diff --git a/cassandra-handler/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/cassandra/cql/CqlManager.java b/cassandra-handler/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/cassandra/cql/CqlManager.java
index cc4a379c..1046c138 100644
--- a/cassandra-handler/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/cassandra/cql/CqlManager.java
+++ b/cassandra-handler/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/cassandra/cql/CqlManager.java
@@ -6,15 +6,12 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.cassandra.CassandraException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.cassandra.CassandraProxyClient;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.cassandra.serde.AbstractColumnSerDe;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.FieldSchema;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.MetaException;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.Table;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.MetaStoreUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.*;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.Constants;
 import org.apache.thrift.TException;
 
-import java.util.Arrays;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.List;
-import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.*;
 
 /**
  * A class to handle the transaction to cassandra backend database.
@@ -23,6 +20,16 @@ public class CqlManager {
   final static public int DEFAULT_REPLICATION_FACTOR = 1;
   final static public String DEFAULT_STRATEGY = "org.apache.cassandra.locator.SimpleStrategy";
 
+    final static Map<String, String> hiveTypeToCqlType = new HashMap<String, String>();
+
+    static{
+        hiveTypeToCqlType.put(org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde.Constants.STRING_TYPE_NAME, "text");
+        hiveTypeToCqlType.put(org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde.Constants.INT_TYPE_NAME, "int");
+        hiveTypeToCqlType.put(org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde.Constants.BOOLEAN_TYPE_NAME, "boolean");
+        hiveTypeToCqlType.put(org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde.Constants.DOUBLE_TYPE_NAME, "double");
+        hiveTypeToCqlType.put(org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde.Constants.FLOAT_TYPE_NAME, "float");
+    }
+
   //Cassandra Host Name
   private final String host;
 
@@ -208,7 +215,35 @@ public CfDef createColumnFamily() throws MetaException {
     CfDef cf = getCfDef();
     try {
       cch.getClient().set_keyspace(keyspace);
-      cch.getClient().system_add_column_family(cf);
+        Properties properties = MetaStoreUtils.getSchema(tbl);
+
+        String columnsStr = (String) properties.get(Constants.META_TABLE_COLUMNS);
+        String columnTypesStr = (String) properties.get(Constants.META_TABLE_COLUMN_TYPES);
+
+        String[] columnNames = columnsStr.split(",");
+        String[] columnTypes = columnTypesStr.split(":");
+        if(columnNames.length != columnTypes.length){
+            throw new MetaException("Unable to create column family '" + columnFamilyName + ". Error: Column names count and column types count do not match");
+        }
+
+        StringBuilder queryBuilder = new StringBuilder("CREATE TABLE ");
+        queryBuilder.append(keyspace);
+        queryBuilder.append(".");
+        queryBuilder.append(columnFamilyName);
+        queryBuilder.append("(");
+        for(int i = 0; i < columnNames.length; i++) {
+            queryBuilder.append(columnNames[i]);
+            queryBuilder.append(" ");
+            queryBuilder.append(hiveTypeToCqlType.get(columnTypes[i]));
+            queryBuilder.append(",");
+        }
+        queryBuilder.append(" primary key (");
+        //todo how do we specify composite keys ?
+        queryBuilder.append(columnNames[0]);
+        queryBuilder.append(")");
+        queryBuilder.append(")");
+
+        cch.getClient().execute_cql3_query(ByteBufferUtil.bytes(queryBuilder.toString()), Compression.NONE, ConsistencyLevel.ONE);
       return cf;
     } catch (TException e) {
       throw new MetaException("Unable to create column family '" + columnFamilyName + "'. Error:"
@@ -219,6 +254,12 @@ public CfDef createColumnFamily() throws MetaException {
     } catch (SchemaDisagreementException e) {
       throw new MetaException("Unable to create column family '" + columnFamilyName + "'. Error:"
               + e.getMessage());
+    } catch (UnavailableException e) {
+        throw new MetaException("Unable to create column family '" + columnFamilyName + "'. Error:"
+                + e.getMessage());
+    } catch (TimedOutException e) {
+        throw new MetaException("Unable to create column family '" + columnFamilyName + "'. Error:"
+                + e.getMessage());
     }
 
   }
diff --git a/cassandra-handler/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/cassandra/serde/cql/AbstractCqlSerDe.java b/cassandra-handler/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/cassandra/serde/cql/AbstractCqlSerDe.java
index d0dd5b52..b3c2b79d 100644
--- a/cassandra-handler/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/cassandra/serde/cql/AbstractCqlSerDe.java
+++ b/cassandra-handler/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/cassandra/serde/cql/AbstractCqlSerDe.java
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.cassandra.input.cql.LazyCqlRow;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.cassandra.output.CassandraPut;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hive.cassandra.serde.RegularTableMapping;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.cassandra.serde.TableMapping;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde.Constants;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.SerDe;