One Project Down...

So.....the chairs and table....what an interesting project.  It took me most of the summer.  In the beginning, I decided to only work on the chairs while Isaac napped - from about 2:00-3:30 or 4:00...just to keep him out of the paint.  Well, it occurred to me that if I was going to paint two coats of brown, two coats of blue, sand the edges, and then add two coats of varnish, it was going to take FOREVER to get it finished only working on them 1 1/2 -2 hrs a day.  On that thought, I started taking them outside on a drop cloth to paint so Isaac could amuse himself outdoors instead of continually picking up a paint brush saying, "Mom - paint!"  If you remember how much rain we've had, you'll know this didn't go as swiftly as planned either.  The chairs weren't really a problem...time consuming but not a problem.  The table on the other hand made me curse the day I was born on more than one occasion.  There were three strips on each end of the table...maybe where tape had once resided? - that would not accept stain.  My husband, after talking to a guy in the finishing department, applied some paint thinner  and roughed it up alittle....it finally got to the point where it would accept.  BUT, by this time, so much sanding had been done that the first coat of stain was uneven.  Sigh...  And the strips still weren't accepting stain like the rest of the table.  SOOOO, I thought I'd put a thick coat of stain on and see how it turned out.  Got up the next morning to check it out and OMGosh!  Not stylin'!  So...I had to sand the table down...again.   At that point, I did not realize the importance of sanding the entire top as evenly as possible...the edges were sanded more than the middle...when I restained the table, the middle was slightly darker than the heavily sanded edges!!!! Are you feeling my pain????  I sanded and stained, sanded and stained, sanded and stained.....finally I decided to put varnish on and be done.  It is never going to look perfect...that kills me like you wouldn't believe...it does not make sense that you can put your every effort into something and it not turn out exactly as planned...(control freak alert!)  Anyway, I covered the table with two coats of varnish and called it quits.  It looks okay....I mean, I can live with it ya know??  I absolutely love my chairs....they turned out just how I wanted them....nice to be pleased with the result.  :)  And I am soooo glad the job is completed.  Of course, the other day my sweet husband says, "Since the table is uneven, you could always sand the varnish down and paint it and distress it"????!!!!!!  Whaaaaaat?????  :O

(By the way, I still have two pieces of furniture to finish...a prep center and a server type thing....I'm sure you'll hear more of that story...for now, I'm pretending they don't exist)