Dining Suite

Friday was the first day of the school holidays where it didn't rain all day. It was even better than that... it was sunny and felt like spring. The weather forecaster tells us that we will get a few days of this wonderful weather before the temperature plummets again and Winter resumes its usual programming. 

We made good use of the day. Apparently we weren't the only ones doing so. Ra works as a Junior Librarian at the local library shelving books etc. She reported that it was dead quiet most of the day and that just after 3pm heaps of families started coming in to change over their books after spending the day enjoying the lovely day. 

I bought a dining suite a while ago with the intention of restoring it for our use. Hmm not gonna quite work. what to do?

Restore it and sell it. It has been sitting on my TO DO list for a few months. Now we are getting into it.

It's not finished yet and we have all had a hand in it; sanding the chairs and table top, undercoating, top coating, more sanding, removing the seat pads, removing the millions of staples in the seat pads, more painting...  

This is how the chairs looked when we got them home. Two different fabrics on the seat pads. The original owners had recovered four of the original seats, right over the top of the original coverings.

 And this is how the table top looked when we got it. The stain is uneven; it seems the original owners had a go at re-doing that too. Badly. Then at a later date they had used it to stand on to paint the ceiling in their new extension and weren't too concerned about paint spatters on the table top. Nothing that can't be remedied with a total sand back to the timber.

starting on the undercoating

 After Ra removed the seat pads, Charlie cat decided that we had provided him with a nice little possie from which to take in the many tasks happening around him. 

 EK painting the first coat of top coat.

By the end of the weekend the chairs had received two top coats. They need a light sand and a third top coat. The table base needs another coat and then we can turn it over and start on the stain for the top. I have purchased fabric to cover the seats AND I am the proud owner of a brand new electric staple gun!!! Mother's day gift nearly 2 months late?

Hubster and I went to the hardware store this afternoon to buy some short staples for me to use in his air-gun brad nailer. Unfortunately the small nailer won't take staples shorter than 16mm which is a tad too much for a seat pad.  In the past I have used our manual staple gun, but I have been finding it hard work. I have a lot of stapling to do and can only do a very small amount with the staple gun before my hands hurt - I just lack the strength. I have this set to do plus another set of six chairs and backs (long story - I'll tell you later). Instead of coming home with a packet of staples, we came home with an nice little electric stapler. That was $40 which was about $35 more than I was expecting to spend. It will be an investment. 

And the funniest thing? I am getting my own collection of tools, soon I am going to need my own storage space for them ;) I don't think I will tell Hubster yet. hehehe.