“Why, oh why, did you replace your dinette table with a smaller one?” Many alert readers have asked. So… observe:

This perfectly nice table slides left and right, making it easier for people to move into and out of the seats. The angled corners at the front of the table serve the same purpose.

There is hardly space for an adult to slide back behind the table and sit there. Some adults don’t fit; others do. It’s tight.

To convert the dinette into a standard (double) size bed, one must pull the top, and wiggle it, and pull some more (keep wiggling!) wait don’t BREAK something is this thing ever going to come off gosh am I doing this right WOAH that came off fast I’m falling backward and I think something in my back popped.

Maybe the pedestals come out of the floor with the table top. Maybe they stay on the floor and the tabletop comes off by itself. Maybe one of each — there are two (2) pedestals. Maybe a pedestal (or two) comes out of the floor and the tabletop at the same time and lands on your foot, or perhaps a terrier.

Obviously, if you’re careful and patient, this all goes smoothly enough. And hundreds (thousands?) of RVs have dinette tables with this very same design.

Anyway after you get the pedestals out of the way (stowed somewhere you’d rather have available for extra wine bottles), you can put the tabletop down at seat level, move some cushions around and wa la, you have a bed. Or a Giant Lounge — one that’s hard to crawl into and out of, because it’s too deep. Okay if you plan to sleep all night, but not practical for daytime use.

And when the table’s up? Try as you might to jam the pedestals into the floor and the tabletop securely, the table is going to wobble some. It’s just part of the design.

I’m okay with wobbly, but… wait, I’m not. I’m anti-wobble. Anyway.

You will recall (having memorized the entire blog) that we began experimenting with a lounge configuration.

You can see the pedestal brackets down there on the floor. See how close the back one is to the back seat? No room for feet if you’re using the table. Yeah, I know, we could have just bought a 60-foot coach with slides and three living rooms and possibly a spa, and space wouldn’t be an issue. But, well.

We found we prefer the lounge configuration. We didn’t miss the table (mostly). We found ourselves rarely installing it. If we did want the table, there was the hassle of finding the pedestals, getting them pounded in, and on and on. That’s a lot of hassle.  We’re not just anti-wobble; we’re also anti-hassle.

So…. what do you do when clients go on vacation and you have too much time on your hands? You build stuff. We built the new table, which is always available, hassle-free, and big enough for our needs, and allows us to be enjoy the lounge configuration we prefer the rest of the time.

Many people wouldn’t make the same choice. But we did. So far we’re really pleased with how it all works for  us.

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