DIY Project Dresser: Mission Complete!

I did it! Not without sweat and almost a few tears, but it's done! My first furniture refinishing project I told you about a couple weeks ago.

Let me just first start by saying that perfectionists are not meant to refinish furniture. But I hand sewed a couple small basement curtains (really poor job, but whatevs) and I could care less about that finished product. But the dresser? Yeah, it needed to be pristine. Because it's not like we'll open and close it nonstop and bang stuff into it from here on out, right? 

Hah. Riiiiight.

Here's the nitty gritty.

April 3: Date purchased

April 6-13: California Trip #1

April 14-18: Take off old hardware, sand.

April 19: Wipe down entire dresser with a wet t-shirt & then Lysol Dual-Action Wipes

April 20: 1st coat of General Finishes Java Gel Stain

April 21: Day off

April 22: 2nd coat of gel stain

April 23: Day off

April 24: 3rd coat of gel stain

April 25-28: California Trip #2

April 29: 1st coat of polycrylic, light sand, cursing because I "lightly sanded" too hard & right through stain, reapply light coat of gel stain

April 30: 2nd coat of polycrylic

April 31: 3rd coat of polycrylic

May 1: Receive knobs, apply 3 coats of gel stain & 3 coats of polycrylic

May 3: Move upstairs and create a long scratch on the top...which meant more stain and more polycrylic

The dresser itself was an interesting find. We had been searching for a new dresser online but were having no luck finding one that was over 70 inches in length, not made of all wood composite, and reasonably priced. You would not believe how much dressers made of particle board are going for! We wanted a large one for our clothes and to fit along a large wall. This one was about 2 inches longer than we'd prefer at 76 inches, but mostly because of the detailing and not the actual dresser width. 

I saw this dresser and loved the Mid-Century Modern details on the drawers and knew it would be gorgeous. I decided against it because it was $250 and I'd have to do lots of work to get it up to our standards. And then... a week later I saw the price drop to half! We went to check it out and there was even a glass piece on the top to protect the wood. It was meticulously maintained by the previous owners. It was most likely $2,000 new and Thomasville brand. It came with a large mirror as well, but I got rid of that on Freecycle because we're not mirror-on-dresser people. Also, imagine how much more work that would be to refinish! 

And so it began. {For some reason because it's high gloss, it doesn't photograph as well as it looks. Trust me.}

Estimated Costs because I was horrible at keeping receipts:

Thomasville Oversized Dresser: $125 on Craigslist 

Delivery: $30 (I asked her if she knew anyone who could deliver... paid her son $30 to deliver it about 7 miles and unload into my garage. Cheaper than renting a truck and having to deal with the hassle!)

General Finishes Java Gel Stain: $20 (used about 60% of the quart, so about $12 used)

Minwax Water-Based Polycrylic Clear Gloss: $14 (used about 20% of the quart-- plan to use on next dresser project, so worked to about $3 worth used)

Foam brushes & paintbrush: $13 

Sandpaper: Had a lot of this but bought a $6 pack as well. Will use the rest on dresser project #2.

Lysol Wipes: Had them already

New Amerock Brand Knobs: $7.41 from Ebay

Total: Just under $200

What I learned/would do differently if starting over from scratch:

- Calling Caroline saved me gobs of time. Her SIL told her that my dresser would look great with gel stain and to consult Pinterest because people were posting about updating their cabinets left and right. I was planning to sand to natural and then stain with regular stain! Oh, how I love gel stain now!

- Ebay for knobs was genius. 

- I'd choose a semi-gloss polycrylic instead of a clear gloss. I still love it, but it's a high gloss finish I didn't expect being so glossy.

- Sanding lightly after the first layer of poly is apparently difficult. Like, find the finest sand paper block and go as light as can be. Otherwise, you'll create a lot more work for yourself.

- When in doubt, buy more foam brushes. Turns out Target sells them for cheap!

Believe it or not, I've already started dresser project #2. It's the dresser we were using before our new fancy one moved in. Before I moved out of the house, I traded my bed to my parents for a spare dresser they had. It's tall and a cherrywood color. Basically, it's not pretty and matches nothing in our house. But it's real wood and I would like it to end up in Benjamin's eventual big boy room where the furniture is currently a light wood. This project involves stripping the old stain, sanding a ton, and coating in poly. Of course I only have one can and it's high gloss... so we'll see what decision I make on that one.

Home Reno Updates. Finally.

A little over one year ago I posted about stripping the wallpaper in our laundry room. It's been done for about a year, too. I guess it's time for the unveiling, eh? Note the pink/purple/blue speckled wallpaper with the flowery trim border. Not exactly our style. Had to go. It does get tricky when dealing with small spaces that house large appliances, however. This project was a speedy one as we didn't want to run out of underwear.

Here's the only other photo I took and there are no other angled shots. But, this is pretty much how bare-bones our laundry room was. To the left of where I was standing to take the shot is the door to the kitchen and the rest of the house. To the right is the garage door. Straight forward is our deck (outside) and just behind where I was standing is our enormous pantry. The door was not only rotted, but did not have a weather seal! In Chicago! Note the classy duct tape to keep the cool air out. It was practically leaking money every single month. We also needed to replace it because we had no key to enter it from the outside.

And these are the after shots I took this afternoon.

A new sink needed to be added to replace a very dirty old sink that was speckled and basically looked like it was made in 1900. Though, I have to say that this one is considerably cheaper in quality and construction. There's something to say for older models and well-built items. But, we were being superficial and this would be the result.

I don't love the paper towel storage on top, but we're a bit too lazy to schlep them all the way to the basement. I dream of cute baskets to go on top, but then again... I can't even reach the paper towels half the time and they'd just be a breeding ground for lint and dust.

Note the new door and the amazing, incredible, magnetic and wood-stained (by us) whiteboard by Ghent. We wanted a place that we could keep mementos, coupons, paperwork, cute kid drawings (I dream...), etc. etc. I think it will come quite in handy when we do have little ones to plan for. Our stainless steel fridge is not magnet-friendly and we appreciate the lack of clutter in our kitchen anyway... hence the whiteboard. It's the catch-all. That, and it did a spectacular job of covering up our notsofabulous spackle job underneath. This room was particularly difficult to get smooth because 1. we were lazy, 2. we used a semi-gloss paint which highlights all imperfections in the walls in a room with lots of natural light, and 3. there were itty bitty holes (and large ones) everywhere and it felt nearly impossible to sand it seamlessly.

 We also re-stained the doors to the pantry, garage, and all the trim in the room.

 New door. With keys that really work! The rugs are pretty cheap and I think we paid about $10 for the runner and $3 for the other one at Ikea. Nothing special there.

And finally... the cabinets. We bought cabinets already pre-made from Home Depot for $108. What a difference it makes! It houses all of our laundry detergent, spot cleaners, bleach, lightbulbs, etc. It sure beats having it on the floor like I used to before they were installed! I also like that the toxic chemicals/items like the bleach and fluorescent lightbulbs no longer being under my kitchen sink. The light fixture was also relatively inexpensive at about $15 from Menards, a Midwest Home Depot equivalent.

And then there's distraction project #2 that was all about scraping popcorn from our ceiling, stripping wallpaper, and painting. The reveal is not as drastic because we chose to strip the wallpaper and replace it with paint of the same shade and color. We didn't mind the wallpaper, but it was dated and had some holes and discoloration. That, and we needed to have a wallpaper-free house... finally. After five rooms of stripping, peelings, scraping, screaming, wanting to rip our eyebrows out, priming, priming, priming, painting, painting, and finally hanging all the crap back on the walls, we were d-o-n-e. But, we love the result. Who would've thought that the wallpaper we expected to be the easiest to strip off would've been the hardest the handle with the least amount of change and wow-factor. Of course it is. We nearly decided to replace all of the drywall-- it was that bad. And did I mention that this was also the only room with popcorn ceiling that needed to be scraped? Yeah, there was that, too. Nothing too exciting here except upgrading to a real TV stand (thank you Craigslist!), a real big person television, DVR, and ditching the VHS tapes/VCR for our Wii. Yes, we still own a VCR.

 Aside from the wallpaper being stripped, we also got rid of that light and replaced it with lamps from Target on our new end tables. But don't worry. We're still keeping it real with my college couches. They are Bauhaus so I guess they aren't too terrible. Especially with our lovely Surefit slip covers. Totally recommend those, btw.

 The transformation for what it's worth...

 Popcorn ceiling be gone! Freshly painted ceiling, beams, and trim all through the room... which was another nightmare in itself because we decided to buy some fancy primer that didn't work. Turns out the cheap stuff can sometimes work better.

Our new fireplace. Try to forget that you're seeing a yellow gas line on the right. We haven't gotten around to spray painting that with fire-retardant black spray paint just yet. That is also in the category of we're really tired of this room and will probably never get around to it.

Notice the lamps on the new end tables. The end tables are from Target and surprisingly super sturdy and gorgeous.

I don't recommend the lamps, though they were really inexpensive and from Target as well. We just wanted simple lamps with a dark base.

The lamps came as a set of three-- two table lamps and one awkwardly short, floor lamp. It was less than 5" tall and just didn't fit in our room.

We took out the large piece from the center and placed it near the loveseat on the fireplace ledge. You can see it in this photo best.

 Say no to popcorn.

We're pretty wiped out now. We haven't really tackled another house project since the summer when we completed our family room/informal living room. We're constantly maintaining as every homeowner does, but no major transformations to be shown. Is it baby time yet?

The First Snowfall of the Year

We have been putting off insulation in our attic since we moved in. We knew, upon inspection, that the R-13, four inches of insulation would not get us through the Chicago winter. Or... we could survive but be leaking our money right through our attic by heating nonstop. We opted for the insulation route and decided that we could do it ourselves. We researched this company called Owens Corning that made Fiberglas insulation you can purchase and blow into your attic through a machine and tube. We watched the video, purchased 6-7 bags of insulation and stuffed them into the Accord on multiple occasions so we'd have the 30 bags we wanted. We weren't just going to insulate a little. Oh no. The Wilsons go-big-or-go-home and therefore needed the maximum R-60. We wanted that baby to have 20 fluffy inches above our heads at night. So that's just what we made happen.

We visited Home Depot on multiple occasions prior to our big Saturday event to buy those bags and every time we were greeted by their "experts" who asked us if we were sure if 30 bags was what we wanted. Oh yes. Oh yes. One guy even asked, "What, is your house 10,000 square feet?" Nope. Just about 2,700. Haha.

On the day of our insulation, October 10 (my birthday), we set out to Home Depot at 8 a.m. Ray had just finished working on the attic boxes. He built wood boxes around the bathroom vents and recessed lighting so the insulation would not be placed on top and accidentally creep in when we shot the loose Fiberglas all over. We showed up and rented the machine, a truck to haul it, and 17 of of the 30 bags (13 were at home already) we needed to complete the job.

Our biggest obstacle: the weather. We chose to wait until fall for insulation because we thought it would be cooler. Lesson #1 learned: don't trust Chicago weather. It is never normal and always surprising. The week prior was in the lower to mid 60's. The week after (this weekend), also in the 60's. Nope. Not insulation weekend = 88 degrees! You can imagine in a hot attic wearing protective gear from head to toe, it would be 100+ degrees. Bummer. But, we're fighters. We were determined to finish this job, and finish it fast.

 Here is Ray with the truck full of goodies from Home Depot.

Here is the insulation we had in our garage waiting to be used (13 bags) in addition to the ones in the truck (17).

Ray removing the massively heavy machine base from the truck. Being pregnant means I lift nothing and can be of almost no use. Shrug.

Ray prepared all of the bags for me by cutting them in half, just as the directions called for. Use the Xacto knife to slice in half and then break. For 30 bags, we yielded 60 halves that individually had to be stuffed into the AttiCat machine (that was my job as Ray stood in the sweltering attic and sprayed the Fiberglas from the hose).

Breaking the "brick" apart. Each one expands 16x the current amount inside the package.

Organizing our stacks of 60 halves...

Here's the beast of a machine that I stuffed each halve into. There was a knife on the left that would slice the bag open as I stuffed it inside the machine. I was also covered, head-to-toe in protective gear so that the Fiberglas would not come in contact with my skin. Not fun in the sun, dressed for winter, in 88 degree weather. Oh yeah, and pregnant. I guess the only thing worse could have been being inside the attic. My poor husband.

Look at that fluffiness! You're looking at about $900 worth of Fiberglas insulation that will hopefully save us some cash and keep us cozy in the winter. We also get a tax break of 30% for completing the project before December 31. But let's be honest... tax break or not, we would've done this just for our personal interest. My first Chicago winter is coming and from what I've been told by everysingleperson, we're going to need this. It took us about 2-2.5 hours to blow all of the insulation into the attic-- all 60 halves. Doing the math... that's about 1 bag every 2 to 2.5 minutes.

Ah, R-60 is glorious.

So maybe it was an 88-degree (or 100+ in the attic) snowfall of a different kind, but it was much needed. We're so happy to have this behind us (or above us... haha) now.

Bring it on, Chicago.