A Furniture Makeover with Oil Based Paint

We've had this dresser sitting in our storage room for a while because I didn't have a place for it. It was given to us and in our old house it was in my painting room. So you can imagine it was pretty beat up. I already started to patch things but here is roughly what it looked like before...

I painted one other piece of furniture in our house with oil based paint and even though it was a little more work to clean up, its worth it because the finish is super durable. Oil based paint has another perk, it is self leveling. You don't see a ton of brush strokes or roller marks. After it dries it is smooth and glossy.

 I put Cameron to work on the painting portion since the stuff is super stinky and considering I'm expecting it wouldn't be very healthy for the baby. Since I painted with oil based paint before I knew some tips which I learned the hard way and suggested them to Cam. He did great. In case you ever feel like trying it here's what we've learned...

 Once you go over an area resist the urge to go back in the same painting session and touch up a spot. It will leave the brush strokes.

It's better go thick with the paint (not so much that it drips though). And believe it or not a brush actually works better than a roller.

 We used oil based primer plus two coats paint. Here is its now. I got the new pulls from home depot.

Garden- September Update

 Cucumbers have finally come in. I guess I just planted them late so they came late. And apparently I planted too many again. Do you see the wall of cucumbers on the back? Whoops. But I suppose I'd rather have to many than too little! Tomatoes have been good too. We've made a bunch of tomato sauce, salsa, and have had them in and on everything. Squash are still producing. I need more recipes...

I've also been clearing out the beans and ground cherries to make room for fall plantings.

I started red romaine, bok choy, a couple types of kale, and collards inside a month ago. I got one of those soil blockers, which is suppose to help prevent transplant shock. They are definitely big and ready to go in the soil but its still way too hot outside.

I take them out a few hours each day to try and acclimate them but the butter type lettuce especially doesn't like it (as you can see in the picture). Hopefully things will cool off soon. I'll be directly planting some more carrots, spinach, and a type of broccoli that is suppose to overwinter then grow in spring when it gets cool.