The insanity of this particular nut getting a house on the market

Thank God for April and being less scheduled (on purpose, once I realized how overscheduled March was). My dear friend Karen came over one afternoon because she is awesome like that. She touched up my kitchen cabinets, painted trim, put up some hardware, touched up kitchen walls, and was generally awesome. I also put a fresh coat of stain/varnish on the upstairs bathroom cabinets and mirrors, fixed the seal along the tub, etc. 
My first at-home productive weekend in a month (a week or two ago) was awesome. I repainted the front door, door hardware, replaced outdoor light fixture, painted the mailbox and address numbers, sanded and spray painted the bathroom light fixture to cover the rust spots, reinstalled it, found touch up paint for the dining room (SCORE!).

Owen came over for a couple hours and removed adhesive from the front siding (thanks to a great prank from many years ago that included a lot of bows stuck all over the front of my house) and did a bit of yard work for me. And then, after my half hour dinner break, I worked on plumbing... actually, I had started in the afternoon... (prepare for a plumbing rant)

Ahem. So I was replacing the faucets in both bathrooms and the kitchen. They were all old, kind of gross, and had broken parts I hadn't been able to find replacement parts for. So the upstairs bathroom was the real bugger in all of this. I realized later it was because I've already replaced the drain piping in the downstairs bathroom a few years ago (and it was a bugger then) and had replaced the kitchen drain piping when I replaced the garbage disposal a few years ago (also a bugger). And I recently replaced the laundry room sink and had to replace drain piping there too. Basically, this was the one remaining sink to labor over the corroded, nasty drain piping.

In the instructions that come with the new faucet, it reads "2. Removed existing faucet and drain." Like it should take about 37 seconds to disconnect and then you can move on with steps 3-12 with great ease. It was not to be so at the Homestead. It took me over 2 hours to just disconnect the faucet and deal with the leaking valve. Absolutely maddening. Rekindling my loathing of all things plumbing. And of course, the new faucet needs new connection tubes in different sizes than the existing ones. And... right, I'll spare you some of the cruddy, scummy, corroded details... (I said "some" not "all")

 

Let's just say I made a run to Ace late afternoon (because by then Owen was there so I wouldn't have to just leave the house with the door open since the paint was still wet), I got the connection hoses and a couple parts for the valve issue. After dinner, I went back to the plumbing... and of course, after several more hours, needed another part... after the hardware stores were closed... so I trekked to Walmart in all of my plumbing glory (which included smelling of liquid wrench because I'd been using a lot of it and at one point, while shifting awkwardly around under the sink to try to get a better angle and get some traction on some corroded stuck plumbing, I managed to lay on the spray bottle which promptly discharged it's smelly contents into my hair -- I told you, I'm really good at this stuff :)  

Anyway, there I was in a desperate state looking for a washer for the drain at Walmart... whose plumbing department let me down big time (no surprise there). I did pick up another set of drain hoses which I realized I would need for the second bathroom faucet. So I stood in line with 30 other people at 10 pm at Walmart, waiting for the two tired cashiers to ring up my stupid hoses... Hoping against hope, I went from there to Meijer, sure their plumbing department is about as well equipped as Walmart... but hoping they might carry a washer to stop the drain leak and be able to turn on the water that evening... please God!!  Gloriously, Meijer had a little package called "Plumbing washers" that had a dozen different sizes (including the one I needed) for $3. Fabulous. And the self scan registers work at Meijer. Leaving there at 11 pm and feeling like a million bucks (and you already know I looked and smelled like a million bucks) I trekked home with my precious plumbing parts.

 

I finally finished the upstairs bathroom (well mostly, because there was still a slight drip at the drain connection-- argh!!) at 1 am. I looked at the other two faucets and figured I might as well just keep going- especially since I knew the other two were going to be simpler since it was only the faucets and not the drains. At exactly 1:59 I finished the other two and turned the water back on so the roommate could shower before work in a few hours. 

The next morning at church a couple of my girlfriends told me how impressed they were. "Plumbing isn't my thing" one of them told me. Clearly plumbing isn't my "thing" either, but no one else was going to do it, so I had to. Meh. And someday I dearly hope plumbing doesn't need to be my thing any longer. But for now, I'm done. The faucets look and work great and I hope to do no more plumbing, at least for the next couple weeks (fingers crossed). Oh and I dug the old corroded washer out of that drain ring after Mass, replaced it, and finally stopped that annoying leak. Done. Whew.   

This getting the house ready to sell process is kicking my butt. So. Much. To. Do. but it is good to be moving forward. I'm going to be soooooo relieved in a couple weeks when the insanity of the prep is done and it is just on the market.

March (a little late)

March flew by and here we are in mid-April! Yikes. Apparently I've been too busy to post anything over here (you're welcome!)

The short version of March: 

 

Payback Saturday with Donal and Lindsey -- we painted the living room, small bathroom, and primed the basement stairwell... I followed up with installing a new mirror in the small bathroom, painting the vanity and updating the hardware, and attempting to put the house back together (ish). It was an awesomely productive weekend at the Homestead!!  (Thanks to Donal, Lindsey, Leslie, and Jenny). 

 

Damian Stayne Conference at CTK - really excellent

 

Silent Retreat at Gethsemane in KY - also really excellent. I am SO blessed to be able to go there year after year and simply encounter Jesus in the peaceful stillness, in the prayer of the Church, in the lives of faithful men who pray without ceasing. And I napped... a lot. It was all so very wonderful.

 

Triduum / Easter at CTK, my class (including my niece Lucy) made their First Communion (a very exciting day for all of us)

 

Painted the kitchen counters (I keep meaning to post about this process and the results... maybe I'll get around to it someday) 

 

And then March was over. Just like that. Without making much more progress than that one really productive weekend, meeting with realtors, and some decluttering / packing in between. 

Lock Down February Wrap Up

And just like that, it is March! (I know, right? You’ve never heard me comment on February going quickly before, have you?) Now that it is the first of March, I can officially declare Lock Down February a complete WIN in my book. Surviving February has never been so easy, in fact!

So the goal of Lock Down February was to take a month to limit (not eliminate) my social activities and lock down in order to get stuff done around my house.  Here’s what I managed to accomplish: 

• Finish painting the guest room, paint guest room shelves, put guest room back together
• Move into guest room and out of master bedroom
• Purge, organize, donate (this is ongoing, but I've been making good progress)
• Cook a lot of turkey and sweet potato for the dog – an elimination diet for my dog Suzie who has horrible allergies and I finally decided to bite the bullet and do this to see if it is a food allergy. We have only 2 weeks left, but I think I’m pleased to say, it does not appear to be a food allergy. She is still itching in spite of eating better than me!
• Host "Wine and Cheese to make February Suck Less" parties (and yes, February did suck less afterward!)
• Mix paint and repaint master bedroom
• Make lists of projects and timeline (ish) for house listing, add to the list daily
• Overbook March
• Take both dogs to the vet for shots (seems like a little thing, but is always ample opportunity for humility and humiliation… not to mention resembling a three ring circus taking them both at the same time)
• Start packing stuff to store while staging the house 
• Arrange for Payback Saturday with Donal & Lindsey (they're coming to help me for a day since I helped with their kitchen-- family is wonderful!!)
• Arrange for buff high schoolers to move boxes and extraneous furniture to storage for staging (that same day Donal and Lindsey and I will be repainting the living room)
• Agonize over how much there is to do
• Watch (and agonize) over the remainder of Downton Abbey (I really am terribly into this show!!)
• Neglect book club book (I didn't call it Lock Down February for nothing!)
• Check out several books on home staging from the library and leave them sitting untouched for weeks on end
• Begin Lent, get back on my early morning Mass routine
• Teach Religious Ed
• Continue weekly visits with my grandparents
• Lose touch with the rest of the outside world
• Send Feb valentines to a couple of my special sweeties and a couple Feb birthday cards (but of course forget to send the rest of them)
• Scavenge for boxes for moving
• And spend the last 2 days of February on the couch with the flu. Not quite how I’d hoped to end the month, but alas, sometimes you cannot escape. At least it has given me a chance to fully appreciate my very colorful green living room before painting it neutral next weekend.

As usual, there were millions of things on my list that I didn’t get done, but I am choosing to look at the positive and appreciate what I was able to get done. And in the midst of all that productivity, I got to see a lot of my friends - who I am incredibly grateful for. I am truly blessed. And with that, farewell February, it really has been the best ever. I’ll see you again next year.

Custom mixed paint

It seems to be my newest hobby. Who knew? Inspired by the fabulous Karen, I decided to give it a whirl. First I made paint for the small bedroom – one can of mistint, plus two quarter cans of previous project blue. It turned out great and I have a small jar of it left to leave the new homeowners for any touch ups. 

Then it was those two cans of blue for the master bedroom. They were clearance mistint specials and close to the same color. I mixed them together, painted a wall, and decided it was entirely too blue and not nearly neutral enough. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it a lot… but it hardly fit the bill for making the room more neutral. So I added a can of that mistint gray (which was supposed to be for the living room). Perfect! It turned out great and there is at least another room’s worth since the master bedroom only needed one coat (painting WIN).

A couple evenings ago, I went to the paint archives (or the far back of the paint shelves) and found lots of good stuff. Several partial cans of beige and off white from before I moved in (most of the house was beige or off white). A partial can of dark forest green (the dining room when I moved in). Some yellow from the first time I painted my bedroom, beige from when Lisa painted her bedroom, and some small amounts of white. I mixed it all together (minus the forest green) and it is a nice, creamy, yellowy beige. I think it will do quite nicely for the basement stairwell and family room. Nice and neutral (and I’m sure I will think it is perfectly boring when I’m done).  Anyway, it appears to be a paint mixing success. And I got rid of about 8 partial cans of paint and a couple cans that were completely dried and unusable. 

A few tips:

• Wear clothes you don’t mind getting paint on. (Those pants that look like the scary green pants with no one inside certainly fit the ticket).  
• Be careful when opening old paint cans. The rims get rusty and can puncture a finger… Or if you are using a crow bar because you’re too lazy to run upstairs for the paint can opener, you may slice your wrist open. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
• Mix a lot longer than you think (stir and stir and stir)
• Before adding a can of paint  to the big bucket, stir it in it’s own can and see if it mixes together… otherwise get rid of it.
• If paint is hardened in the bottom of the can, well… obviously get rid of it! 
• Strain paint before using (it can get clumps if the paint is older or rust from that rim you may have cut yourself on). You’ll thank the future you if you remove the clumps before putting it on the wall.
• Paint a bit on the wall and let it dry before coating the entire room- sometimes it dries differently than you think and you’d hate to waste all that effort if you suddenly decide it is too happy or you hate the color or something.
• Don’t be afraid to mix paint sheens- on the master bedroom, I combined satin, flat and semi gloss and it looks great (sort of satin I guess). 
• Be sure you are mixing latex and latex paint. Don’t mix oil based and water based paint (but you already guessed that). 
• Have fun!

The Big Decision

My big decision in the last few weeks: Sell the house this spring. 


It has been a great 10 years. I've had a dozen people share the Homestead with me at various times for various lengths of time, and that time is drawing to a close. For a couple years now I've thought once I can sell without losing a lot of money, I would like to do so. I love the small city I live in - but I would prefer to be out of town, a bit further out, with a bit more yard to neglect, etc. Let's be honest, I'm a country girl at heart!   

So I'm jumping headlong into this process we call "getting the house ready to sell," which is all new for me. And kind of a big project. Daunting. I know it doesn't have to be perfect (or so I keep telling myself) but somehow going through my house trying to think like a prospective buyer is making me very aware of all the little things-- the kitchen faucet that leaks a bit and is old and kind of crusty in spite of my cleaning efforts, the bathroom faucet that the handle comes off of easily (kids and guests always manage to remind me of that), the linoleum in the bathrooms that is kind of tired, the counters that I should have replaced years ago... the list goes on and on. Not to mention the rooms that need repainting / neutralizing (think bright green living room). SO many things that I could / should do. So... what began as Lock Down February to just catch up on some home projects has launched into a full fledged Get the House Ready season. And it's a doozy!   

In addition to all the house stuff that I need to do, there's the ten years of living there to purge. It is entirely too easy to put stuff in a box in storage and forget about it. Especially the stuff that is hard to decide about: college papers, childhood treasures, that cow collection, etc. So I am delving into all of that and throwing away a lot of stuff, filling bags for donation, and organizing like crazy. It is a humbling task. I knew that the last couple years I let things go in the midst of burnout conditions in my life... and now I'm facing it head on. Lovely.  

I am also finding remnants of things from nearly every roommate that has ever lived there. Not only do I get mail for every single person I've housed from time to time, I'm finding odds and ends from them in the storage room: CDs from one roommate, a crochet project binder from another, a backpack from another, a desk from another.... the list is endless and a good reminder of how much life has gone on under this roof in the last decade. It has been a great decade in this home- the longest I've lived anywhere and the most "home" of anywhere I've ever been - so I'm getting a little nostalgic and at the same time, confident that it is time. Let's do this.

Swatching

If you know me well and visit me often, you know that you can almost always find a stack of paint swatches floating around. On the table, in the kitchen drawer, in my purse, on the coffee table. I love paint swatches. I love agonizing over what the perfect color would be for whatever room I’m currently dreaming of painting.

But don’t be fooled, I am actually a clearance paint junkie. It is kind of ironic that I pour over paint swatches, checking them with all sorts of things around the house to make sure they are just right, and drool over shades called “Rusted Earth” and “Sunny Dale” and “Shoreline haze." And then I go by the mis-tint paint section in every home improvement store that I find and pick up whatever shade of $5 clearance seems close to my dream—or whatever shade could fit into that same dream with a little help.

I believe I can trace my love of clearance paint back to the laundry room repainting project, during which I ended up with several pints of mis-tints in various colors and managed to produce a bright, cheery laundry room out of them for very little money. Since then, I always walk by the clearance paint when I'm in a home improvement store, just in case the perfect color is there on the shelf. Or maybe something relatively close to the perfect color- which of course I know because I’ve done all that paint swatching ahead of time.    

I can't say I always use clearance paint—in fact, I don’t even use it most of the time. For instance, I bought full price paint for the hall because I didn't find anything I liked on clearance and wanted a specific color and sheen.   

The other day the paint gods were smiling on me. I’ve been thinking about painting the living room a more neutral color and then having splashes of bright colors in the form of pillows and painted end tables (rather than the whole room being bright green). I’m thinking gray but still swatching to find the perfect gray – not to warm so that it’s beige (I abhor beige) and not too gray so that it is too cool with the red brick fireplace and the new couch. Anyway, I walked into my local Lowes looking for something unrelated, and happened down the mis-tint aisle (duh), and there it was: a gallon of beautiful gray paint. I knew I’d need a second gallon but figured I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. When I checked out, the lady handed me a rebate slip. $5 off that brand of paint. What? I spent $5 on the paint and will be getting $5 back. AWESOME. The following week I was in Lowes to buy roller covers and found another gallon of nearly the same shade of gray in the mis-tint section!! So the paint for the living room (2 gallons of paint+primer) cost me a total of $5. I will probably mix them together and might add a touch of brown to warm it up, but still… I am loving the clearance paint! 

Keep in mind, I’m not actually advocating this as a decorating strategy. In fact, I prefer all of you stay away from the mis-tint sections and leave those yummy, super cheap colors to me.

I would also like to note I do not buy paint only because it is cheap. I am always amazed at some of the hideous colors there in the mis-tint section and I leave those for some other poor sucker, sticking with the ones that go with my color palette.

Hi. I’m Reenie. I am a clearance paint addict.

Hi Reenie.

Recovering from Productivity

I started this almost two weeks ago and completely forgot to add pictures and post it... so my apologies... though it does feel like yesterday...

I think perhaps winter is settling into my bones (it is either that or old age- and I prefer the seasonal excuse). Last week felt long- really long. For no apparent reason long. I survived the week and spent a wonderful Friday evening with some good friends and their awesome kids. Nothing like an evening with awesome kids and catching up with one of my dearest friends to set a good tone for the weekend.

And what a weekend!! 

Saturday morning I dragged my tired self out of bed rather early to head to my parent's to pick up a trailer (and the car to pull said trailer). Then I headed for the local bakery to pick up treats and went to pick up my brother. Naturally I had treats for his kids so we visited for a few minutes and then headed out. I had this appointment set up with some random people from the wonderful world of craigslist to buy new (to me) couches. When we walked up to the door, the lady of the house answered it, took one look at my brother and said "Oh are you Miss Hannah's husband? Jane's dad?" (Cue "It's a small world after all" song in my head). Their kids go to the school Hannah teaches at and the kids are classmates. (It's a small world still going). They are moving back to a Guatemala and thus were unloading nice furniture in great shape for a good price (score!)

Of course I had somehow overlooked the detail about the couch being a hideabed (aka the HEAVIEST furniture there is). Thanks to my brother's inside connection with this family, the husband helped move that monster of a couch to the trailer. We got the furniture loaded and home and unloaded it to the appropriate rooms. Then we loaded the existing chairs from the living room into the trailer, and leaving my disheveled, un-arranged house with things strewn in all directions to make room for furniture moving behind for another day.

I delivered my brother back this his home and took the chairs to my other brother's apartment. (Cue: The Circle of Life song in my head). Those chairs have quite a history. We have photos of my dad at age 12 with those chairs. My memory of them was at my grandparents big house, and then their retirement house, then at Brendan's house, then my house. And now they are in Emmet's apartment. I have to say, sometimes good furniture is worth the investments. Knowing my grandma, I'm sure she paid top dollar for that furniture, and 50 years later, it is still comfortable (and was reupholstered once by her and then slipcovered by me). I am confident my second hand ikea couch- though perfect right now- will not be seating my grandchildren when I am 70. Thank you Grandma for your expensive taste. It has served all of us quite well.

 

Meanwhile, my oldest brother called to see if he could drop off a mattress I had lent them and a bunch of bedding. Sure. Use the hidden key. (Two weeks later, I still haven't moved the mattress from the hallway -hangs head in shame). 

After unloading the chairs, I headed for my other brother's house. It was kitchen day at Casa Cous. The funny thing about being part of a close knit community and part of my dad's complicated life is that sometimes you end up buying a house from someone you know. Someone who may or may not have grown up in that little house. Someone who may or may not have done repairs or upkeep through their many years in said house. Someone who may or may not have put in hideous  now-outdated wallpaper in the kitchen 20 years earlier. It is one thing to curse the previous homeowner in any home you buy for their bad taste, the hack jobs, wallpaper of any kind. It isn't necessarily better knowing who is responsible, by name, for putting up horrible wallpaper. It's also awesome to post a comment about improvements on facebook to have the original homeowner comment on their fond memories of said "improvement" (aka bane of the next homeowner's existence). Awkward!

Meanwhile my old roommate and her husband stopped by to use the large car I was driving to go to my house and pick up her furniture. Hooray!! So they took the big TV, TV stand, furniture from the basement, and returned the car while I was still working on the kitchen project.

Right, back to Kitchen Day... so my brother and his wife moved into the house 4 years ago and painted the rest of the first floor immediately and have been slowly doing repairs and updates ever since (so yes, they are your typical homeowners). Currently they are in the midst of gutting and re-doing the upstairs bedroom and adding a bathroom-- no small task!

A few weeks ago my sister in law was commenting on the horrid wallpaper in the kitchen. I offered to come over and help take it down. It was long past time. (I believe that wallpaper would have lasted approximately 3 weeks if I had bought the house- so it was driving me crazy!) We borrowed a wallpaper steamer from a friend, mixed up an internet-suggested wallpaper remover (fabric softener and hot water in a spray bottle--fabulous!) and got to work. The wallpaper was not in great shape- taped to itself in some cases- and came down fairly easily (for wallpaper). The fabric softener / water worked great, the steamer helped with the tough spots, too maybe an hour to get most of it down. Underneath was a lot of mold. Awesome. Purple, pink, red mold explosions. Mmmm mold.

And the border- a country folk art farm (I really should get a copy of Lindsey's before and after pics for you) - good heavens the border!! It appeared to be glued with something stronger than wallpaper paste. Some kind of tacky glue perhaps? Awful, awful, awful to get off. The steamer didn't really help. The removal spray didn't really help. Thus Lindsey and I took turns chiseling and scraping that horrid stuff off the wall-- for HOURS. We were also scrubbing the walls to remove the mold and adhesive at the same time.

Meanwhile Donal was on project errands- looking for cabinet doors- which they apparently recently stopped selling at the Habitat for Humanity Restore. And then at the Reuse it Center - also no luck finding the right size. Finally going to Lowes to get boards to make his own (big sister is so proud). Keep in mind the idea with this project is not to re-do the whole kitchen -- someday, that would be great-- but to do the small things that would make it live-able (and pleasant) for the next few years. Even homemade cabinet doors are better than 4 of the 8 doors just missing.

Donal made it back to scrub the cabinets down and help prep for the primer. The caulk made a huge difference- caulking gaps in trim, cabinets, etc. makes it look so much more finished!! Lindsey spackled 60 years worth of holes in the walls and some cracks in the ceiling. And finally we were ready and primed everything (ceiling and walls) before calling it a day. Whew.

The young people involved in this project showered and went out for dinner and a movie. The old person involved went home and collapsed face down on the new and very comfortable couch for awhile. Fed the pups. Showered. Fell asleep on the bed hours before intending to. And then woke up to take some pain killer for the throbbing arms before going back to bed.

Sunday was another packed day- although less physically intense. Late Mass. Brunch with the fam. Dinner with friends. Downton Abbey watching with bookclub friends. And finally home- to that house that still has furniture strewn places it doesn't belong. Cushions for the new furniture not on new furniture, and general mayhem.

It took me a few days, but the living room is generally together. I need to do some staging, change around some pictures, get a new TV stand when the roomie decides to buy a new TV. But it is at least livable for right now. And Christmas is down, cleaned up, put away. On to Ordinary Time.

So far, January makes me tired. Productivity bursts. Cold weather. Change. Decisions on the horizon. Over-socializing. I find myself craving some quiet time, alone time. On the other hand, I certainly haven't had time to sink into winter depression yet :) So that's something! And I do realize being SO invested in someone else's home project might indicate I have some sort of problem. 

Hi. I'm Reenie. I'm a home project addict. 

Hi Reenie. 

Done!!

I realized recently I had never shared the completed project with all of you. Sometime this past spring I was suddenly on a chair mission and started thinking about what I wanted to do with the dining room set.  The set I had before had served me well for a long time (10 years to be exact) but honestly it really was too big and bulky and the chairs too tall for my modest dining room. Besides, the table needed refinishing and the chairs needed reupholstering and I wasn’t ready to do that much work on a set I didn’t love. 
Then in October I showed you some shots of refinishing the table and buffet top.  November found me with a couple free weekends (at long last!) so I finally got around to the chairs. And I’ll be honest- they were a complete pain to redo. I cleaned, lightly sanded, primed, painted (2 coats), then did a wash over the paint with the stain to match the table, and then three coats of varnish. And finally reupholstering the seats and reattaching them to the chairs (and yes, I still need to get some scotch guard for them). Anyway, it was very time consuming and far from perfect (don’t ask me about the big scratch I managed to get in the leaf of the table as I was putting it into the handy storage spot under the table top). And yet… I am thrilled with the results and they are even better than I imagined. I love it. 
Well, here’s where we started…

New (to me) table ($50 from Habitat Restore) and mismatched chairs bought (various places $40 for 6 of them) and ready to refinish …
AND… Done at last!!

 
I love how it fits in my dining room, how it looks elegant and almost antique, and mostly, how it is finished. 

Nerdy confession: I wanted to set the table with my mom’s wedding china (blue and white) like all those “real” bloggers when they staged their house. But let’s be honest, the dog crate in the corner with plants all over it would have given me away as a hack. So there you have it, the unset \ real life actual person blogger version. Some day I may have to put the china out, just to see how it looks. 

http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/2012/12/transformation-thursday-no-182.html

The dining room upgrade…

Awhile back, I mentioned my quest for a new (used) table and chairs for the dining room. I managed to exceed my expectations finding some awesome chairs in several locations and then got stalled on the table. It seemed like everything on craigslist was way to expensive for what they were offering.
One day I headed to the local Habitat for Humanity Restore just to see… wasn’t even sure they had tables, but I was going to check. And there it was…. a beautiful oak double pedestal table with the leaves that stored inside (I love that!). The table top had some scratches and paint streaks on it, but the price was right ($50), the size was right, it was coming home with me!

Donal happened to buy a stove at the Restore the very next day, so we pooled resources and helped each other get our large purchases home. (Love that guy!)
For the next few weeks, I had two dining room tables and a lot of chairs in the dining room, making it seem even smaller. And then some woman from the magical land of craigslist came, gave me cash, and drove away with the old table and chairs. Fabulous. And, as it turns out, I made enough cash on the old set to buy all the new stuff and all the supplies to refinish them. Perfect!
On to the refinishing project…
My buffet –which I LOVE—came from my dad’s grandma, so it’s really old. And there was an unfortunate incident a few years ago with a colander of tomatoes… that leaked… and made a stain… and it caused me great anguish for a long time. And it became clear the only way to get rid of it would be to refinish the top of it. So I matched the stain to buffet (since the rest of it doesn’t need to be refinished).
Saturday I stripped the finish off the top of the buffet and the table top. 

Tonight I pulled out my trusty orbital sander and started at the sanding. The edges of the table took as long as the entire table top! Why did I choose a table with a fancy edge?? It felt like a lot of sanding, but I was eventually done (and the dining room was a dusty mess).
Next I cleaned all the dust off the table top and buffet. And then I applied the wood conditioner and then stained them both.
 

The table is a different wood than the buffet and has a lot less natural red in it, so the color doesn’t match exactly, but I think it looks great.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get a coat of polyurethane on them.