Paint and Stain and Varnish, Oh My!

  After a very busy day of graduation parties, Ben and I  settled in to take care of some much needed painting,  staining, and varnishing. 

  Of course, I picked out the stain color, approved Ben's  sample test. . . and then hated it once he had the whole  thing done.  Like, really hated it.  I'm talking full on pout fest.  

Now, anyone who is familiar with stain will tell you that once it's on there... it's ON THERE.  There really isn't much you can do short of completely sanding it all out and starting over.  My tremendously thoughtful boyfriend made a halfhearted offer to do just that, and did in fact try to sand down some pretty rough spots, but I just couldn't make him go through all that. 

  I have made peace with the interior color, for now, but  may someday just paint over it all or wallpaper it with  maps.  I am much happier with the doors, shudders, and  front box.  

Tomorrow we're planning on hanging the freshly painted green doors on and possibly sanding down that first coat of varnish so we can do another, then we'll be off to see some friends and enjoy the Memorial Day holiday!

Today at one of my senior students' grad parties, we also spoke to the Mayor of New London, MN (the small town I work in and used to live in). We shared our teardrop camper adventures with him and talked about the possibility of having the Hobbit Hole in the Water Days parade this summer.  We're going to speak to Perkins Lumber of Willmar, MN (the place we got our rough hewn log siding) about sponsoring us for the parade.

While working outside tonight we also had some neighbors stop by and ask if they could check out our project.  Always eager to share the Hobbit Hole with others, we let them take a look around and chatted for a bit before getting our noses back to that too darkly stained grindstone. ;)

We really had hoped to have the Hobbit Hole ready to take on its first camping trip this weekend, but there's still more to do so alas we will be working for another week or two yet.

In other news, Ben and I (mostly I) have been wracking our brains trying to come up with a great name for the Hobbit Hole Teardrop Trailer and today it came to me -- but I'm keeping it a secret just a bit longer!  I'm planning on unveiling the name shortly.  

Now, I am in need of a hot shower and a warm bed.  Ben and Buddy the Beagle are already two steps ahead of me and snoring away.