Next Step in the Kitchen Table Redo

I just finished the stripping/sanding part of the kitchen table redo.  It looks good!  The wood is a really cool color underneath the two or three layers of paint and stain it had on it. 

 This table has seen some serious use.  This is what the back of half of the table top looked like.  Pretty gross. I couldn't get the wood brace all the way off because one of the holes has a plug in it so I just had to let it swivel around while I stripped and sanded.

These are the finished base and table top pieces. Well, finished with taking off the old paint and stain.  It looks like the table was originally a light oak stain and someone stained it darker red brown at some later point.  Then the table top had the brown paint on it too. 

It was quite the job getting all of that off.  The table top was the hardest part.  I used stripper a couple times, but it didn't get all the paint off.  It did loosen it up though, so that was nice.  I didn't want to be near the stripper as I was worried about the fumes, so I did it outside and put it on really quick then stayed away while it did its magic.  After I used up the stripper I decided sanding would probably have better results and the wood is solid so I wasn't worried about it taking too much off.  Sure enough it worked like a charm.  Well, a very long and time consuming charm.  I worked on this all morning and it's 1:30PM now.  I don't really want to add up how many hours that means I spent sanding. :)  The good thing is that it is essentially done now.  There is a curved wood piece that goes on the underside of the table top that I have not finished, but all in good time. I'm done for today for sure.

Kitchen Table Redo

I wish I had a beforehand picture of the table, but I neglected to take one.  Bill's parents gave us a table they had picked up at DI several years ago.  It's a sturdy nice-looking table, but the DI people put packing tape on the top of it and when my FIL went to take it off, the varnish came off.  So annoying.  He tried to fix it by painting the table top, but he used the wrong kind of paint and it ended up being really sticky.  It's been sitting in their garage for years and they said we could have it.  I've never refinished something, but it seemed definitely worth the effort. I took it apart this morning and started the stripping process.  I think Las Vegas temperatures were a bit too hot for the stripper, so it only kind of worked.  I'll have to do it again, but at least some of the paint and polyurethane came off.  I want to finish it in the ebony stain we did everything else in.  The original stain was beautiful, but it doesn't match our chairs and the table top is a problem as I mentioned. 

The table is round with two leaves that will let 6 people sit around it if we put them in.  It is solid wood. No laminate here!  It was rather old and dusty when I took it apart and the screws are pretty rusty, but it will finish nicely with some effort.  Hopefully it works out like I am planning because if it does than we are totally set up furniture-wise when we go back to Utah.  Well, for us at least.  Add the baby in and that's a different story, but we'll cross that bridge in a few months.

Here's the base and the underside of the tabletop that I dismantled. If you click on the picture you can see the color the tabletop was painted.

Here is one half of the tabletop that I am working on stripping plus the two leaves.

About those Projects

We've had a bunch of unfinished furniture floating around our laundry room and extra bedroom for weeks now waiting to be stained and finished.  I finally decided to work on them this week and get them done.  I have to say, I hate this part of building furniture.  It is so hard to get it perfect.  Not that it is ever perfect, but I at least like all the visible surfaces to be fairly smooth and varnished evenly.

Bill and I hit a real snag when we had varnished the chairs and he went at one with the polyurethane.  The stain is so super dark that everything shows up on it.  I love how it has turned out, but on this chair Bill did, for some reason the polyurethane made whitish grey streaks all over the chair.  Hideous. And we have no idea why.  So we set it aside and finished some of the other staining.  The next morning I tried again with a similar result, though on a smaller scale.  I think the polyurethane must have gotten left out in the heat and is bad now. Very annoying.  I went over a picked up a new can from Lowe's and kept on going.  Apparently it is not just the polyurethane, but something with the varnish as well.  I don't really know.  You can see it on the picture with both nightstands on it. The drawer on the left has some grey streaks on it too.  I decided it was not worth redoing anything over, and the few places that ended up a bit streaky are not super noticeable.  It's do it yourself anyway so it's supposed to have character, right? :)

Anyway, I am just super glad to be done.  These are all the completed projects: two nightstands, an end table, 3 chairs, and a console table I designed myself with plans I had for a bigger one. I'm pretty proud of that.  I wanted to use the scraps we had since we have nowhere to put them when we go back to Utah.  I was able to design and build this with only 2 boards purchased. It cost $4. :)  I wanted a place to put our plants besides our kitchen table and then it will get used as an entryway table in our apartment in Utah for keys and purses and such. We have one more chair built, but it's the one with all the grey streaks, so it is going to get stained and refinished again before being put to use.  

Console table. The plants will go on it once it is fully dry and I have a cloth to put on the top so the plants don't hurt the finish.

The end table to match the one I built earlier this summer.

The nightstands. I love the knobs and they will look fantastic in our bedroom.

The chairs.  I have two more with all the pieces cut out but not put together and one that needs to be re-stained to fix the funny grey marks for a total of six.  I think I'm going to make some cushions for these chairs. Maybe in bright yellow or lime green or even turquoise.  I haven't decided yet.  I love super bright colors these days.

 You know what the real beauty of all this furniture is? We don't have to buy these things when we go back to Utah and need to furnish an apartment!  I figured it out and with all the furniture we made, the total price tag came up to a bit over $300. That doesn't include the sander and saw we bought, but those are going to last forever.  Bill's parents gave us a kitchen table that I have just started the process of refinishing. When that is done, we will have a table and 6 chairs, 2 end tables, a coffee table, a console table, and 2 nightstands. Not bad for $300.  And now I have some serious carpentry skills that I plan to use for many projects in the future.  Some of these are going to last a really long time. Others probably not so much just because of the low quality of wood we chose to buy.  I'll do that differently in the future.  I think the chairs will be the first to kick the bucket, but hey, they're pretty now and they work.  

Why I Haven't Blogged Lately

I keep thinking I should sit down and write a blog entry, but every time I do I wonder what in the world I should write about. This blog has historically been a place to share projects I've done, adventures Bill and I have gone on, and other entertaining things that make our lives amusing. The fact is, lately things have gotten rather boring around here, and the things I am doing don't seem so interesting to share.  I read a friend's blog post today though, and it inspired me to write about something different.

I have been struggling lately with being content.  There are lots of reasons for this.  I'm in my first trimester of pregnancy and dealing with all that comes with that.  I can't even really complain about it because my symptoms aren't that bad. I have not thrown up, I have only gotten close a couple of times, and most of the time I feel pretty good. But there are times every day that I don't, and they are frustrating. Maybe if I was super busy and the days were passing quickly I would not find it a problem, but time is moving very slowly right now.  I am starting to expand in areas I kind of wish I weren't, though it's really only me that can see it. Call me crazy since I wanted to be pregnant, but hey, every pregnant girl goes through it.

It is very hot these days in Las Vegas.  I think it hit 113 degrees yesterday and that seems to be the norm for around 5PM these days.  I can bare the heat enough to work outside on some of my building projects until about 11AM or noon.  That is when the shade goes away on the back porch and the varnish starts drying too fast or I am sweaty beyond belief and can't deal with it anymore. In my friend's post I linked to above, she talked about getting married so young that she had not yet defined who she was, so now she wonders who she was before she was Simon's mom.  I didn't get married young.  I had plenty of years to find myself and I feel pretty good about what I found. I love the outdoors. I love to be active. I like playing sports and hiking and rock climbing and those kinds of things.  Adventures make my life interesting and that's why this blog is mostly about the ones Bill and I have.  This heat is seriously cramping my style.  Oh, and being in a new place without good friends and people to do things with.  I have felt more isolated this summer than I have in years.  I think it is the lack of interaction with people during the day and the lack of things to do.  We came to Las Vegas because Bill got an amazing internship that pays really well and we were excited to be near his family.  They are wonderful.  It is really fun to live near them.  But in the process I sacrificed a number of excellent internship opportunities of my own and nothing much has surfaced since we got here.  It does look like I have found some volunteer opportunities with the city, so hopefully some good will come of that.  I just got a phone call about it yesterday so I do not know the details yet. 

Below it all, I have some huge uncertainties about the future.  I'm so excited to get back into school in August.  At the same time, I only have one year left until my college education ends for good.  I just don't see a PhD in my future, so this looks to be the end of the road for full time schooling.  I imagine I will take classes in the future, but never a full time program again.  The fact is, I love going to school. I adore learning and having projects and papers and things that I feel like i have accomplished.  Coming back to grad school after three years in the workforce was a dream come true for me despite not having a clue what I was going to do with the degree or what path my life would take.  I am a firm believer in the value of education whether I am making big bucks from it or not.  But now that I see the end in sight, it is bittersweet.  I'm having this baby the first month of my last semester.  How the heck is that even going to work?!  I have no regrets over being pregnant now, but I am trying not to think about how hard those first three months are going to be.  Then when they are over, I'm trying not to think about what it will be like to be done with school and not have a clue what to do with myself.  I'm sure wonderful things will come with starting motherhood and having an infant to care for, but I still wonder and worry and particularly as my level of contentedness this summer has swiftly diminished over time, I just think about the future and hope something changes in me between now and next summer.

This has gotten a bit too serious even for me. :)  I'm not doing terrible, but I do have these worries and fears that I am dealing with and writing about them helps.  I know I'm not the only one out there who has thought of these things and wondered how they will survive and be happy and content.  Things will work out, and in the meantime I'll keep trying to find interesting things to do despite the blasted heat.  I have never been a fan of Las Vegas, but I made a valiant effort coming down here to give it a fair chance.  It really is a nice place, but this cramping of mine and Bill's lifestyle is driving me a bit bonkers.  Mountains and trees and beautiful hikes and mountain vistas, how I miss you!  Bill is going to have to get one seriously amazing job offer for us to come back to Las Vegas for good or go to Phoenix or some other place this hot in the summertime.  It really should not be allowed.  I will do my best not to complain about temperatures in the 90s ever again.  That is cool people!

The news is out

For all those lovely people that read my blog now and again, it's time for my announcement that has made me unable to think of anything to blog about for the last month.  I'm pregnant and due January 22nd!  I finally had my first appointment today after having to reschedule and they agree, I am most definitely expecting. :)  Things are going well other than a touch of morning sickness these days.  I know lots of people that have had it far worse, so I can't complain that much.  I just get to eat all the time now to avoid the sicky feelings.  I'm not particularly showing yet, though my stomach sure doesn't look the same as two months ago, but that should come soon enough. Yay for babies!

Great Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was awesome.  Wish I had some pictures to show for it... We had a big family breakfast Saturday morning, then spent the rest of the day lounging mostly.  That was great.  Bill took me out for a baked potato at Jason's Deli.  It sounded so good to me, so we headed over there. They are so huge!  We split one and it was still super filling.  That evening we watched Shrek Ever After.  Funny movie.  I recommend it.

Sunday we had a pizza palooza to celebrate my BIL Vince's birthday.  It's a family tradition.  We all go to Bill's parent's house and his dad makes a whole bunch of amazing thin crust pizzas.  He's got pizza stones, even a pizza paddle, and the process down to a science.  They made 16 pizzas.  Probably 20 people were there so we ate a serious quantity of pizza. :) 

Monday Bill helped his dad with a procedure at his dental office.  He worked for him as a dental assistant as a teenager, so he helps sometimes on family procedures when we're here.  The rest of the day we spent building.  Bill put a coat of stain on the nightstand I had already built and I assembled the second one.  I screwed one of the boards on half an inch higher than I was supposed to and didn't realize it, so I ended up cutting a bunch of the boards shorter to fit before I realized what had happened.  Not a big deal.  It looks great.  I just got to use my saw more. :)

We went out to Thai food with Bill's aunt and uncle Monday night. They took us to this restaurant up in northwest Las Vegas that was amazing!  Bill's uncle went to Thailand on his mission so he knows good Thai food.  He ordered in Thai and everything.  It was pretty sweet. 

Good weekend overall.  It's finally starting to get hot here during the day, but thankfully is still cooling down at night.  I think it hit a 100 degrees for the first time this weekend.  The worst is when it only gets down to like 90 degrees in the evening. That's what I'm not looking forward to, but so far I've really enjoyed the weather.  I used to think Las Vegas was ugly, but I kind of like it now.  It's definitely dessert, but a pretty one.

Anyway, I've got to get going on my day so I'm off.  Hope everyone else had a fantastic weekend too!