more on that than some of her masters tests lately! One by one the contenders fell by the wayside...


This one is too wide.
That one is too tall.
This one is too short.
That one is too modern.
This one is not black enough.
That one is too glossy.
This one is too boring.
That one is too strange.
That one costs how much!?!?


As I saw her frustration mount I assumed she was being too picky and couldn't settle on something that would work, so I picked up the torch and assured myself, and her, that I would have one picked out and ordered within the hour. 

Almost one week later I was stumped too. I'm sure this is what Obama felt like for two weeks leading up to Aug 2nd... 


Honestly folks, how hard is it to buy a coffee table? Well, harder than you might think. As my searches started to peter out I began pleading with Google for some unique do-it-yourself ones that I might be able to cobble together. This approach seemed to yield some more possibilities, but I quickly realized the amount of time this was going to take out of MY schedule. Who cared though... I didn't have cable and needed a project anyway! As I was warming up to the challenge I came across a site that had repurposed a bunch of old books as the center-piece of a table... interesting concept (note: I was most definitely in the bowels of the internet because I just spent 10 minutes trying to find that site again without any luck... oh well). 


I pitched the idea to Ami and she had two instant responses. The first she voiced out loud, "where would we get that many books?". And the second I can only assume was her internal monolog faintly saying "and YOU really think you can make something like THAT?" Well, a little help from craigslist yielded our answer to question #1;  two individuals were giving away full encyclopedia sets for anyone that would come pick them up. Sold! A few days later we now were the proud owners of a 1974 Collier's Edition and a 1960 World Book Edition; both in remarkable condition considering their age. The answer to unsaid question #2 would yet to be proved.


Ok, so now we have a stack of books... what's next you ask? First I found the proper arrangement of how they would lay out so as to use almost all of them while still providing a consistent height\width\length that would serve as the meat to our book sandwich (think of Tetris except no falling blocks, no LCD screen, no time limit... ok, it wasn't much like Tetris at all). At that point it was time to start diagramming and measuring. to the right you'll see some of my chicken scratch that prompted the first of 3 trips to Home Depot. 


I'll save you the details of my excursions for the materials, and my subsequent encounters with a few of Chicago's finest, but here are some of the key items on the shopping lists:


[1] sheet of red oak plywood (cut into two 34"x28" pieces and a small 9"x9" piece for the door)
[4] 3" wheels
[4] 4"x4"x6" riser blocks
[4] 10" bolts\washers\nuts
[1] can black rustolium paint
[1] can lacquer 
[2] brushes
[1] lacquer thinner
[1] bag of sponge brushes
[1] magnetic door stopper kit
[1] small door knob


All of this, coupled with 2 weeks worth of nights and weekends, culminated in a finished product that turned out exactly as I had envisioned (anyone that's taken on home projects like this knows how rare that can be)!

On the left we have a photo showing the basics of what makes up the table. Alternating sections of the encyclopedias (vertical and then horizontal) with the corners each appearing the same. Some of the vertical books even still have their original gold leafing on the pages. 


The risers and wheels help give the table a height of about 16" in total. 


In the center you'll see the rounded tops of the [4] 10" bolts that I counter-sunk into the top sheet to ensure as smooth a surface as possible. In effect the two pieces of plywood really did make a sandwich of the books and I used the bolts to tighten them down and hold everything in place. You'll also notice the smooth, shiny surface... I'll have you know that I probably gave up a few years of my life battling lacquer to achieve that look. 

In addition to a great table, I was also able to add a neat feature to help us recoup some of the lost space we had from our old one. With the layout of the books there is an inherent hollow section in the middle; by leaving out the vertical books on one end I was able to replace them with a small door to create a storage space! 


And you were wondering what the door knob and magnetic door kit were for, weren't you! As you can see from the photos on the right we now have a great place to stow our remotes, coasters, and my xbox controllers!


Lastly is one photo that shows the risers and wheels to round out a complete view of the table. 


All in all this turned out to be a fun project that epitomizes the adage "necessity is the mother of all invention". If it hadn't been for our new sofa, and the fact that we couldn't find a nice one online that we liked, then we wouldn't have this gem of an heirloom for years to come.


Well, that's if the movers can get it into the truck... anyone care to hazard a guess as to how much all this wood and 2 encyclopedia sets weighs???


Hint: there are wheels for a reason.

Where the heck have you all been???

It's been a busy few weeks here in Chicago... and it appears that we keep missing each other. One day I'm on here starting a post, the next day you're logging on to check for a little reading material to help pass your "busy" work days... before we know it 2 weeks go by and and we're teetering on the brink of remembering what our relationship was like back in the "good ol' days". Well fret not, my avid readers; the fun continues!


Let's start with a little recap of how our summer has been going. 


Foodies Unite!
Hina & Mital hopped a flight from Philly to enjoy a weekend of great eating and a little drinking; and that's just what we did. From Longman & Eagle to Aviary. From Topolobampo to Big Star. But the creme de la creme was a 5.5 hr culinary experience at Alinea! 


Here are a few snapshots from that night; the first being a caprese salad laid out to represent a portion of Lincoln Park.


The second photo is of dessert... all I can say is Wow! The table was cleared, two silicon table cloths were rolled out, and then Grant and another chef came out and "painted" dessert right on to the table. 


18 courses of pure awesomeness! 






4th Annual 4th of July BBQ on the Roof
The Nardi Party delivered another fun-filled experience for guests of all ages; and with this showing the 4th has solidified itself as one of the highlights of the summer. In a slight twist  this year we actually celebrated on the 3rd to help accommodate those who wanted to party a little extra, but the neighborhood still put on a great showing with fireworks!

An Evening on Lake Michigan
Several of us were lucky enough to score an invite out on the water with Mandy & Dan on their sail boat. The weather was gorgeous, the sunset was sublime, and the company was even better. After a beeline out of the harbor we headed several miles straight out and turned around for an awesome return voyage back to the skyline. 


And if all of this isn't enough, next up on the tour de force is a week on Cape Cod with the extended Nardi Party. With that on the horizon you now know why I wanted to post an update so as not to leave you hanging another week. I hope everyone is enjoying their summers as much as we are... with all of this excitement we haven't missed cable one bit... no seriously! 

Clearing the Air with Bok Choy & Supermarket Sweep

Apparently there has been some grumbling that we're "cheating" with this whole undertaking and that using Hulu+ isn't really getting rid of cable. I'd like to set the record straight on that topic; in my first post I mentioned that it could be used as an alternative but that we were not using this right out of the gate. In fact, since last week we have turned on the TV exactly once, to watch a single Netflix movie. That's it people, no need to get your panties in a bunch...  


Now that we're on the same page, onward ho. 


Around the same time that this blog was hatched it became clear to me that I was going to make out like a bandit in the department of homemade dinners. We started a new "ingredient of the week challenge" that pretty much makes our kitchen like the set of something you'd see on the Food Channel. The best part of this little plan is I get to pick the ingredient and then Ami has to use it in several meals over that week (shhhhhhhhhh, I honestly have no idea how this came about, but don't jinx it now!). 


Week One showcased asparagus and kicked off with it being roasted with onion, garlic, olive oil, spices & herbs. The second appearance came in the form of a puree that was simmered and spiced into a very tasty soup. I could see the wheels turning and my stomach was liking this direction. 

Bok choy?!?!

Week Two featured bok choy. Seriously, you ask... bok choy? This is what she gets for making me suffer through Costco on a weekend while I'm a little hungover. If you've never been to Costco on a Saturday just picture a thousand type-A personalities with over-sized carts all playing Supermarket Sweep at the same time... sigh. Side note, for the unintentional comedic moment of the week; click that link, watch through minute 2:40... someone PLEASE tell me isn't cringing as he asks "what kind of dance?". Ha ha, classic!


Anyway, it turns out the joke was on me because she turned that random vegetable into one of the better Asian noodle dishes I've had in a LONG time! Seriously, even Emeril would have tossed a "BAM" out on that one. 



Now what's on tap for week three you ask... well, we're currently in a small hiatus from the Challenge as this week has been planned for about 3 months. Mital, Hina, & Malisa are in town for a few days (to celebrate Hina's birthday) and we have a tour-de-force planned for the Chicago restaurant circuit. The agenda includes, but is not limited to, Alinea, Topolobompo, Longman & Eagle, Aviary, Chez Gashti, and perhaps a sneak peak into Big Star or Hot Doug's. After this weekend I will need to be rolled around town. 



Finally, a little house keeping before we wrap up. My original post had set a goal of 5 non-family-member followers by the end of the summer. Well, we're up to 11 already, not to mention 217 unique visitors, and all of this since the site launched just one week ago! Now I realize this isn't going to be challenging Facebook for total visits/day or anything, but it does make me realize that my goals were WAY too modest. 


With that said (insert drum roll here) our new goal for the summer is 50 non-family-member followers and 500 unique visitors by the middle of September... this is a drastic step but I have confidence in all of us!


So go forward my flock, and spread the good word!

Happy Father's Day, Dad

I haven't told my Dad that we have given up cable for the summer or that I'm now writing a blog. Not because he wouldn't understand the choice, but because I'm unsure of how I would respond to the questions he would have. "How are you going to follow the Sox?" or "What the heck is a blog?" he would ask... 


The good news is I have a great answer to following the Sox and as I type I have the iPad streaming the NESN feed of Remy & Orsillo as they call our boys fielding in the 6th; already up on the Brewers 9-2.  I mean, that's pretty cool. Even though we live 851 miles from the town I grew up in I can still listen to the same broadcast of our games that my dad does. 


The second question is a bit trickier, and as I would try to explain it I think I would realize that it sounds pretty silly, even to me; someone who's grown up during the rise of the internet, cable TV, blogs, Facebook, and so on. Prior to all of this technology we had an antenna on the roof that would get us 3.5 channels and a huge back yard... you can guess what we did to entertain ourselves as kids. And that's just it, we could, and would, entertain ourselves. Rain or shine, hot or cold we would let our imaginations run wild all over the yard or the neighborhood; we weren't allowed to be reliant on the TV.


And even though they now have DirecTV my parents still are not the type of people to be lured into an afternoon of channel surfing or movie watching. Case in point, I called my dad earlier to wish him a Happy Father's Day and after some chit-chat I asked him what he was up to today. He told me about their early breakfast and then a 100 mile motorcycle ride through southern VT. As luck would have it, I happened to catch him in the house during lunch and then his plan for the afternoon was to finish mowing the lawn and work on clearing more brush beyond the stone wall out back. So much for "a day off" I joked, but that's just it, dads of his generation don't really take days off. They don't really use email, they don't text message, and they probably wouldn't write just for fun; let alone publish that on the internet for everyone to read. 


So it makes me wonder if all of this technology has made us better off as a society or not. Of course, it's very easy to argue for advancements like the internet, caller ID, and Tivo but at what point does all of this start to degrade our values, our focus, and our friendships. At the verge of tumbling down that rabbit hole I digress, but it does make you think twice.


I'll conclude today by wishing all of the fathers, grandfathers, and expecting fathers a Happy Father's Day. May you each enjoy a day of doing whatever it is that makes you happy; whether that be a motorcycle ride or watching a movie. 

And to my dad, I want to thank you for raising 3 wonderful children the right way; your way. We gave you some grief along the way, but looking back its easy to see that everything you did was for us. So that we could have opportunities to grow and better ourselves. So that we could get our college educations, spread out across the country, and live fulling and enjoyable lives. We couldn't have done any of it without you and mom and for that we owe you everything. I hope your beer is cold and the cigar is a good one tonight; you've earned them both. 

It's official...

Congratulations to the Bruins on a fantastic Game 7 win out west in the city of car-burners! So it is on this happy note that we kick off our summer adventure. As you can see to the left our service has been suspended for 3 months at no cost; thank you DirecTV for being so accommodating. 


Additionally, their nice support staff even verified that our suspension (this has a different meaning when you're not in jr. high) will not affect my ability to use the NFL package to keep up with my Patriots and fantasy leagues this fall. A appropriately-timed email from their Director of Sports Programming also let me know that I will not be billed for that until the lockout is ended and the games actually kick off. 


Of course, all of this is predicated on the owners and the players getting their heads out of each others asses long enough to figure out that they're about to blow their precious golden egg to smithereens if they miss even one game. I mean seriously, the NFL has seen a meteoric rise in popularity in the last decade and they have fans all over the world just throwing money at them, but they're willing to jeopardize that to squabble about who actually gets the billions of dollars pouring in. Sigh. 


<random thought>
73 page views on my first post in less than 24 hours... maybe this blog thing actually will catch on after all.
</random thought>

Bruins in Game 7 = The Last Day!

Today, Wednesday, June 15th, marks the last day that the Nardi household will have our DirecTV hooked up  for the summer of 2011. To the Average Joe this would seem like a fairly random and innocuous day, but any puck head, or anyone in the city of Boston, would tell you differently. Tonight is Game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs between Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks. Hailing from the New England region you can imagine who I am rooting for... but I've digressed long enough, back to my point.

After today we are going to attempt the previously unthinkable... we're unplugging from cable for the rest of the summer. No more muggy evenings sunken into our couch, mesmerized by whatever schwill the boob-tube tries to pass off as "new summer programming". No more rainy weekend afternoons wasted in front of our 55" electric babysitter. Ok, so all of this is a bit melodramatic. Rest assured we do have a slight backup plan for some digital entertainment, but we'll get to that a bit later. 


First I'd like to thank our good friend Malisa C. for this idea; if she hadn't called me for technical advise on this same topic it's likely we would have proceeded to pay DirectTV almost $100/month in ignorant bliss. Instead we're embarking on this little adventure to reclaim our summer. 
<random thought> 
Why do all of Ami's friends and family (of Indian decent) call me (caucasian as they come) for technical support... isn't there something backwards about this?!
</random thought>


Second, other than the NHL playoffs, and a random peek in to make sure Miami was losing the NBA Finals, I have actually kick-started this process 2.5 weeks ago with a larger-than-it-appears project to create a new coffee table from scratch (trust me, there will be a future post dedicated to this little undertaking).


Third, we do have a half-assed plan to help ease us into this new DirecTV-less world (no one said this would be a G-rated blog). 

• Sports -- I can track my Red Sox on the MLB TV account through my iPad; check. ESPN also has an app for the iPad that works in only 2 states in the whole US (morons), but I can also access their live feeds through the Xbox 360; semi-check. 
• Movies -- Netflix is only $9.00/month and has apps for the Xbox, iPad, and our Droid phones; big check for Netflix!
• Some TV -- if we need to we could succumb to the acquisition of a Hulu+ account for $8.99/month. This will have to be a game-time decision and won't be happening out of the gate.
• Activities -- last weekend we went to Six Flags, the Blues Festival, and Wells St. Art Festival. Big kudos to Chicago for having an awesome summer lineup. 

Finally, and most importantly, I plan on using some of my new-found free time on this blog and my primary hobby, photography. I will update you on several photo projects that I hope to kick off, progress on learning my new lenses, updates from vacations, and so on. I use smugmug.com to host my photos, check them out any time at http://djnardi.smugmug.com/

My goal for this endeavor is to have at least 5 non-family-member followers by the end of the summer and to have brought a few chuckles to your days. Who knows, maybe you'll all be reading this on your couch while you watch your TV shows and laugh your evil little laughs... 

Death to cable companies!