Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you're standing outside the fire...

17 August 2008

New Hobby

Klaron Kool and I have recently discovered the world of refinishing our furniture. In Columbus, Klaron found a dresser in the garbage pile of one of our neighbors. The dresser, was covered in 4 inches of snow and had child graffiti engraved on the sides. So, in the dark of the night, Klaron drug it over to our house leaving behind him the parallel tracks of a stolen dresser. Luckily it snowed even more that night and our tracks were covered.

After 6 months of me refusing to put my clothes in it because it leaves wood shaving on my shirts and in my socks, Klaron decided to refinish it. We went to the local Walmart and bought all the necessary supplies: Stain, Polyurethane, 180 grit sandpaper for the in between coats, 100 grit sandpaper for the hard to smooth areas and of course brushes of various sizes.

When we got it all home, I decided I wanted to refinish my nightstand that I had bought at the beloved DI, oh how I miss the DI, and painted about 3 years ago. So we each had our projects. Then we ran into 2 unavoidable dilemmas: 1. Where are we going to do this project because we live in an apartment? 2. Sanding with sandpaper is not very fun!!

To resolve dilemma #2 we made another trip to the local Walmart and bought A POWER HAND SANDER!! oh baby. After bringing it home we found the solution to dilemma #1 in our own living room. Here's what I mean:



By opening every window in the house, turning on a fan and putting down a little newspaper, our living room was magically transformed into a workspace.



We found we could even watch movies while sanding on the laptop.



After 2 days of inside refinishing in the living room, we started to find dust ON and IN EVERYTHING!!! So on Saturday we brought our projects down on to the driveway and there we spent the day sanding and staining. I wore a protective mask to shield my growing baby from the dangerous fumes and dust.



Klaron sure does love his sander!!! What a fun new hobby we've found. Hopefully someday we'll be able to have a real workspace to do some serious woodworking!!

4 comments:

Aubrielle said...

Wow...sounds like fun! :0 When you come back, I've got a few things you can refinish too! Sound like a plan? Did they end up alright? I sure hope so.

Jon. Jamie. Ethan. Lynsi. Katie. said...

I remember tha dresser..wasn't it the one upstairs in your room or by the room, and you told me not to touch it cause it would stain my hand or something like that.... NICE WORK!!! I can't wait to see the finsished product!!!!!! YEAH! CRAMERS COMING BACK NEXT MONTH!!

Jenny @ An Apple for the Crafter said...

Let's see the finished product!
Chance and I redid lamps. His aunt gave them to us and they were filty and a really ugly brass. Now they are super clean and brushed pewter (looking). Yay for HGTV!

Jon. Jamie. Ethan. Lynsi. Katie. said...

posted the chocolate cake recipe! WHen are your b-day's I forget? COming up soon is that why you wanted the cake recipe! I can help ya out!!! Miss ya and see you this month! WAHOOOOOOOOOO!