A Project 9.5 Years in the Making

So the story goes...when Garrett and I were getting ready to get married in June of 2000, we were trying our hardest to scrounge up some furnishings for our newlywed apartment. We had been given a hand-me-down mattress, one or two end tables, a TV, a couch, etc. All of the items were several years old but still functioning...and free--so of course we accepted them. The only thing we didn't have yet was a table and chairs. And of course we had no money to purchase them. As luck would have it, our high school secretary (Mrs. Nelson, for those of you SR folk reading this) was having an estate sale selling off her mother's belongings, who had passed away not too long before that. Through word of mouth (I believe it was from someone in my ward), we heard she had a nice hard wood table and four chairs for sale for $125. They were 35 years old and looked the part, but still nice and sturdy. (and actually one of the original chairs had broken, so we got 3 originals and 1 unmatching chair with it)

So, we went and checked them out and figured $125 was not too bad a price to pay especially since the table was solid and durable, AND we could always refinish it one day. I think I probably told that to every person that every ate at our table. "Yeah, it's a really nice solid table. It looks pretty rough, but I'm gonna finish it some day." I'm pretty sure you've heard me say that line if you've ever been to my house. And let me say it really wasn't the prettiest of tables when we bought it, it had 35 years worth of use under its belt. BUT, we were going to refinish it one day.

So take 35 years of use prior to us, then almost 10 years worth of use that we've given it and let's just say it looked bad. The finish on it had almost completely worn all the way down and it was soft, and everything stuck to it. So for years, playing a card game was interesting when all the cards were sticking to the table. So, back mid-August, we were playing a rousing game of Wackee Six with friends and none of us could peel our cards off the table to play them (which is an integral part of the game), and that was just the straw that broke the camel's back. It had to be done or we needed to buy a new table. It was getting ridiculous! But I just couldn't look past the potential of that hard wood pine pedestal table with two extension leaves.

So we just decided to dive in and never look back. We hauled the pedestal and the top down to the garage and got to work. And oh, what a lot of work it was! We knew it was going to take a while, but of course since this was our first furniture refinish project, we learned a lot along the way.

And...I realize now that I committed one of the most cardinal sins of a project such as this--I didn't even take one decent "before" photo. I didn't take any until we had the stain on the top stripped and started sanding. Oops! But if you've been to my house, you'll surely remember just how bad it was and perhaps you've noticed it in pictures I've posted in the past. But here is a run down of the steps it took to finish our table:

1. Strip the finish from the top
2. Scrape the finish from the top
3. Wash the top
4. Sand the top with 3 different sand paper grits (this part took FOREVER. We sanded until the cows came home I think)
5. Take the pedestal into a furniture place to get "dip stripped". (Saved us a lot of work, but still required lots and lots of sanding.)
6. Sand the pedestal with 3 different sand paper grits
7. Two coats of Rosewood stain on each piece
8. 6 coats of tung oil semi-gloss finish on table top, 4 on pedestal. Buffing in between each coat.
9. Drying several hours between coats of finish
10. Let cure in the garage for a few days.
11. Haul it up the stairs and enjoy having a table again after eating and spilling everything on the floor for a month!

So here are a few pictures of the "during" process.
The table had TONS of big, deep grooves in it from 45 years worth of wear. They took a lot of work to sand out.

And these particular grooves were from Tyler about 3 years ago when he got a hammer and just went to town banging on the table one day. And what's funny is that at the time, I didn't care all that much because it just 'blended in' with the rest of the table. But as luck would have it, those were way too deep and they were impossible to get sanded out good enough. So if you look closely at it now, you can still see those... Oh well!
And I kept getting frustrated that it was taking us SOOO long to finish this, but it's no wonder when you have two busy boys such as these to wreak havoc on the garage while you're working on it and tie up all of the time when you're not working. :)
Such great helpers...right?
And here is the finished project. After a LOT of blood, sweat, and tears it is finished. And another cardinal sin--I didn't take a good picture of it out in the garage before we brought it up. It would have been much easier to see the entire thing if I had done that. These pictures really don't do it justice. Oh well! We are glad to have it done, glad to not be eating on the floor anymore, and glad to move on to other projects! And it is definitely not perfect, we are noticing more and more little things that aren't 'perfect' about it, but it is 100,000 times better than it was, so I guess we'll chalk it up as a success! I'm glad I held on to my ugly looking table that had lots of potential for 9 1/2 years!

And we didn't even waste our time on the chairs. They are way too junky and would require way too much work to mess with anyways. So we've just got nasty looking chairs for now, but we plan on buying 6 unfinished chairs and staining and finishing them ourselves. If we can cut out the stripping and sanding, then I don't think it'll be too bad. So we're thinking that might be our project over Christmas...I suppose we shall see!

One last note--we were amazed at how long it took for the finish to cure in the humid/hot weather here. It was only supposed to take a day or two and I think we ended up leaving it down in the garage for an entire week, and still felt like it was a little bit too soon, but we couldn't take it anymore!