Table - Day 1

Wahoo!  Since I don't work until the evening today and I got my stuff done around the house I had some free time to get to work on this table!  So, first thing first, as promised below is a slightly better photo of the table top so you can get idea what I'm starting with.  Its pretty scratched up but nothing seems too deep which is part of why when I saw it I knew I had to grab it and put in some work.

Now, next thing next, here is a photo of the underside of the table where you can get a better look at the wood itself.  It looks like there is some sort of light stain on the bottom as it is slightly darker than the natural wood which is only visible under where I took off the support pieces.  Any ideas what kind of wood this is?  I sure don't.

I apologize for my poor photography skills... not my strong point.  As you can see, took all the bottom pieces of and labeled them so everything will be able to go back to right where it started.  Mentioned above, there does seem to be some sort of something even on the bottom because you can see the very distinct white lines where everything came together.  I am going to try and sand it down to this level before I begin re-doing the whole thing but I don't know if I'll be able to as it seems to have absorbed pretty deeply in to the wood.  Fingers crossed.

I began some sanding as well today after a quick trip to the hardware store to get some really rough grit paper as well as a medium grit.  Figure I'll pick up the fine grit paper when I go back to pick the stain.  I do need to find something better than a plastic shelf with some cookbooks on top to be my workspace but it worked fairly well for today.  Below, a half finished and a "done for today" photo.

Its still pretty dark when compared to the white white of the wood but I'm hoping that as I work through the medium and fine grit I'll work through this coloration.  I think the grain is very pretty and I'm super excited to keep working on this.  I work in the evening again tomorrow so hoping to get the rough work done on all the support pieces tomorrow afternoon.  So more to come!