A Deathly Table and a Cooperative Desk

I have been wanting to know how to refinish furniture for quite a while.  Mom has done quite a bit. Scott did our kitchen table when I was pregnant for Adelyn.  I had to opt out for that reason.  So when we decided it was time to do the dining room table, passed down from my grandpa's sister, I was extremely excited. 

 I went off of Scott's knowledge of what he remembered from the last time.  We began during June. I had no activities going on and neither did the kids.  We got our stripping stuff, the scrubbing things, the sanding tools, wood staining brushes, and Pecan wood stain.  I knew nothing about stain so I assumed the color and brand was fine.  The stripping and sanding were very tiring and I had to take a few breaks. Doing the table legs was difficult with the amount of creases and cracks in them. When we got to the staining part, it went on super thick regardless of how hard we tried to put in on thin.  It was kind of a redish color as well. It looked nothing like wood stain and more like we had painted it. So we decided to try again. We had sanded before stripping which is backwards.  

Round 2

Stripped the table.  Sanded the table. Stained.  Still looked painted. Sigh. Called Mom.  Mom said she always used Minwax.  Thinking about redoing the thing again sounded exhausting.  I showed a few people who were also very confused.  My neighbor Brandie discovered that the color may be the problem.  So I went for it.

Round 3

I went out and got an Oak color from the Minwax brand.  Brandie also loaned us her electric sander which made a huge difference. I still had to do the table legs by hand with all of the creases.  We got it completely ready for staining. After wiping it with water/vinegar, I took a break.  When I went to apply the new can called Weathered Oak, I saw that it went on looking like wood and looked completely different! Yes!  My friend Kari, who was visiting, thought it looked much better as well! Brandie came over and confirmed our thoughts. So I took a couple of days putting on coats and letting it dry.  Mom and Dad came to visit and they helped me work on it AND start on a desk for the kids that needed to be refinished. Mom and I were putting finishing touches on it and noticed that the color looked more gray when put on than it did previously.  We couldn't figure it out, but we finally was ready to put the polyurethane on. Yes! I was ready.  After working on little details with sanding and staining I was ready. 

After Mom and I put a coat on though, it left gray dots on the table. Uhhh, why? We tried to fix it, but it smudged. Um, no. This was not happening. Seriously?  I tried to re-sand it the tiny spots and re-stain but the color did not look the same.  It had the really gray look.  I was fuming.  I was not about to re-do this table again. Dad tried to do a different color but sanding it even more made the wood look different.  Fail.

Round 4

So after Mom and Dad left I tried to re-do particular parts but that Weathered Oak did not look the same as it had the very first time.  The other color dad tried was not staining as dark as it should have.  I tried a 3rd color that also did not stain as dark as it should have. I went for it again, but this time just the top. There was no way I was doing the detailed legs again.  I re-sanded and made sure the wood all the same. I decided to get the darkest color I could find and went with Dark Walnut.  I put the first stroke on.  Much better!! I covered the table in a couple of Dark Walnut coats.  When it came to put the polyurethane, I was feeling a little paranoid.  If this table got messed up again, it possibly would have to go to the junk yard.  We had considered it a few times at this point. I polyurethaned with a foam brush. I wasn't and still am not particularly thrilled with the brush marks that I can still see but it was way better than what it had been before!!  

Here it is below.  Began in June of 2013 and brought back in the house in September.  After 4 rounds of sanding and staining. The top is ever so slightly darker than the legs and I can see a few brush strokes but at this point...I'm good.

Here is the desk Mom and I started while waiting for the stain to dry on the table during round 3.  It took 3 days. So much easier and so much more cooperative. No problems with polyurethane.

Darth Adelyn

The lines below were my post on Facebook back in August.  It made it to Fail Blog somehow.  Definitely made me laugh.  

http://cheezburger.com/7731731968

Funny Blips

So we have encountered a few funny lines from the kids since the last time I wrote and I've tried to write some off them down.  The first one begins with Zachary after a few Tiger Cub meetings.

Zachary came home with several patches to start off the uniform.  I have not used my sewing machine in a while.  I tried to pull it out and sew one on the sleeve. I ended up yelling at the machine, taking 15 minutes to wind and thread the bobbin, and then sewed both sides of the sleeve together in one spot. Sigh. So so Zachary tells me as we are leaving his school one day says, "I know you don't like sewing much but I am going to have a lot of patches to sew, so you need to start getting in the habit of it." Really? Well...Great, I'm just glad that you understand what habits are.  Good first step for life!

We have been fostering my "stepsister" Fiona while Mom makes a lot of trips to Louisiana and Dad is working his rotation.  Yes, she is the brown and white furry one who has a bad habit of dribbling water all over the floor after drinking and has a whole lot of energy that I wish she would share with me.   Fiona also has a habit of scoping out the kitchen counters when she comes in.  You know...just to make sure they are clean.  A few weeks ago she happened to be scoping out the sink.  When I finally noticed and barked at her about it, she hopped down.  Sweet Adelyn, however, took up for her and said, "Fiona was trying to wash her hands."

This halloween we are planning to all go as the Skywalker family.  I am like BEYOND excited.  Yes, they are some of my favorite childhood movies.  Zachary and Adelyn will be Luke and Leia.  Scott and I will be Anakin and Padme.  Works well! Sandy looks a lot like Yoda so one Saturday morning we discussed him pretending to be Yoda.  The question then came up about who Fiona would be.  Scott suggested Jabba the Hutt.  Zachary thought about it and said, "Yes, because she is kind of like a criminal anyway."  Scott laughed.  Umm, ok, well, just don't tell her parents.

My last neat memory of lines from the kids is from Zachary.  We have been discussing good germs vs bad germs and why we need to have some germs/bacteria in us.  As I was going through the bedtime routine with them, Zachary pipes up and says, "So I've got this theory."  Shock of silence from Mom. Really? 6 yr old Zachary has a theory?  "You do?" I say.  "Yes.  I think that bad germs are what causes pain when we are hurting."  Wow. Well, you may be on to something kid.  How many other theories have you not shared with us yet?