A few months back a friend introduced me to a yard sale page on Facebook, and ever since then I have been on the hunt for the perfect dresser for my bedroom. We have refinished two dressers so I thought to myself, "self, you have some pretty dang good skills and you can make any dresser look like it came from Restoration Hardware!" This is false. All the dressers I have refinished had only happened because of major assistance from people who actually have skills (my parents and Rhett's mom). However, I put aside all logic and reason and I tell myself I can do anything! So we found the perfect dresser last week with gorgeous details, 9 drawers, wide and not tall! It was everything I dreamed of. I decided to be more adventurous and stain it for a more classic look (our previous refinishing projects were painted).
I gather all my supplies and researched everything there is to know on Pinterest about how to stain it perfectly, and got to work. Well turns out stripper doesn't really like the cold and makes it SUPER hard to strip. Like seriously no progress after several hours. So we decide to move it into the basement and blast it with a space heater. I had HUGE success with this small adjustment--stripped the whole top in an hour and then completed another side. I decided I wanted to tackle a drawer. The drawers had a ton of detailing so I was nervous about how to get the stripper off without being able to use a scraper.
Now is the time that I should mention that I made all this progress one morning while my kids were "playing" I called my favorite babysitter--Daniel Tiger, and got to work. Everything was perfect. I got those two sides finished and put stripper on the drawers. I come upstairs to happy kids and I am like WHO IS BOSS?! ME! So I feed them lunch and put them down for naps.
This is NOT normal. I am not the mom who tackles projects, especially while my kids are awake. I am not even the mom who attempts projects alone. Don't worry things will return to normal in a few.
I clean up the top and the side and they look amazing. I tell myself I should sand them and wait for the drawers to set a little bit longer. Well I jumped the gun and wanted to see how easy the varnish and stain came off without a scraper. I was definitely overly optimistic about this outcome. the varnish came off with a GREAT deal of scruibbing and brushing. I was beginning to get discouraged, so I added more stripper and waited a little longer. I saw bubbling--bubbling is good! I began brushing ferociously and saw the color was coming up!! I was so excited until I realized the color was coming off of a plastic/veneer fake wood. NOOOOOO. Turns out you can still stain this crap. But I am SOO MAD guys. SO mad. This just adds another level of difficulty and uncertainty to the project. So basically right as I reach the height of pissed fury, James comes down the stairs to announce that he is awake.
He had been "napping" for less than an hour so I called his bluff. I was goobed up with stain and told him to wait at the top of the stairs. He did not wait. He had to inform me that he was a ghost and came bursting downstairs touching EVERYTHING! stripper on his baby hands and messing up my stuff. Not okay. I drag him up the stairs and say, "stay there, I'll be right up!" Next thing I know he is screaming at the top of his lungs that he can't find his blanket. I try to hurry and hush him because he brother was still sleeping. Too late. He was screaming from baby Will's door, because he was convinced the blanket was with him. It wasn't. It was literally next to him on the floor.
So now William is awake, James is "awake" and my beautiful project dresser is really just turning into a project. I bring all the babies downstairs and return to the basement to clean up. James comes down crying because he peed on the kitchen floor and "Baby Wow wants to get my pee!"
This is normal.
