Coping

Last year it was painting projects and this year it appears the theme is going to be furniture stripping and refinishing.

I didn't expect it to be as difficult this year, and it isn't, W's moving back into the dorm, though the house does seem a bit empty without him already. It hasn't even been 24 hours! Not a good sign.

After tackling 2 very small household projects yesterday afternoon I started in on one that became much bigger than I anticipated: refinishing our dining room table. It had been given to us by Joe's mom and is special for that reason. It had seen its share of wear and tear from 5 kids and 3 decades of use when it came to us. I did a light sanding and 2 coats of polyurethane over the summer to spruce it up, but for some reason the last coat didn't stick well and began flaking off in a couple places. Oh well. I figured I'd to a very light sanding and reapply another top coat. Ha! Think again.

As soon as I began doing that light sanding, the top layer started coming off in earnest. Ok, so it all needed to come off, I can do that. But....... while I'm at it I might as well take it down to bare wood and do a proper job of it, no sense in cutting corners now. That burn mark where the candle fell over during an enjoyable dinner with friends can be sanded out, as can be the deep scratch of unknown origin.

The "small project" I thought I'd be able to tackle in an afternoon or two has now become a full-blown refinishing, and will take a week or 2, depending on how much time I devote to it.

I was laughing at myself a bit as I was working on the table yesterday, noting the coincidence of my starting this project and the departure of W for college. As Freud said, there really aren't any coincidences, and I suspect he's probably right. Ah well, we all have our strategies, and mine is clearly that of working with my hands.