March Break

I thought that during March Break I would have time to do many projects and write about them as well. It ends up we've been having summer-like weather here in Kitchener, and I have been out enjoying it too much to get much done! Joe and I have been out and about every day. It's been hard to even think about being in the house!

The past few days have been in the low 20's and sunny and beautiful. Joe and I were able to get up to Eugenia, where my Mum and her partner have recently moved. We spent the weekend hiking and checking out the local trails. Here are pictures of mysef, Joe and my Mum on the trails which are a small taste of the many beautiful sights we saw this weekend. This was right before Joe and I hiked about 8 km of the Bruce trail back to Eugenia. It was amazing! And unseasonably warm.

On the other hand, I did manage to get one of my projects done during these last few days of break.
I finally got to the hardware store to buy sandpaper, stain, and other supplies to refinish our kitchen table.

As you can see, while it is a nice and big table, the stain colour was definitely out-dated. It was also covered in marks and scratches (as pine tends to do). Feel free to look at the pictures alone if you don't feel like reading the boring how-to :)

Our pine table: Don't worry...we've been keeping our eyes out for some new chairs.

First, I sanded it down with a grittier sand-paper (120) to get rid of the original stain. I followed this with another sanding with a finer sand-paper (220) to smooth things out. The sanding was definitely the biggest challenge. Luckily, I took it outside and enjoyed the hot and sunny weather while doing it :) It was also great doing it outdoors as it helped me to avoid having a ton of dust to clean up.

Starting out the rougher sanding 

Lucky for me, I discovered that the legs/base were NOT finished, but only had stain on them. This saved so much work. 

Finishing off with a finer sanding to even things out

Notes: Always sand in the direction of the wood grains. Otherwise you may damage the wood and/or need to spend a lot of time sanding out the scratches you make. (Learned from example!)

Before applying stain, make sure you go over the entire surface very carefully with tack cloth or something similar, to get off any dust/sanding residue.

Next, I started my first coat. I chose to use the oil-based Minwax One-Step stain and finish. This made it so that I didn't need to stain a couple of coats and finish a couple more coats. It basically eliminated a lot of work.

When brushing on the stain, I used a real bristle brush and applied thin coats in the direction of the wood grain, again. It is important to do long, continuous stroked along the length of the table so that the  stain/finish doesn't have time to dry in sections that you still need to work on.

I brought the table back inside to our sunroom where it could dry overnight and not stink up the house

I did a very careful job on the legs/base since I only wanted to do one coat

And after a lot of elbow grease, the first coat of stain was done. And I must say I'm pretty impressed with what it looks like! Since these pictures, I actually lightly sanded it down again and applied the second coat.

I will definitely be doing a follow-up post once it is in our kitchen and ready for use :) I think I'm going to leave it out in the sunroom to cure for a week or two, just to be super cautious.

And what was Joe doing while I was refinishing the table, you might ask? Well, he was inside cleaning the house and making pie of course :) Two mini ones for us to eat that day, and one to bring to my Mum's the next. I love my baker man. And our role-reversal!

And of course, the dramatic before and after: