Phase One: Sanding

The first phase of Operation: Refinish Dresser went well last night. I got my new sander out of the box and all ready to go. It was super easy to use. The paper just Velcros right onto the front and didn’t move once. It said on the box to let the weight of the sander do the work and not to press down on it too hard, but I did find that putting pressure on it was the only way to really get it going. It was so much easier to use than my dad’s old one though, and I’m really glad I made the decision to buy it.

I’m doing the sanding on my little balcony/deck area to keep the dust outside, and I didn’t get all that far last night before it started to get dark and stormy. (I’m talking: the hardest rain I’ve ever seen that was coming down sideways with wind that looked like it was going to blow the trees over. It lasted for hours and I guess a lot of people lost power overnight.) My hands started to get a little numb from the vibrations and I also didn’t want to annoy my neighbors too much, so my plan is to start before dinner tonight to get the work done before it gets too dark or late.

I started by taking all of the hardware off:

And then got to work on the sanding. I finished two of the drawer fronts, but I also ran into a little problem that I’m not quite sure how to handle. See those strips of dark where the previous stain is still intact? Yeah, I have no idea how to get in there.

I tried sanding the outer edges with the pointed end of the sander, but it just didn’t work. Then I tried getting in there manually just holding a sheet of sandpaper in my hands, but I think that would be way too labor intensive. It barely made any difference at all on the areas I did by hand.

I’m thinking of just leaving it the way it is and either only painting the rectangular fronts, or painting the whole thing and just hoping the stain doesn’t show through too much in those areas. The lines are really straight and the stain seems to be pretty well kept in those spots, so I don’t think it would really be that bad if I didn’t paint there or it showed through, but I’m just not sure how it would look. I’ll have to ponder it some more.

Tonight I’m hoping to at least get all of the drawer fronts done and hopefully start working on the dresser itself. I want to have the whole thing sanded by Thursday night so that I can start painting it next week. Woohoo!

This morning, I started things off with a shoulder workout that looked like this:

Monster Set: (2-10 lb. dumbbells)

• 3×10 front raises
• 3×10 side raises
• 3×10 bent over lateral raises

4×12 Shoulder presses (40 lb. barbell)

Superset:

• 4×12 Bent arm pullovers (2-10 lb. dumbbells)
• 4×12 Chest presses (40 lb. barbell)

Superset:

• 4×12 Upright rows (40 b. dumbbell)
• 4×10 Julie’s shoulder move (each side – 10 lb. dumbbell)**

Superset:

• 4×12 Straight arm pullovers (1-10 lb. dumbbell)
• 4×12 Chest flies (2-10 lb. dumbbells)

**At the last minute, I added that extra shoulder move in there, and I was shocked at how hard I had to work at it. I can’t believe I’d forgotten about it for so long!  My current routine is starting to get a little stale after a few weeks of doing it, so I think I’ll definitely have to comb through some of my old workouts to see if I can switch up any of the moves and challenge myself a little more.

All I wanted for breakfast today was something sweet, and I was in luck because I bought another container of Chobani’s Vanilla Chocolate Chunk yogurt this week. I’ll repeat: this stuff is so good.  I had it along with some raspberries and strawberries and it totally hit the spot. (Except that I wished I’d brought even more, but it’s probably a good thing I limited myself. I’m pretty sure I could eat the entire 16oz. container in one sitting if I allowed myself to.)

We’re already halfway to another weekend, people. Have a great day!