Monday Made It!! What??

There are two things that are CRAZY about this post.

1. Two posts in two days!! A miracle.

2. First Monday Made It... of THE. WHOLE. SUMMER. Seriously.

But, I'm proud of it, so I'm sharing! Thanks to Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for keeping this awesome linky up and running.

 

If you have been following me on Instagram, you have seen some of the shenanigans that went on in my garage last weekend. 

This was the bookshelf that greeted me when I first entered my new classroom in my new school:

Isn't it sad looking?

Not only did it have yucky peach paint on it, but the contact paper kind of looked like something my grandma would have had in her cabinets. And I'm not kidding when I say it had a...smell. It was definitely time for a change!

So, I loaded it up in the truck and brought it home. I assured my husband that he would not have to help me. I could totally get this baby back in tip-top shape all. By. My. Self. 

But would he pretty please take me to Home Depot and show me what I need to buy?

Trip Numero Uno

We made our way home with all the supplies for a complete bookshelf makeover!

I sent my husband in the house to drink iced tea and eat bon bons. Or something equally awesome but more manly. And I got to work. I pulled off all the contact paper.

Then, I got busy with the electric finishing sander - newly purchased from Home Depot.

All by myself, I tell you!

Remember how I said it was sticky?? And yucky? And a mess? It was a serious problem for the new electric finishing sander. Like, it wouldn't sand. Only get the gunk stuck to the sandpaper. I consulted the keeper of the power tools and knowledge related to bookshelf makeovers and he said we needed stripper. Don't get all weird on me. Paint stripper. The kind that takes paint and gunk and who-knows-what off of classroom bookshelves.

And away we went...

The lady at the front door recognized my face, but didn't seem to know my name...yet.

We got the stripper (with minimal middle-school-ish jokes) and headed on home.

Hmmmm....it does look as though he's helping, doesn't it? Well, I didn't exactly make him help me, but I didn't discourage him either. I seemed to be in over my head a bit here. What with the stripper, and the stripping and the electric sanding...

Once the whole thing was stripped of decades old paint and wood finish, we could actually start sanding. Yes, I do mean WE. I sanded!

He also did quite a bit of photography, as you can see.

Once everything was sanded, it was time for the part I KNEW I could handle: PAINT.

But, since my wonderful husband was in the helping spirit, we had to head back to Home Depot AGAIN. Just for another paint brush, but still. They were giving us funny looks.

We wiped the bookshelf clean with a rag and let it sit in the sun for awhile to dry completely. Then, we started painting.

 

We got a coat on and then headed out to dinner. I took a picture of it, but I'm guessing you don't need to see it. You can always leave a comment if you're dying to know what I had for dinner...

The next morning, we finished painting with another coat. I am SO happy with the results and I can't wait to show you how it looks in the classroom when I post about my classroom setup.

Here it is up against the classroom wall, but it is lonely and doesn't have any books yet!

I am so glad that I brought home that yucky bookshelf - even if it was WAY more work than I anticipated. Luckily, my amazing husband helped me, even though he thought he might have a relaxing weekend. YAY for husbands!

Anybody think he might be up for bookshelf makeover round 2???

 Don't forget to head over to 4th Grade Frolics to check out all the fantastic Monday Made It projects!