My First Time Stripping

Now . . .get ready for the first installment of an exciting new narrative called . . .

ADVENTURES IN REFINISHING

As the scene opens, our hero, Elisabeth, is trying, for the first time, to refinish a French-style night table she just bought. Unfortunately, the nightstand has been painted yellow and brown. Elisabeth's mission is to strip the nightstand of all color and refinish it a nice dark brown. Can she do it? Will she be able to open the canister of paint stripper without breaking her hand? Let's find out now on . . .

ADVENTURES IN REFINISHING

So, I bought a yellow and brown French-style nightstand off craigslist for 50 bucks. It's really nice, but the yellow and brown doesn't do it for me. (The paint is hideous.) Today, I went to home depot and bought paint stripper, a plastic scraper, some gloves, and one of those surgical masks to help with the life-snuffing fumes coming from the paint stripper.

Well, I was so excited to start, that I immediately set everything up in my parents' driveway. After three solid minutes of trying desperately to open the paint stripper can -- and yelling at it the entire time -- I finally called a man who was walking across the street to come help me. It turns out he's the guy who just moved into the house I liked up the street. (When it was for sale, I made a deal with myself that if they cut the price in half and then took an additional 30% off -- thus bringing the price down the top of my price range--I would buy it.)He couldn't get it open, so he took it home and used a tool to clamp it and open it. It was cool, because he's a single/divorced/widowed guy with a little girl. He's dating the woman who lives across from my parents. (Oh well, can't win 'em all) Even so, it was nice to meet him.

After the can-opening fiasco was over, I sprayed some paint stripper on the back of my nightstand, covered it with a tarp, and took my dog for a walk. As we were walking, there was a cloud burst, which sent torrents of rain onto the ground, onto my dog, and onto my pants and shoes. (I picked up an umbrella at my apartment during our walk) When I came home, the nightstand was nice and dry under the tarp, but its drawer, which I left sitting a short distance away, was soaked. After going inside and drying off the dog with a towel, I came back out and moved the whole operation into the tiny clear space in the front part of my parents' garage. I then tried to scrape the little part on the back where I had first put the paint thinner. Beautiful! The hideous yellow paint came off easily to reveal wood underneath. Heartened, I sprayed the entire surface of the top of the nightstand, coming back a few minutes later to scrape it off. Cripes! How many coats of paint is under there??? I scraped and scraped. The top chocolate brown layer came off pretty easily, revealing sub layers of pink, green, and white paint. Honestly! So, I scraped and scraped, until the top of my nightstand looked like someone had smeared different colors of frosting all over it. I sprayed it again, went inside, and then came out a few minutes later to try again. Once again, the paint teased me. It came off in little clumps, but, for the most part, it stood fast -- too gummy and sticky and thick to come off easily. After several minutes of fitful scraping, I came back inside and called it a night. I wonder how many scrapers I will have to ruin before the top of that nightstand is ready to sand and refinish. ugh.

I'll keep you posted. And, as soon as I can find my parents' digital camera (my mom reorganized and hid everything), I will provide you with pictures.

FUN FRIDAY

Friday was fun! Hubert came with my family to our church's dinner theatre. Then I went to see a band with Axun!

I'll write more about that later. I wish I had taken pictures!

This week we are painting my humble abode! I can't wait!

I need to send pictures of that, too.

There's a lot to say but I need to finish planning before it gets too late!

Elisabeth