Lighten up, Lovely Lady

I bought this lovely lady on craigslist awhile back, and have been using it in my foyer as an entry table/great piece for throwing crap when people are coming over and I'm cleaning up in a hurry. But, it's kind of on the heavy side (no offense my lovely lady, I'm NOT calling you fat, I promise.  If anything, you're "PH" phat). Plus, some of the veneer on the drawers and legs has been chipping (and in one case was actually torn off by carpet cleaners who were dragging their stuff through my house). And, the bottom drawer didn't open/close easily at all.

But that's neither here nor there. This dresser needed some love and brightness, and I was finally getting down to business.

With our house up for sale, I'm always paranoid that I'll get into a project and then have someone schedule a showing while the house is in the mid-project-mess stage. But, I figured since we didn't have any showings scheduled last weekend, that I would be "safe" to knock this thing out. Well, I was good on Saturday, made some progress, but probably inadvertently wasted time as I used Citristrip to strip this piece (and another painted side table). Probably didn't need to do that for this project, but oh well, live and learn. I thought at one point it would be good to get all of the varnish/stain off of this and start fresh. You can see what it does though - good stuff!

Just as I was making progress on Sunday, with three good solid hours available at my disposal, we get the call. "Agent So-And-So would like to show your home from 4:00-5:00 today. Would that be ok?" Of course. So, drop dresser project and turn into psycho-whirlwind-cleaning maniac. Nevermind that my garage looks like Bob Vila's workshop just threw up all over the place. Did they buy my house? Of course ... not.

Can I make a suggestion to the real estate community at large? Would it be rude of me to ask for the implementation of a "Scale of Seriousness" for potential buyers coming through my house? So, let's say you're in from out of town, relocating, and have the weekend to make a decision and offer on a house. You have no house to sell and no contingencies. That would rank as a "10" on the "Scale of Seriousness", and I will bust my behind to get my house as pretty and perfect as possible. I will even take my dirty laundry and throw it in the back of my van to give the illusion of a laundry-free home. On the flipside, if you have just started looking, have two houses to sell and don't have either of them listed, that would rank as a "1" on the "Scale of Seriousness", and I won't kill myself (as much) trying to make my house show-perfect. Just a suggestion.

Here is a sneak peek at how it's coming along...

Adding some new hardware - ignore the price tag that's peeking out from underneath.  I just couldn't wait to see what it's going to look like!

More to come...  Happy Monday!

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