After getting mostly settled in to the
new apartment, I got a case of the home improvements. Suddenly I had the
overwhelming urge to make new placemats and napkins. I needed a set of six immediately. The two we had were clearly not
enough for all the entertaining I’m apparently planning to do. And the dining
chairs needed new cushion fabric straightaway.
So off to the fabric store I went.
I have already rewritten history in my head because I was going to say that the placemat/napkin project went off without a hitch, but that’s a lie. I miscalculated how much fabric I needed and came up about six inches short. So back to the fabric store I went. Aside from that, things went well.
The chairs on the other hand were a
different matter. I bought the fabric and then decided that as long as I was
replacing the fabric I should really replace the foam as well. So off to the
foam store we went. Then I decided that the chairs were looking pretty dirty. I
started cleaning them only to discover that I took off some of the finish from
the wood. Or perhaps the finish had disappeared years ago and dirt was masking
the bare wood. Anyway, once I was down to bare wood I clearly needed to refinish the chairs.
Off to Home Depot we went to pick out sanding supplies and paint. I love refinishing furniture, I thought. We should just buy a bunch of old furniture for cheap so that I can refinish it, I thought. Wrong. Wrong. And one more WRONG just for good measure. Refinishing furniture sucks. After hours of sanding I had only finished one chair. My triceps were killing me. And there were still three chairs to sand. Not to mention all four chairs still needed paint. Don’t get me started on paint.
Did you know that latex paint is fast drying? You probably did. That’s why I picked it out. It dries fast and it cleans with water. Here’s what I didn’t know about latex paint. It dries from the outside in. That means that it’s dry to the touch within minutes. It also means that it takes a long time to cure (dry all the way to the inside). You know how long? 30 days!! So I felt compelled to scramble and do all the sanding and painting as quickly as possible so that we could start using the chairs someday. After four full days of work, the chairs are now happily drying. And will be for three more weeks…
What I’m reading: I finished The Thorn Birds! It was thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve started read The Bright Forever by Lee Martin. For some reason I had a really hard time getting into the story, but I like it more now. There’s also another book that I’ve been reading FOREVER and probably will continue reading for the rest of time. It’s on my Kindle app on my phone and I only wind up reading it when I’m absolutely desperate. It’s called No Name and it’s by Wilkie Collins, who wrote The Woman in White (which I thought was a great story). Anyway, I started reading No Name quite a long time ago. It was so bad that I decided to not finish it. But then one day I was sitting somewhere waiting with nothing to do and I started reading it again. I only read it when I’m desperate, so it seems like it’s the longest book ever. It’s really only 390 pages, but it feels like it’s longer than Don Quixote. Anyway, if you’re ever tempted to get this book for your Kindle just because it’s free, don’t succumb to the urge. Free isn’t everything.
I have already rewritten history in my head because I was going to say that the placemat/napkin project went off without a hitch, but that’s a lie. I miscalculated how much fabric I needed and came up about six inches short. So back to the fabric store I went. Aside from that, things went well.
.jpeg) |
| Both the napkins and placemats are reversible |
Off to Home Depot we went to pick out sanding supplies and paint. I love refinishing furniture, I thought. We should just buy a bunch of old furniture for cheap so that I can refinish it, I thought. Wrong. Wrong. And one more WRONG just for good measure. Refinishing furniture sucks. After hours of sanding I had only finished one chair. My triceps were killing me. And there were still three chairs to sand. Not to mention all four chairs still needed paint. Don’t get me started on paint.
Did you know that latex paint is fast drying? You probably did. That’s why I picked it out. It dries fast and it cleans with water. Here’s what I didn’t know about latex paint. It dries from the outside in. That means that it’s dry to the touch within minutes. It also means that it takes a long time to cure (dry all the way to the inside). You know how long? 30 days!! So I felt compelled to scramble and do all the sanding and painting as quickly as possible so that we could start using the chairs someday. After four full days of work, the chairs are now happily drying. And will be for three more weeks…
What I’m reading: I finished The Thorn Birds! It was thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve started read The Bright Forever by Lee Martin. For some reason I had a really hard time getting into the story, but I like it more now. There’s also another book that I’ve been reading FOREVER and probably will continue reading for the rest of time. It’s on my Kindle app on my phone and I only wind up reading it when I’m absolutely desperate. It’s called No Name and it’s by Wilkie Collins, who wrote The Woman in White (which I thought was a great story). Anyway, I started reading No Name quite a long time ago. It was so bad that I decided to not finish it. But then one day I was sitting somewhere waiting with nothing to do and I started reading it again. I only read it when I’m desperate, so it seems like it’s the longest book ever. It’s really only 390 pages, but it feels like it’s longer than Don Quixote. Anyway, if you’re ever tempted to get this book for your Kindle just because it’s free, don’t succumb to the urge. Free isn’t everything.
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