Paint, he's been stripping paint. My mom now has our bedroom furniture. It was hers first. She bought it in 1950ish. She and daddy used it for a long, long time and then we got it. We used it for a long, long time. Mom asked for it back and we said OK. She bought us a replacement dresser and chest.

To buy something new (that we would have liked) was going to cost more than $1500. Antiques are cheaper and we like them better anyway. This is what I found. This is so not our style but it's the same 1950s vintage, the drawers all work, it doesn't smell funky, and each piece is a little bigger than the ones we had before. That's a plus.

Steve spent more time than I did stripping the paint off. I mostly ran the hand sanders. So much so that if I think about it I can still feel the vibration in my hands. (That may not have been smart.) Anyway, we both worked in temps well above 100 for many hours. I started applying Watco today.

Watco has been around forever. It's a wiping stain and finishing oil in one and its easy to use, looks good, lasts forever. What I found out immediately is that the white paint permeated the wood. Where the paint is in the grain, the stain doesn't take as well.

You know what? We are both so hot, and so tired, that we've decided that we might be able to make this look work. I may hit it with a glaze once we have it inside. I'll post photos of the drawers in place later so you can see.

The ends of both the dresser and chest are masonite which was a surprise. They won't stain. I'm either going to paint them or cover them with wallpaper. I think I can turn this bad surprise into a good surprise. I've already spray painted those fancy, not-our-style handles green. I think they are going to be way fun!

In other news: Tomorrow is the main move for mom and Christy. The countertops go in, Mom and Christy go in, the new fence is going up, and the cable is being turned on. Who knew it would all happen at once!

Just so you know that I am not completely altruistic I want to show you my newest toy work related computer purchase:

This is an 11" MacBook Air. The bitty one. I bought one of the very first Airs, skipped the 2nd generation, and now I have this great new toy business laptop. Tonight I'm going to work on setting it up. I also recently updated my iPad to the iPad2. The new one is not that much different from the original but mom and Christy needed a new computer and I hope my original iPad will be perfect for them. It was the best reason I could come up with for upgrading :-). You may not know this about me but I am a Mac early-adopter. Well, not always early, but a soon adopter.

And as I write this I'm listening to the news about the current market crash. It reminds me of when my dad died. After he died I walked around for several days amazed that life just kept moving on. Right now I'm too busy to spend a whole lot of time stewing over this latest turn of events. I think that most of us will just keep putting one foot in front of the other and, God-willing, it'll work out for the best. I'm going to applique (after I set up my computer) to stay sane and do the best I can to live a worthwhile life. I'm sure you all will be doing the same. Knowing that, I feel just fine!