Loni Huff

Refinishing our kitchen table: Stripping the pedestal

2012-10-04T14:42:57Z

I was so reluctant to start this part of the project that I took about a four week hiatus between finishing the table top and starting the pedestal. My reluctance was well-founded. The grooves and rounded feet of the pedestal made it 5x more difficult to strip than the relative ease of the tabletop (including the beveled edge and skirt). After letting the gel stripper sit for 25 minutes (Achievement Unlocked: ~~Super~~human Patience), I used my flat-bladed putty knife on the flat planes and 3M Scotch-Brite abrasive pads to clean around the contours. The latter technique takes some elbow grease and, at least initially, the paint and primer smears into a scary, gray sludge that spreads everywhere and makes you think your work is ruined. As you keep scrubbing, though, the stripper/paint/primer mixture starts to bead up and fall off.

Here are pictures from 3 hours (2 rounds of stripping) and 6 hours (3.5 rounds of stripping):

What’s wrong with the center picture? I’m not wearing safety goggles. I have gotten stripper on just about every limb at some point or another, but it never occurred to me to worry that it might get thrown into my eyes. Unfortunately, this happened over the weekend while I was vigorously dabbing stripper into the rings of the pedestal. Once I realized what had happened (thoughts: “oh wow that’s cold … maybe it’s not going to hurt … oh NO, IT DOES! IT DOES!!”), I dashed inside the house and approximated a chemistry class-style eyewash. My eyeball felt bruised, it hurt to blink, and my eyelid peeled three days later. So yeah, if you do this at home, be sure to wear goggles!

After mostly recovered from my eye injury, I used our electric sander on the planes (and some of the curves) of the table, which helped remove most of the residual grey primer. I tried unsuccessfully to manually clean the details with folded sand paper. A friend suggested using a Dremel which I luckily had on hand. I used an EZ471SA abrasive brush from Dremel’s Polishing / Sanding kit to clean between the rings. I knew right away it was worth the investment (the kit was $21 at Home Depot), because I couldn’t have reached that paint with sand paper, and there was no way I was could have stripped those trouble areas without gouging the wood with my putty knife. I also recommend using safety goggles for this part, since the resulting debris is moving fast enough to hurt your eyes.

Once I was satisfied with the paint removal from the detail, I noticed that I lot of stripper had coagulated between the legs of the table and the pedestal. I was worried this might interfere with painting so decided to remove them. The electric sander removed most of the gunk I was concerned about.

I then used a combination of manual labor and my electric sander with 120-grit finishing sandpaper all over the pedestal’s trunk, its feet, and the table top and leaves. I used a brush on all the table parts to loosen and remove as much sawdust as I could. At this point, I shook out my tarp and flipped it over to minimize “recontamination” from sawdust and stripper gobs. I wiped down all the pieces with abrasive pads dipped in mineral spirits to remove any residual dust. I was now ready for the fun part of the project: staining and painting.

Refinishing our kitchen table: Stripping the table top

2012-09-20T18:53:08Z

I had heard great things about the product Strip-eeze, but our Home Depot doesn’t carry it. Instead, I bought the same orange can of stripper I bought last time. For those of you following along at home in hopes of repeating this process (really? maybe you should go back and read the first post in this series), at this stage I had available:

1 can Klean-Strip gel stripper (orange can)
1 pair gloves made out of stuff I hoped wouldn’t disintegrate when exposed to stripper
1 metal paint pan
1 paint brush for applying stripper
1 metal-bladed putty knife
Sand paper, coarse and fine
1 electric hand sander (the kind that let’s you cut rectangles of sandpaper to fit)
1 can mineral spirits (used to rub down the furniture after it’s been stripped and sanded)
1 tarp (to protect my work surface)
3M Scotch-Brite abrasive pads

Per the instructions, I used my paint brush to shellac the table in stripper. Let me say that it’s a good thing I’m a thorough person. I mean, if I hadn’t previously gone to the effort of priming my table, I would have only had to remove a single coat of black, devil enamel. Instead, I got to experience the gradual unveiling of the underlying finish of my table in several delightful stages: black and primer gray; primer gray and oak with black streaks; and finally oak with minor streaks of primer gray that I’m hoping won’t affect how well the stain is absorbed.

After the second round of applying stripper, waiting, and scraping, I was disheartened to see that my table still had large streaks of black paint and gray primer all over it. Chad convinced me to take the sander to it (coarse grain) to see how much of it would come up (I was convinced I’d have to sand through the top to get rid of it). Note that this is the one stage of the process that actually looked fun enough for Chad to want to try, which is why I’m the one snapping the photo of him doing the “work” (P.S. any work that can be done with a glass of wine in one hand is awesome and not really work).

I’m not the most patient person, so waiting the prescribed 10 minutes (15? 25? oh, whatever) before scraping off stripper was a real challenge. Due to my impatience, I went through a small can of stripper on just the table top itself and had to go back to Home Depot to buy a second (larger) can for the table leaves. I thought I’d outsmart myself by buying a different, more expensive version of the stripper I’d used before, this one boasting of color-changing properties (the idea being that once the stripper changes color, it’s ready to be scraped off). Being a fan of anything that seems scientifically likely to improve my odds for success, I bought the large can of this miracle stripper. As you can see from the photos below, this was a monumentally bad idea.

SRSLY!?

What the product claims to do is change color to indicate when it’s time to scrape it off. And I guess it does change color because liquids with a suspension of lightly-colored particles tend to get lighter in color as the water in them evaporates. What this means is that you then have a thick layer of dry, light blue, chalky stuff to scrape off along with your paint. I was so infuriated with the terrible-ness of this product that I fished the sales receipt out of the garbage can out from under a layer of coffee grounds and returned it to the store. I’m back to the cheap(er) orange-can stripper I was using before. (As I mentioned before, the table leaves were never painted — only primed — which is why you don’t see any of the black streaks you saw on the pictures of the table top.)

Refinishing our kitchen table: Introduction

2012-09-20T16:34:02Z

We have been very fortunate to have inherited a lot of great furniture from Chad’s mother over the years, including a solid oak table and chairs that Chad claims was “the only table I ever ate at [growing up]!” The table itself is well made but I once felt its style ran too far toward “country” with its spindly arrow back chairs. I saw great potential in the table itself, however, since its style matched the style of 70% of the tables being sold at Pottery Barn at the time with the unfortunate exception of a natural oak finish. The aforementioned on-trend tables were all painted some variation of distressed black, and I became obsessed with the idea of refinishing my farmhouse table and chairs.

Because of Chad’s attachment, I thought it best to wait until he was out of town for a conference to tackle this project. I still remember standing in the checkout line at Home Depot, beaming from ear to ear with a basket full of supplies. An older gentleman tapped me on the shoulder to ask me what kind of project I was undertaking, no doubt taking in the can of paint stripper and assorted refinishing supplies. I explained that I was refinishing my kitchen table, and he very kindly told me that he would recommend against the can of paint I’d picked out: a gloss black enamel. I thanked him for his advice and paid for my purchases, hoping he wouldn’t notice I wasn’t heeding his advice.

I spent the next five autumn evenings out on our apartment balcony, stripping, sanding, and priming the table. I diligently followed every step to the letter, pouring elbow grease and excitement into my project. I couldn’t wait to show the final result to my husband who, so awed by its beauty and my frugalness (ignoring the $100+ I spent on supplies), would finally agreed to get rid of any number of items he’d been thus far unwilling to part with. But when it finally came time to paint the primed table, I knew I was in trouble. The paint was gloppy, uneven, and … shiny. I had seriously underestimated the gloss level of gloss paint. I was so dismayed by the way the paint looked on the table top that I didn’t even bother to paint the primed table leaves or the table skirt. So for the past eight years, I’ve suffered a self-inflicted panda table whose presence could only be tolerated thanks to a series of tablecloths.

My original gloppy, unfinished effort

I’ve never felt right about replacing the table since it was structurally sound. But I was too discouraged by the failure that resulted from my over-exuberance (and an unwillingness to listen to the guy who tried to warn me about my paint choice) to try again. It was once we moved into our new home with a highly visible breakfast area that I decided I wasn’t going to let fifty pounds of solid oak (and at least five pounds of drippy black enamel) defeat me.

After seeing a slew of Annie Sloan chalk paint posts on Pinterest, I bought a copy of her Quick and Easy Paint Transformations book, thinking to employ one of her painting techniques to make for a fast redo. One of the strengths of ASCP is that you don’t typically need to strip, sand, or prime your piece before you can start painting. That is, of course, unless you previously coated it with gloppy black enamel paint, in which case, stripping is probably a good idea. I figured I would still get to use the paint’s space-age property of sticking to unprepared wood if I decided to paint the chairs.

Of course, once I’d ~~made the decision to~~ made the realization that I had no other choice than to strip the table, I immediately fell in love with this photo:

Sadly, not our table

I decided to try re-staining the tabletop and using ASCP paint and dark wax on the pedestal to try to achieve a similar result. As the table I’m trying to emulate costs $2,500, I figure I can spend up to $250 on supplies and, as long as it's 1/10 as awesome, we’ll come out ahead. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do about the design that’s been painted on the back of these Queen Anne-style chairs. (And honestly, I think the guy in line at Home Depot would probably tell me that my arrow back chairs won’t stylistically support a French treatment, but since when have I listened to him?) Besides, I needed to prove to myself that I can successfully refinish the table itself before even thinking of tackling the chairs.

A Gleeful season premiere

2012-09-20T13:56:17Z

We started watching “Glee” during its first season. While the amazing vocals and song selection were an initial draw, we quickly fell in love with the characters and their caricatured flaws. We thrill in its campy over-dramatization of high school, the clumsy love triangles and social struggles. And while I have no doubt that parents object to some of the themes (making the choice to have responsible, pre-marital sex and surprisingly consequence-free experimentation with underage alcohol consumption), the show largely promotes positive themes most parents probably do like: tolerance, positive self-image, and rising above the temptation to bully.

At its heart, Glee is character-driven (enough that you can generally overlook its occasional shortcomings in terms of story). During the first season, the character who is clearly posited as its female protagonist, Rachel, is a sophomore, struggling to find her place in a school that is – at least, obvious to viewers – too small to accommodate her. Each season represents a school year, and so the end of season three sees Rachel – and several other high-profile Gleeks – graduating. With the presumptive “loss” of several core characters (Rachel, Finn, Kurt, Santana, Puck, Quinn, and Mike Chang), fans were worried that the show would lose much of its magic. After having watched the season premier for season 4 – twice – I’m happy to say that isn’t the case.

Critique and spoilers to follow.

The full Season 4 cast

Season 4 introduces several of new characters. In order of my preference:

Hudson as Cassandra July

Cassandra July (Kate Hudson) plays Rachel’s new dance instructor. Her presence ensures the preservation of the same type of negative energy (perfectly counter-balanced by as-yet private moments of compassion) that Jane Lynch has always brought to the lovable villain, Sue Sylvester. Her debut dance number, a mash-up of J Lo and Lady Gaga, was my personal favorite from the episode and may have cemented her as my favorite of the new additions.
Jake Puckerman (Jacob Artist) plays the half-brother of fan favorite, Noah “Puck” Puckerman (Mark Salling). The chip on his shoulder is even larger than the one his brother bore, and he seems to know it. His vocals during his audition (“Never Say Never” by the Fray) were phenomenal, and I look forward to the release of the full version. I thought the final scene where he’s shown standing at the back of the auditorium, backpack slung over one shoulder, was a delightful nod to the same scene with his half-brother in season 1.
Marley Rose (Melissa Benoist) is introduced as a new, sophomore-level female protagonist who is obviously intended to parallel the recently-graduated star female vocalist, Rachel (it is also perhaps her character, rather than Darren Cris’, for whom the episode is named). She was likeable enough, and I enjoyed the storyline of how having an overweight mother who works on the lunch line was socially disadvantageous. I felt her vocals paled comparison to Lea Michelle’s, but as she’s only a sophomore, it may be that the directors are deliberately giving her “room to grow” vocally.
Brody Weston (Dean Geyer) plays an upperclassman at Nyada performing arts school who is obviously intended to serve as a foil to Rachel’s devotion to her now-distant boyfriend, Finn (Cory Monteith). The mid-night scene where he deliberately steps out of the shower nude into a co-ed bathroom was successfully titillating, and his line “in case you’re wondering – and I know you are – I’m straight” was delivered with perfect amount of cheek (ba-dum-bum). Nonetheless, I find myself underwhelmed by the character. Maybe a few more bars of “Sister Christian” would have helped.

Artist and Michele, unlikely (implausible?) chemistry
Kitty (Becca Tobin) is deliberately styled as a stand-in for graduate Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron). In fact, within the first few seconds of appearing on camera, Sue is introducing her as a “young Quinn Fabray, except she’s not pregnant, manic depressive, or in and out of a wheelchair.” We aren’t intended to like the character, and in that she succeeded. I can’t fault the actress for that and look forward to some character growth beyond bullying other characters and competing with Britney for the role of head cheerleader.

Overall, the first episode of the new season was engaging, heart-warming (who didn’t cry during Kurt’s send-off from his father or Kurt and Rachel’s reunion at the end of the episode), and basically exceeded my hopes for a “New Direction.” We may have a season that could live up to its predecessors.

Hawaii / Disneyland 2012

2012-02-07T23:26:41Z

Kilauea Volcano

Next to leisurely tours of wine-country, cruising is probably my second favorite form of vacationing. On the days at sea, everything is planned out for you: activities, food, and sleep (primarily defined by those periods when neither food nor activities are available). And with a toddler, the benefits of reliable, on-board childcare during dinnertime can't be beat.

This year, Chad talked me into a 15-day cruise from San Diego to Hawaii, our longest voyage so far. We spent four days at sea followed by five days visiting Hilo, Maui, Honolulu, Kona, and Kauai. Another five days at sea with a brief stop in Ensenada, Mexico (no doubt required to offer Duty Free shopping) saw us returning to San Diego. Even though we only spent a total of five days in Hawaii, I think it was a great way to spend a first visit. We got to experience several different islands and will have a better idea of where we'd like to concentrate our time the next time we visit.

Hanalei was my favorite beach, a preference no doubt influenced by the fact that Colin's favorite bedtime story character – Puff the Magic Dragon – hails from the area. We made a point of telling Colin about the significance of our destination and stopped by the Magic Dragon Toy shop in nearby Princeville where we bought him a stuffed dragon puppet of "Puff." When asked about what he was going to tell his classmates about his trip to Hanalei this morning, he informed me that "we didn't find Jackie Paper."

Puff the Magic Dragon

Our trip also included dinner at Mama's Fish House in Maui where I enjoyed the best meal of my life: Bouillabaisse with Mahi-mahi, lobster, shrimp, scallops, and crab in a tomato-saffron broth. It probably didn't hurt that the meal was accompanied by an incredible bottle of wine, a Talbott "Sleepy Hollow" Pinot Noir. I think I would have had a second helping of Bouillabaisse for dessert, if it had been offered. If you do decide to visit Mama's, I have to stress the importance of making a reservation ahead of time. After a $35 taxi ride from the port, we almost didn't get in. Thankfully, they took pity on us and let us wait for a table to open up in the noobs-that-didn't-know-to-make-a-reservation section.

Of all our time in Hawaii, my only regret was spending the day at Waikiki beach in Honolulu. It was super crowded, and some beach goers seemed less than tolerant of Chad and Colin's playing along the shoreline. That was our first day at the beach, however, so we didn't really know what we were missing until Kona when we took a 45 minute taxi ride to Hapuna beach on the opposite side of the island from our port. That beach was much less crowded, and I even managed to scope out some shade under some rocks to enjoy reading a Game of Thrones book while Chad and Colin built and Hulk-smashed sand castles (respectively). (Beach + Shade + Kindle = Bliss)

Seeing Winnie the Pooh at Disneyland

Our cruise sailed out of San Diego, so we decided to drive up to Anaheim and spend an extra day in Disneyland. And because it was both Colin and my first visit to Disney, it was doubly exciting. I am looking forward to retroactively experiencing all the different types of activities that Disney has to offer in each age group as Colin grows up. I think the picture at left pretty much sums up the entire point of taking a toddler to a place like Disneyland; even if he won't necessarily remember the experience, his joy was our delight.

Photos

Meeting Jennifer, my penpal of 16 years

2011-11-30T17:35:43Z

Cover of X-Men 33

Back in August of 1994, I can remember standing in front of a carousel of comic books in our neighborhood grocery store, debating whether or not to purchase X-Men 33. I had long since lost my heart to Rogue of the X-Men due to the awesomeness of the 1990s X-Men the Animated Series, even going so far as to pause our VCR at certain frames so I could sketch them. Nonetheless, I was daunted by the prospect of purchasing my first comic because I knew my collector’s spirit would be committing to a lifelong monetary investment (which likely made XTAS one of Marvel’s more lucrative investments). I actually left the store that day empty-handed but for the next seven days was haunted by the idea that all copies of the issue would be bought. As you might have guessed, I did return to purchase the issue, breathing a huge sigh of relief to find several copies still available.

If you’re one of the young women lucky enough to be a teenager in today’s world where “geek” doesn’t necessarily equate to “social pariah,” you might be surprised by the fact that my love of comic books didn’t exactly make me Ms. Popularity. Eager to find another girl I could “geek out” with and not feel like an aberration of nature, I decided to write to Jennifer, the author of one of the letters published at the end of X-Men 33. (This was before the Internet exposed the dangers of information sharing, and comic book companies still published the full addresses of their fans; I imagine that this resulted in many young women receiving unsolicited letters from incarcerated persons which is why this is no longer standard practice.)

Here’s the excerpt from her original letter that piqued my interest:

What can I say? X-men #30 was marvelous, spectacular, and awesome!!! I’ve only recently become a comics collector, and this issue is definitely a great issue to have started with! The reason I started collecting X-men was because this book has women! I’m not saying that women are totally overlooked in today’s society but, in your books, women are some of the main characters!

I loved when Rogue flew up and caught the bouquet, and I thought it was great when Jean telekinetically lifted Professor X up and danced with him in the air! It’s wonderful that Jean and Scott finally got married – even though Scott seems like such a papa’s boy to me (and his father died such a long time ago).

To my mind, Jennifer of the as-yet-undisclosed-last-name obviously had several things going for her:

Like me, she only recently started collecting comic books.
Like me, she appreciated the strong heroines portrayed in Marvel’s comics.
She mentioned Rogue (turns out, Jean was her favorite character which was initially a disappointment, but worked out when she was willing to sell me both Rogue and Gambit’s first appearances).
She liked exclamation points. A LOT!!!

I knew right away that the two of us were bound to get along fabulously, if only I could convince her to write me back. I attempted to do so with the following letter (provided here only in the interest of full disclosure):

May 16, 1995

Dear Jennifer,

Hello! You don’t know me, but I saw your letter in X-men #33 and decided to write to you. I hope I don’t annoy you too much! If I don’t, I’m lookin’ for someone to start a penpalship with, so maybe you could write me back or something.

I guess I should tell you my name and stuff, huh? Okay, my name is Loni, and I’m gonna be starting high school next year. I’m thirteen and have been collecting comic books for about a year now. My first book was X-men #33, but I was hesitant to write to you. I like to draw, write, listen to music, and of course collect comics. My two favorite characters are Gambit and Rogue.

Okay, I hope that’s enough to get started with. I know you’ve probably received tons of letters from other people already, and I’m sorry for not writing to you earlier, but I would be appreciative if you would try to write me back. Bye!

Sincerely,
Loni

Fortunately for me, Jennifer did write me back, and thus began a four year long penpalship that not only helped me define who I was but helped me to accept my differences from my peers as not making me any less a person. Without Jennifer’s support, I would likely not be the woman I am today, and it was only having met her earlier this month that made me realize it. You see, not only did Jennifer and I compare notes on the current happenings in X-Men, but we gossiped about all the other things that were going on in our lives, namely school and BOYS. Despite my incompetence when it came to dealing with members of the opposite sex, I was boy crazy in high school. I found a type-written copy of a letter I sent her during the first week of my new high school where I mentioned a total of four different prospective boys (none of which turned out to be nearly as prospective as I had originally hoped). There was something really special about our friendship in that it provided me a safe place where I could be myself, geek and all, and not worry about being judged.

So when I spied on Jennifer’s blog that she was planning a trip to Salt Lake City to celebrate a friend’s 30th birthday, I was both completely stoked and admittedly, a little bit intimidated. You see, despite the fact that our penpalship slaked during college (due to school commitments and a sad inability to afford neither postage nor comics), I have enjoyed following Jennifer’s exploits virtually, friending her on Facebook and communicating with her through instant message when I could. I could tell by the photos and status messages that she posted that she was even more gregarious and fun-loving than I could ever aspire to be. She seemed to be surrounded by girlfriends while, at the same time, I felt fortunate to have even one or two close female friends. So when it came time to meet her for the first time, I seriously debated going home to change into something more club-appropriate than my boring work fare. I also went to dinner with my husband beforehand so I could have a glass of wine I was so nervous!

Thankfully, despite her obviously outgoing and instantly lovable personality, Jennifer turned out to be completely down-to-earth, and, as it happens, we get along as fabulously in person as we once did on paper. Even though we were only able to hang out for a few hours, by the end of the evening, I was reminded of how close I had felt to her as a teenager who was so fortunate to have found a kindred spirit. It was an amazing opportunity for me and has inspired in me a renewed interest in maintaining our friendship over the coming years. Love you, Jenn!

Loni and Jennifer at Desert Edge Brewery

Jennifer shared her take on our comic-inspired friendship and subsequent face-to-face meeting over on her blog.