DIY the hard way

The summer after we got married Matt and I sold dish network in Reno, NV. Our little Neon was jam-packed full of our clothes and the wedding gifts we could fit. 10 days after the wedding we arrived in Reno with no where to stay and no furniture. All we had was a name of a former roommate of mine who's family lived in Reno. We looked in the phone book and somehow figured out where they lived. Later that day we arrived on their door step, asking to stay a few days while we found an apt. Who does that? Mormons I think. I guess we just figure we're all family, so what the heck? They were very gracious and let us stay in one of their empty rooms until we found a place.

Finding a reasonably priced apt. with no wait and a 3 mo. contract was near impossible. We finally found a studio for $545/mo. that was going to be renovated at the end of the summer. They were happy to find someone who only wanted it that short of a period. What a blessing! Three days after arriving in Reno we had a place to stay, but we still had no furniture. We were going to just "rough it" and sleep on the floor for 3 mo. (like that would be suitable for newly weds. Ha!) because we'd already ordered a mattress in Provo that was waiting for us. Plus there was no way we'd be able to fit that or any other large item in our little car.

To our astonishment that first day we were in our new apt. we left to get food and when we got home there was a mattress just down from our apt. in an oversized items dumpster! It was not there when we'd left an hour earlier, so we knew it hadn't been there long. It was on the very top and not actually inside the dumpster. We went and checked it out and it appeared to be in great condition. No stains (pee or other), holes, or broken springs. And can you believe it? We took it. Yep. I have no shame in saying that. Frugal we are. I threw a sheet on it and we called it good.

When the Relief Society ladies came to visit me that first week they asked if there was anything they could do. I asked if they knew of any people in the ward with any folding chairs they were trying to get rid of. Just your luck, they told us. The D.I. (a church thrift store which sells and distributes items donated to them) truck was sitting at the church and was full. Go and look if there's anything there you can use. Woohoo!

We headed down to the church that night to see what we could find. We didn't feel bad about taking anything since the truck was quite full, over flowing in fact; we knew they'd not be able to take all that was donated. Sitting outside the truck was a perfectly good coffee table and a folding lawn chair. There was also a microwave we took home, but it was a total piece of junk that was sparking everywhere when we turned it on. (Why, oh why, do people donate things that they well know don't work worth a darn?) We ended up putting the coffee table up on cinderblocks so Matt could use it as a computer desk. And that was the extent of our furniture for three months. Not a bad story to tell offspring one day. "Kids, don't think you have to have everything immediately. Your father and I had only a coffee table on cinderblocks, a folding lawn chair, and a mattress we took out of a dumpster. We also had to walk both ways up hill in the pounding heat all day only to come home to our 90 degree apt." (That last sentence was true by the way. Well, that we were outside in the horrible NV heat and that our apt. was 90 degrees more often than we would have liked...Yuck.)

Anyway, as we left Reno we ditched the cinderblocks, mattress and folding chair, but we kept the coffee table. And it has served us well the past 3 years.

That brings me to today. I decided to start my first DIY project today. Last night I bought some sand paper (though no sander--figured I could do a little hand blistering work) and decided I'd work on refinishing that free coffee table to match the other wood furniture in our living room. I went against all the DIY advice online and did it by hand. They suggested a chemical peel to remove the stain. Or a power-sander. They specifically said to not do it by hand. I figured I had a little time to kill and I didn't have the chemical stuff so I'd do it anyway.

Two hours later I have about 2/3 of the top done, the palms of my hands are a little raw, and I'm feeling ok about it all. I didn't tell Matt I was going to start this project, so hopefully it's ok with him. =P There's no undoing it now.

I'll probably end up getting the chemical stuff eventually anyway. I'll need it for the spindle legs and I have a dresser I need to repaint. That one's way too big to do by myself!

I'm going to stain this darker to match the awesome tables Lady and Th. sacrificed their car for.