Step by Step

We're back from our two week trip home, and things are starting to get close to picking up. My wonderful husband bought me an electric disc sander for when the time finally comes to start tearing stuff apart. He's currently working the midnight shift (10:30 PM-6:30 AM), so I've switched my sleep schedule to correlate with his. Since this is the case, I'm up most the night, and don't really want to be running a power tool outside after dark. So, for the moment, I'm focusing my attentions on paint choices. Really, the Valspar $3.00 paint samples are quite possibly my new favorite thing. If I don't like the color on one piece, I don't feel guilty and set it aside for a later piece. I'm also slowly accumulating a paint swatch collection. Each time we venture to Lowe's or Home Depot (True Value is next on my list, as soon as I can find one nearby), I come home with a decent stack of them. I'm so excited to get this project rolling!

I've been regularly perusing Craigslist in my region (and by regularly, I mean obsessively. Multiple times an hour obsessive.), and came across a darling little table for twenty dollars. When I showed my husband, he was less than enthused. While scouring this morning, however, I found that the poster lowered the price to fifteen, and managed to beg my way into this lovely piece. There is plenty of work to be done, including removing the folding leaves, as I won't have much use for them (I'm planning on using it as a nightstand for our spare bedroom). The light spots you see in front are pieces of...something (laminate?) that was placed along the outer edges of the top for protection, I'm assuming. I'm going to pry them all off and sand it smooth. Not worth bothering with too much, and upon further inspection, it pops right off. Wonderful. This table smells amazing. That smell that only old wood can take on, and the cherry color inside the drawers is absolutely marvelous. Whatever color I decide to paint it, I'm only going to put paper over the insides with a bit of glue, to allow the next owner to salvage the original color. The red just won't go with my scheme.  Here she is, flaws and all:

I think she'll look pretty chic once I get her cleaned up a bit, don't you? A fresh coat of paint never hurt anyone.

I've collected a few odds and ends in the past month, including a hand carved wooden statue my husband's aunt let us pick out for our wedding present. She's immensely talented, and I feel quite lucky to have been given suck a personal gift. I also retrieved a few things from my old home in Kansas City, and hope to incorporate some of those as well. So many ideas, so little funding! The cleaning begins soon, and then, the real fun begins.

Is anyone else a little afraid to trust me with an electric sander?

Marilyn