Free Buffet transformation!

I answered an ad on Freecycle for a free hutch/buffet. (Are you a subscriber to Freecycle?  You'll find it in the Yahoo Groups).  I LOVE wood furniture and I've been looking for a dresser for the kids' room f.o.r.e.v.e.r. but most are way out of my price range (ie. not free!)  I found an ad for a buffet with hutch and I jumped on it, drove the 50 miles to get it as soon as the poster responded.  I found that she had already removed all the finish off the buffet and some of it off the hutch.  Since I wanted the buffet first, and the hutch in the future (once the kids are done wrecking it...um, I mean using it!) I proceeded to do my research on how to paint it.  I visited many websites that stressed sanding in between coats of paint and varnish to finish it.

Buffet

Hutch

First I sanded the whole thing down, but didn't have to do much work, as the lady had done a LOT of work already.  I then painted the whole thing with primer.  

I was working in the barn, so I tried to keep my work area as clean as possible.  I didn't count on the cat, Bonnie, 'helping' me, though!

She jumped up on the top after I had the last coat of black paint done and proceeded to dance and shake her feet across the whole top!!! I had to sand her footprints and dirt off and do another coat of black.  After I finished painting, I finished it with a coat of Varathane Polyurathane, which promised to not yellow.  

After FIVE months, I finally finished it!  I'm ashamed that it took so long, but in my defense, I had a broken foot for almost 2 months.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  ;-) I skipped putting on the middle door, mostly because I know my kids and I figured that it wouldn't last very long.  However, they put on ALL the hardware (which they also picked out).  I was a little concerned that they would carve their names into the wood using the screwdriver, but they behaved....for now, and they love it.  Right now they are fighting over whose clothes go in which drawer.  

Now to get started on stripping the varnish off the hutch!!