Getting High

No, Dad. Calm down. I did not do drugs, but I did stain a large piece of wood (Minwax Dark Walnut), and in the process, probably killed a few hundred brain cells.

For some crazy reason, when I decided that I was going to complete the headboard project in the apartment, I figured that staining the wood indoors would be fine. I thought to myself, "The stain will only be on the wood for about 15 minutes before I wipe it off. That's not too long. I'll just stay in the other room and the high ceilings will take care of the smell."

Of course, my logic was flawed. Just because I had wiped off the excess stain did not mean that the stain soaking into the wood would dry immediately. It also did not guarantee that the smell wouldn't permeate the room, fill my nostrils, and give me a headache.

Lesson learned. Stain OUTDOORS.

Unfortunately, the hits did not stop coming. Although applying the stain to the front face of the headboard was easy, covering the sides and the legs was not. As it stood, I couldn't safely reach all of the crevices on the underside of the headboard due to their proximity to our pretty bamboo floors.

In order to accomplish that, I would have to flip over the headboard, and given that I had to wait for the front to dry, I figured I might as well also wait for the pungent smell to disappear before further enhancing its potency. Little did I know, this would take twenty-four hours. ERGH. The unexpected time lapse killed me, and to be frank, as I recall the experience, it simply makes me want to stop talking about it.

It was tedious and painful, and therefore, I'm going to save both you and I from reliving my mistery. Yes, it was THAT bad, which brings me to my final lesson of the day. Stain BEFORE assembly. If I could go back in time and do it, I would.