My brother made us something amazing!

I got home from camp yesterday, I'll post more on that later, but when I walked into the house I saw the most amazing thing in the lounge!

New coffee table

Isn't it beautiful?  The pincushion I made while on camp, the table I knew was coming but didn't really expect this; I was speechless.  
As to how this came about, back when the garage was bowled we kept the oregon pine from above the garage door and I asked my brother to make us a coffee table from that to replace the one you can just see on the right of the picture.  The old one is wobbly and is made from MDF with a very thin veneer on it.   Hooch (my brother's nickname) said it wasn't worth working with the oregon but would we like the rimu one he'd been given instead?   It wasn't finished at that point but he didn't need it after making an amazing one for his lounge a while back.   Of course I said yes please and didn't really think too much more about it except when he mentioned that he was working on it.
He finished it and dropped it off while I was at camp, we can't use it for 2 weeks while the resins dry properly, but in the meantime we can admire it (and try to keep Ian away from it).    Thomas told me it's heartwood rimu and when he said how much it was worth I almost fell over.    Apparently it's my birthday and Christmas present this year; to be honest I think it might be for the next 10 years!
It's amazingly gorgeous and I will be making a quilted runner to go on it and protect it; once we can use it then I'll find a new home for the old one.   I tried to ring my brother to say thankyou, but he wasn't home so I had to leave a probably fairly incoherent message on his phone.