When my best friend asked if I wanted to take the Do It Herself class at the Home Depot I was instantly on board. It is no secret that I love all things DIY and the opportunity to get hands-on instruction and learn some new techniques always sounds like fun to me. We signed up online a week in advance and waited anxiously for this Thursday night to arrive. I have just got to tell you all about this experience.

Home Depot Class

To Set the Stage

The project advertised this week was making an outdoor occasion table. There is a beautiful example of the table set up in the back of the store, along with four large work spaces. A table in front of the work area was laid out with cookies, paint swatches, hammers, nails, screws, and various other tools. We waited for the instructor, very excited about what we say in front of us.

By no means are my friend and I novices when it comes to assembling furniture or playing with power tools so we thought we were ahead of the game going into the class. Boy were we wrong.

The Warning Signs

To start, they had 18 people enrolled in the class but only had enough materials to make 7 tables. Cameron and I instantly teamed up to make 1 table but many other people enrolled in the class were not nearly as willing to not make a table of their own and a select few started to make a loud fuss about it.

We stood in front of our neat pile of already-cut materials that were laid out before us. We continued to stand there for 5 minutes before asking if someone was going to teach us how to make these tables. We were handed a little pamphlet and told to follow the instructions. While two different Home Depot employees were walking around, no one seemed to be in charge of the class or have any knowledge of what to do or how to do it.

Table Construction

The Construction

Another big problem was that they had only laid out two drills for all 18 people to use and almost every step of this project required a drill. Luckily we were positioned at the first table, so we got first chance at the drill. It was quite clear that we were not going to get a teacher-led class so I opened up my little booklet and started reading the steps.

We put together the frame as instructed and proceeded to add our tabletop. When we did we realized that the frame pieces had been cut too large for the tabletop and we had a half inch of overhang on all four sides. We pointed this out but the instructor just gave us a shrug, told us that he did not cut the lumber, and told us to move on as-is.

We added our four table legs before moving on to what was supposed to be a crown molding surround. The first problem with that step was that instead of having crown molding cut at a 45 degree angle to create a nice clean miter, we had four 2 x 4s that were cut blunt to show raw edges. Once again we pointed this out to an instructor and got nothing more than a shrug. These pieces of lumber were supposed to be attached 1/4″ above the tabletop to allow depth for the tiles that would be laid in later. We asked for a pencil and a measuring tape or ruler but were told that those were not available.

At this point in the construction process Cameron and I have resigned that this entire thing is going to be a complete mess and we just started laughing, cracking jokes, and having the best time we could with a very awkward situation. Once again, the 2 x 4s were not cut to the right dimensions and corners did not meet up at all. We now have one of the employees laughing right along with us because it has been such a train wreck of an event.

And to be honest with you, this funny, kind, young man was the highlight of the whole thing because he really was doing his best to accommodate us even though he admitted that he had no idea how to build the table himself, he was just told he was going to be a helper for the class. In fact, the woman that so expertly built the example table was off for the evening.

After an hour and a half of frustration and comedic relief, we finally were at the point where we could lay in the ceramic tiles. What we found was that the gap between the tiles was three times as large as the spacers that had been cut to fit inside of them.

We walked out of the store, unpainted table in hand and I think I am going to spend some time this weekend trying to salvage it with tools that I have in my garage. If I do that I will be sure to let you know how that turns out.

Danger!!

I do think that it is important to mention that many of the women taking our class brought young children with them. Keep in mind that this class used a power drill and a power screwdriver. From a liability standpoint alone I have no idea how the employees allowed children to handle these tools – but they did and as a mother myself, I was holding my breath the entire time praying that none of them got hurt.

To Wrap it Up

In theory, this would have been an excellent girls night out. Cameron and I love the idea of teaching women how to do things for themselves.  Although it seems as though I am down on the whole thing, I have to say that I am still willing to give it another shot. We are going to sign up for another workshop at the same location to see how that goes and we are also going to sign up for a workshop at another location in town to see if they have better execution of this class concept. The one thing that I was VERY impressed with was that this class was offered free of charge they did not ask you to pay for the materials used. Even if it is a bit wonky, you do get a table out of the deal!