I had thought I would be able to finish my table top today, but it still hasn’t completely dried.  No matter.  I had plenty of other things to work on!

I started out this morning by thoroughly sanding the window seat.  As you may recall, there were several water marks in the wood.  They were still there when I finished sanding, but Mark gave me a tip you may not have heard of before…

This was what it looked like yesterday.

First, Mark told me to put a rag over just the spot and pour steaming hot water over it. Then I sanded it again and a fair amount of it disappeared. This was the single water mark nearest the sander in the other picture.

That didn’t completely do it, so next Mark had me lay a cloth over the spots and put my iron on the highest heat setting and the highest steam setting.  He says I need to let it dry until tomorrow and then sand it again.  This was the double water spot to the far left in the first picture.

I asked Mark where he learned about this trick and he said he learned it in wood shop in high school.  I asked him how it works and he said that the hot water makes the wood swell up, and the stain with it.  Then when I sand, the stain will be sanded out.  I think it’s going to work!

Mark has been wanting me to bring in the end tables I got to go beside the couch in the living room, so today I got a couple of them cleaned up and brought them in.

One of four matching end tables I got at Habitat for Humanity Restore; two for the living room and two to go next to our bed when the bedroom is finished.

Mark had a busy day working at several campgrounds.  He has days when everything goes smoothly and days when it doesn’t.  Today was a little bit frustrating for him, but he also had some victories.  One is that the couple whose bedroom roof was ruined were initially denied any help from their insurance company, but Mark has been advocating for the couple and it looks like the insurance company might relent.  Yay!

I was looking out our living room window this evening, and I happened to see this little fellow right below the window:

This bunny looks like it’s molting.

I’ve seen this bunny, or one like it, several times in the last couple weeks.  The first time he was at a distance, the second time he hopped around the corner before I got a good look at him, but this time he stayed and let me get a chance to photograph him.  I love seeing wildlife in my back yard!