Lessons Learned

Back in November, we began a project that we thought would only take a few weeks to complete. Many months later, here we are finally at the end of a long road. When Jake went to law school he bought a table set from the illustrious K-mart for $30. The table and chairs were a gorgeous orange stain color which though we loved, didn't quite match the rest of our kitchen. Rather than buy a new set at K-mart, we thought we'd refinish the old orange one. We ended up saving money, so long as our labor was worth only a penny an hour. We did learn many valuable lessons from this experience though. Lesson #1 Choose the colors you want BEFORE you start painting. Lesson #2 Cheaper paint from Wal-Mart is not always better. Lesson #3 Sanding inside the house makes a little bit of a mess! Lesson #4 Winter time is not ideal for refinishing furniture, most of which needs to be done outside. Lesson #5 That old orange color wasn't so bad. Lesson #6 Paint fumes will fill the entire house and give you a buzz for a week. Lesson #7 Don't plan a get-together at your home to force youselves to complete the project (our guests are still coming down from the buzz they got). Lesson #8 Ask for advice before starting, not once you've alread screwed-up. Lesson #9 When painting indoors use a drop cloth or a lot of newspaper. Lesson #10 Refinishing furniture is an adventure and was a lot of fun doing together. Having learned all of these vital lessons we would definitely do it again.