Bookcase Project

Yesterday I got a bit carried away.  I told myself that I was going to do the back of the bookcase and only the back.  An hour later I was finished with the project.  Not sure where I found the energy to complete is but I'm glad my part is done.  J promised that he was start sealing the bookcase this weekend.  I won't hold my breath on that promise.

If you'll please look behind the couch you'll see the bookcase before I attacked it with stain yesterday.
It needed the stain as I've had that bookcase unfinished since 2000.  Yup, about time it gets done!

Same bookcase now almost finished.  I used a Red Oak stain by Minwax.  The majority of my wood furnishings are either real cherry or oak that has a red oak finish.  The bookcase is pine, a much softer material and of course it picks up the stain differently.

Yes, the bar that is behind the bookcase is knotty pine.  It was my grandmother's and made from the leftover materials when her kitchen was built in the 40's.  I'm not going to re-stain the bar!

Top of the bookcase up close with a glare from the over head light fixture.  I think it came out pretty good.  We'll see after J applies the sealer.

Yes, I did this project in my living room.  I had the windows open and the fans blowing so that I wouldn't make the air polluted to the point I couldn't breath.  Its been too cold to work outside and J just hasn't cleaned up the garage floor so I wasn't going into the garage with this project.  I was very neat and made no spills.  I did get stain on my old clothes but they were full of holes so I didn't really care.

I've thought about buying this product for my kitchen table but I've never used it before.  Have any of you?

Monday is Wash Day

Yesterday I managed during the fatigue that I still have today to sew together the sweater pieces and crochet on the trim to both bonnet and sweater.  I guess I did accomplish something besides going to church.

Over the past week I lost the pound I gained back from using the lovage root tea.  This morning I got on the scale and found that I lost another 0.2 pounds.  Hey it is something.  Better than gaining weight.

Of course I have a load of laundry in the dryer right now.  It just wouldn't be a Monday if I wasn't doing laundry.

Still tired.  Thinking it is a fibromyalgia flare up.  I'm achey too.  My hands are swelling and hurt.  While in church I was massaging my hands to get the fluid back up out of my fingers.  Even my watch was digging in .

Today I have to find another project to do to keep myself busy.  There is always the staining of my bookcase that needs to be done.  Though with my asthma it isn't advised for me to be doing it.  I have asked J about a million times to do it but well he just doesn't get to it.  He'll sand it down but he is so afraid he'll leave the stain on too long and ruin the bookcase.  I can understand that.  I am a bit picky.  I'd like it to not end up as dark as the open shelving unit he did for all my cook books.  He never wiped the stain off when he did that project.  So dark...UGLY dark.

I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet on this one and flip the darn thing over and stain it myself.  Good thing I'm wearing sweat pants and an old t-shirt today.  I really won't care if I ruin those.

Dining Table Restoration Complete

I can't complain we didn't pay a dime, except for gas to truck it, for the table and hutch we have had for almost six years.
Here is a photo of it chemically stripped. It was a gift.  It had to be restored.

I started chemically stripping the table when J was in Iraq.  Since the sander is one of his tools he wanted to do all the sanding.  Be my guest.  You can see the hutch behind him. Unfortunately this had to be an indoor project as I just wasn't going to take the legs off the table and haul it out to the patio every day and back in at night.  The table had water stains on it from the plants the lady kept on the table.

I stained the table.  J wiped it off.  It really was a project we both worked on together.

This table is from the late 1960's back when large families and large gatherings were popular.  I think that the table measures abt. 120 " when fully open with all 3 leaves.

J and I both worked on the clear coat together too.  Here of course is a photo of J doing some of the clear coat.

This is the finished table.  Okay this is a photo I took before I put the two coats of wax on the table.   But it looks way better than it did when we got it.  In the far left you can see the three table leaves leaning against the wall.  Yes, they too will eventually get stripped along with the chairs.  Two years ago I did re-upholster the chairs and they look beautiful.  We received the dining room set with only five chairs so I do have one mismatched chair in the back.

Oh and the table is made of Walnut with a light red oak stain over it.  I mean light as I barely let the stain penetrate before I was having J wipe it back off. 

Even though I was in pain over the weekend, I ended up taking the oxycotin last night and early this morning, I still managed to get one project finished with my husband.  Funny how we bonded even more over a table and found that we can work well together.