Roll your own - Chessboard!

Last year I started playing chess online. I have grown to enjoy it and I still play online and I have been reading The Game of Chess by Tarrasch. I like playing online, but I really enjoy playing live with another person. When the holidays rolled around I asked my wife for a Chess board. I did the research on what I wanted and settled on a set from House of Stauton. Long story short, it turned into a big mess and their product was not the quality I wanted, nor was it the quality they advertised. I returned it and decided to make my own chessboard since I couldn't really afford to buy what I wanted retail. 

I did some research on how chessboards are made, and made some quick sketches of what I wanted. Below are some pictures of what I have started so far. 

I chose black walnut and maple for the two contrasting colored woods. Started out with two, eight foot long planks of each. 

The boards cut to 2" x 16" 

The boards were glued together and then cut in a perpendicular line to create the squares

All the boards glued together. Its going t take a lot of sanding to get it smooth.

After a few pases with the sander and its looking better already.

My next steps are to get some more wood and make a border for the board. I also need to sand it some more to get it as perfect as I can.