Confessions of a Fitness Instructor

Hey there!  I hope wherever you are Saturday has treated you well

It’s been a lovely sunny day here today, so I threw on some sunscreen and my sunglasses and took advantage of the nice day by working on something I’ve been wanting to get done for a few years.

Refinishing this hurtin’ dresser.  It’s one I’ve had for years and since moving into our house it’s lived in the basement either storing junk, or sitting empty waiting for me to come fix it up  My mom thinks it’s one she bought at a second-hand store before she got married (she’s been married for 40 years), so it’s been around for a while.  And it’s certainly seen better days.  The drawers would hardly work (turns out all they really needed was a good waxing) one of the casters on the bottom was broke (so I removed all of them) the drawer pulls had certainly seen better days

you better believe I’m replacing these suckers!

And the veneer on one of the side panels was starting to separate badly so I decided to put it out of its misery.  Equipped with an old table knife, a slot screwdriver and removed it.  The wood was a little rough underneath but it’s certainly much better than the, “look at me I’m falling apart” look it was giving off before.

The other side was separating a little bit too but I decided not to push my luck and left it alone.

One neat thing about this dresser is that the drawers used to lock.  The keys are long gone and the mechanisms have been all painted over a million times but the key holes in each drawer are still visible.  This is what they looked like when I started

and then after some sanding and digging they looked more like this

They are still in need of a bit of cleaning up but it think it looks really cool to have the actual keyhole showing like this instead of the painted up blob I had before.

Even after a lot of sanding and cleaning up the dresser is a bit of an ugly duckling.  I’m painting it a dark brown colour and I’ve got the first coat of paint on already and am hoping to finish up the painting tomorrow.  It’s never going to be pageant winning beauty, but I’ll be happy if it turns out being usable and average looking.

Some Eats

Breakfast: watermelon & blueberries

Lunch: Green juice (kale, cucumber, lime, green apple & ginger) + 2 pieces of bruschetta left from yesterday

Supper: Loaded potato chowder

Loaded potato chowder is super simple to make and crazy good.  Make a very basic potato chowder (cook diced potatoes, drain, cook garlic in tbsp of butter, add 2 Tbsp flour.  Whisk to combine & then add 2 cups of milk & re-add cooked potatoes.  Continue to cook until milk thickens).  Once your chowder is done fill a bowl with the chowder and top with shredded cheese, bacon & green onion or chives.  If you’re a diehard baked potato fan like me you’ll also throw a little sour cream on top.  When it was gone J said, “What do you mean it’s gone? I want another pot full!”  I think he likes it.

Time to go rinse off and start our exciting festivities for the night – we’re either watching a movie or two or playing Super Mario on the Wii (I haven’t played in SO long!).  And we’ve got pretty stellar snack lined up too.  Details on that tomorrow.

Have a good night!