St. Patty's Day

I just had to share a picture of Ellie enjoying a traditional Hardin (my side of the fam) St. Patrick's breakfast. Yep! Green pancakes and milk. Yummy!

Furniture: (re) finished!

A month or so ago, a friend of mine innocently asked if I had picked our baby bedding. I had not, in fact, I didn't even have a crib for the baby! We went out and got a crib, but the whole thing got me thinking. Not only did we need a crib, but it would be nice to have a dresser to put the baby's clothes in, right? Dave suggested plastic bins, but that wasn't quite what I had envisioned for the baby's room. We went on a date to several furniture stores, but new furniture is expensive, so it was off to peruse Craigslist! Dave found a bargain one Saturday morning so we went out and got a set from a yard sale that was a great price and looked like it was in decent condition. Oh, looks can be so deceiving! This is what we got:




We got it home, and it quickly became apparent that the furniture had been in a home with a heavy smoker for many years. It stank! This was the start of my epic furniture refinishing project. First I washed it...and washed it..and washed it...

This is a picture after the third washing- notice the gross amounts of brown residue still coming off. Remind me why people smoke?


I washed the whole thing down, especially the drawers with vinegar, bleach, ammonia, 409, and baking soda, everything I could find on the internet that people claimed would get rid of the musty smoky smell. Just as an FYI, this is what happens when you use an old rag with straight bleach.


Another FYI, none of that stuff worked. I gave up on the smell for a while and worked on getting the furniture in good condition. I sanded the tops smooth, repaired the mirror and took some decorative dowels off to update its look, tightened some screws, hammered, glued, stapled, and spray painted the brass hardware silver. I love fixing things and making them useful and beautiful so I had a blast with that part, tinkering out in our garage. I also gave the furniture a couple coats of paint which helped seal in the odor on the outside.

At this point all I had to do was figure out how to get rid of the smell from the inside. I ended up getting a can of polyurethane and coating the drawers and the entire inside of the dresser. Now the dresser doesn't smell like smoke and mold, it smells like polyurethane! I'm hoping that smell dissipates soon though. Anyway, it was lots of work but it was worth it to get the furniture in Ellie's room and see how excited she was for her "new room".



A happy ending for the baby too- she gets Ellie's old dresser so it all worked out!