Table Time

I know you think I've abandoned this blog, but I haven't.  I am doing something.  It's just that I'm doing it very slowly, relative to all the other things I'm doing. 

The current project, which is taking about four weeks longer than it was supposed to, is to transform this beat up, non-solid wood, 10-seat, $20 Goodwill table, by freshening it up with some paint.  (It's a really cruddy table.  The veneer has buckled all over it, there are tons of gauges in the surface, it wobbles a lot, and it was covered in some glue-like and still-sticky substance.  But it seats 10.  And I know my friends who've shared squished meals with us can really appreciate the increase in real estate.) 

Did I really not take any before pictures??  Well, here it is when I started the project, over a month ago.

Painted the top with Bin (shellac-based) primer, at the suggestion of two Lowe's employees.

Since the surface is not solid wood and has a veneer top, the guys at Lowe's suggested that I paint it with BIN primer, sans sanding, since veneer is so very thin.  They said the primer would stick to anything.  After painting the top, knowing that it's cured for four weeks, and finding that I can scrape it off, I'm not convinced.  I still went ahead and painted the bottom with BIN today.  It might work.

I'm thinking that after painting the top my color of choice and then putting a sealer over it (and I'm thinking of using oil based products for this), it won't scrape off.  Hopefully. 

Jonathan's not going to like that this is still going to take more time to finish.  I think I told him it'd take about three days to do...