thank you

Oooh! That was the most comments any of my blog posts has ever received! Thank you, lovely readers, for taking the time to read and respond with your ideas about what I should do with the dresser. (And thank you for forgiving all the typos in my last post...proofreading becomes tricky when the little ones wake from naptime.)

I think you were all right - painting the dresser would be a shame. So I've taken your advice and I've left it with the woodgrain showing. Today I began the intricate and time-consuming task of sanding the dark stain out of all the decorative grooves and the door panels. I'm considering investing in a little hobby sander - I've just about removed all my fingerprints trying to get into the tiny corners! (Hmmm. Maybe a bank job could be on the cards now.) At any rate, there is still a fair bit of work needed to chase away all traces of that dark woodstain and finish the beeswaxing. But it can wait.

I also made a decision to put the dresser in the living room; our flooring, bookcases and side tables are oak veneered, so the dresser complements them very nicely. Also, it is ever-so-slightly too wide for the kitchen space in which I intended it to live. I am undecided on what to do with the top half of the dresser. It was intended to display plates, and so only has very shallow shelves. For now it is safe and dry in our coal shed.

We have gained some much-needed storage in the living room. I was able to unpack a box that has been sealed for two and a half years (since we moved to America) - our board games! And the girls' puzzles, wooden train track, Lincoln Logs and Matchbox car collection are now all neatly housed in an easy-to-access but hidden-from-view place.

I am in love.