Bye High Chairs, Hello Benches

This post is five weeks overdue. I was hoping Jesse would write about building benches since I had nothing to do with it, but clearly that isn't happening anytime soon. Over Christmas break Jesse became a master at making benches. I'm not sure what prompted it, but he browsed online, picked a plan, bought some wood and some tools, and built a bench. He built and stained this lovely bench that keeps our shoes hidden, yet easily accessible, right by the front door.

The shorter bench pictured above was his trial run. Once that bench turned out well, he built two longer ones that fit perfectly along the side of the table. After several years of using high chairs, our house is officially high chair free. Before we switched to benches, the trio would pull out the regular chair, climb on the table, then crawl backwards into their own high chairs. Clearly the high chairs were no longer necessary. Now we have plenty of space and the kids can eat at the table easily.

I LOVE the benches because:

• We can easily seat 6-8 people at our dining room table without inserting the leaf. I personally don't care for kids eating at smaller tables. Eating together as a family at one table is a priority for me. The benches allow us to easily do that.
• We slide the benches under the table when they aren't in use. This creates more space to walk around the table (i.e. kids play in the play kitchen) without high chairs or regular chairs jutting out. 
• Our former antique chairs were literally falling apart and becoming quite hazardous. The benches were so much cheaper to make than having to purchase new dining chairs.

It comes in handy to have a handy husband. Nice work, Jesse!