DONE

It is finished!

Well ... as finished as it's going to get tonight. After a day filled with stripping (paint, not clothes - get your minds out of the gutter, people), sanding like crazy, and then staining and also an incident where i got locked out of my own apartment BY my apartment, I am tired, but done. The stain still has to completely dry, and we'll see how it looks tomorrow and see if it needs another coat of wood stain.

All that being said, I'm pretty darn proud of myself. Mark was gone all day to class and meetings and thus did not help at all (which is totally fine with me), and I did it all solo. Including sanding. For THREE HOURS. THREE. And that was WITH the help of a belt sander... It was a little ridiculous.

Also ridiculous? That little incident.You know, about my apartment? Apparently, when you close the sliding door to our little porch/yard area really hard, it locks by itself. Did I know that? Well, now I do. I was DYING in the heat (Hello, it's supposed to be fall, right? So what's up with the continuing 90-something-degree weather we're having??) and wanted some more water, but when I went to open the door - Locked! With me on the outside! And so I went around to the front - also Locked! With me on the outside! So I had to march my very very dirty and stinky self up the hill to the office and explain how I needed a maintenance man to come open my door for me because my apartment locked me out of itself. Embarrassing? Oh yes.

Also! Please note: when a can of something caustic says "Wear protective clothing" and "If contact with skin occurs, may cause irritation," 1) they aren't kidding, and 2) said "irritation" is actually the beginning of a frickin' chemical burn!! (I'm fine - I got everything washed off in time to cause no permanent damage...) But seriously. Be careful with paint stripper. Those strippers will get you every time... (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

So, after all that hard work, I took a really long really hot shower and am now feeling semi-normal (but sort of like my arm will never be the same again from ALL THAT SANDING OMG.) I'm desperately hoping that tomorrow we will wake up and my dresser will look beautiful and not need a second coat, but I'm kind of doubting it...

Ugh. I need to go make dinner. Curry tonight!