FINALLY FINISHED!

Almost two years ago we bought a dining room table and chairs from a women in our ward who was moving to Utah. This set had been in her family through generations and was the best quality! Dan and I decided to refinish the wood and reupholster the chairs. Easy enough, right! HA!

We didn't not realize we were dealing with maple, which can not be stained, until too late. Last Winter Dan spent every free moment out in the garage striping and sanding down a huge table and 6 intricate chairs. I helped when I could but really all credit goes to Dan.  He researched and asked friends lots of questions about staining wood. In the early Spring he decided to apply a "pre-stain" oil based gel on the wood to help it soak in the stain. Then he applied the water based stain on the table. Big mistake. Oil and water don't mix!  Dan and I had to re-strip and re-sand the table at which point we decided to hire someone else to finish off the chairs. We also had the 2 backed arm chairs reupholstered professionally. Wise choice on our part!

So after striping and re-striping the color, sanding, re-sanding, pulling out hundreds of pins and staples, reinforcing the wooden seat frame, cutting foam, stapling straps and batting down, stapling the fabric and folding obnoxious plastic and stapling it we are finally finished!

After this very long and detailed process Dan has told me multiple times that he knows what "hell" would be like for him!:)

Our first night using our new dining table and chairs the kids went straight to their little picnic table and folded their arms for prayer even though I had already set the table for all of us! It has been a long time come'n but we finally have a large(it came with 3 leaves not pictured), very nice dining room table and chairs.