jonestim's Profile

IKEA makes table legs that bolt up to their tabletops that you could probably use, or check out this guy who makes hairpin and tubular steel legs:

http://www.ianmaclean.com/

Another vote for sell it and buy another one from craigslist. Hopefully you will have more time to pick one out this go around and get one you like. It may even end up being cheaper to sell and buy then it will be to degloss, sand, paint, etc... and it would take less time. On top of that, since you are picking out a table you actually like you are guaranteed to like it. Painting it may leave you with a table you don't like, as no matter what you do to it, it will still be a visually heavy table.

Out with it.

We have a 5 house development in Bend that had some of the first LEED certified homes in town. The developers went big on "luxury" as well, in a part of town that wasn't known for luxury, and on a very busy street. While the green features were nice, as were the floorplans, the project went bust.

The developer planned on selling them for around $895k each. The highest price any fetched was $450k, and that was from the VP of Marketing for the mortgage company that was about to foreclose on it. It is now a rental (empty) for $1600 a month. Three foreclosed and sold for $410k, $361k and $316k. The $316k one is now a vacation rental.

The last one has been in default for almost two years. The bank has not foreclosed yet and the asking price is down to $290k. If we didn't have a cat, or the house wasn't on a busy street I would buy it.

http://www.abacusgc.com/

When good ideas go bad.

http://www.loftyinspirations.com/genn-lounge-chair-reproduction-by-gabriele-mucchi.html

I live in Bend, and have for a bit over 10 years. It's an interesting time here, to say the least. I know the entire country is not doing well, but Bend seems to be doing especially poor. Quite a few of our high-end restaurants have closed in the last 3 months, we are losing furniture stores like mayflies, unemployment in the county is an unadjusted 14.6%, more homes are going to foreclosure than are selling, rumor is that population is shrinking, and the city is in severe debt. Downtown is losing businesses quickly and replacement ones are only coming in at half the speed. There was rampant poorly planned development and many of the new houses are absolute crap and won't last 20 years.

On the positive side, home prices are collapsing. Median home prices were $360k in 2006. Last month they were $215k, and with the number of foreclosures, months inventory and unemployment rates we should see median prices below $150k by next winter, and possibly $120k by the summer after. People will be able to afford to live here again.

We still have the outdoor activities, which is why I moved here. There are still lots of great people in town. I think a lot of the festivals are no longer going to exist. One of the week long music festivals that has been running for 20 years called it quits. I can't see BendFILM lasting.

So wait a year, then come visit and see how we are doing. It won't be the Bend that you have seen if you came 2003-2007. If you like it, you may be able to afford to live here by then.