The Dresser That Got Away

Hey, I'm back! I didn't mean to be away for so long, but I JUST found the little connector cord thingy for the computer. It was in a toy basket. The camera case was in the car, and the camera itself was in a random drawer in the living room. If you have a toddler, this will make perfect logical sense to you.

Things have been busy here at our abode. Since I last wrote we decided to look at houses. We looked at a bunch, figured out what we wanted, found a really nice one in our price range, got a loan approved at the bank, took one look at our budget and decided to wait 6 mo. or so to buy. We know it would be much better to wait, and darn that Dave Ramsey, he's been a good influence on us. SO, plans are moving forward to squeeze another baby into our 800 sq foot home. And we couldn't be happier about the decision--we truly love it here.

So anyway, I'll start back in with a major fail. Background on this is that Mr. Wonderful's wonderful grandmother passed away in June. We miss her already and have been remembering her in our hearts often. Since much of Mr. Wonderful's family does not live nearby, we had the opportunity to take some of her furniture home with us. I have always loved this little dresser: His family thought I was crazy, but I could see how easy it would be to put a shelf on the bottom and put a few baskets down there. Adorable hardware, chippy paint, and a slab of marble for the top (which held the memory of one of the last stories grandma ever told us. She was quite the story teller :0)

So, Mr. Wonderful single-handedly loaded that dresser up in the trailer we brought up and placed it in the nursery for me. I had planned on using it as the changing table. Maybe repainting it someday, but for now I loved that chippy paint. Wait....did I say chippy paint?....about an antique dresser....in the nursery? Red flags went up all over in my brain. Flags that said "lead hazard" on them.



So, I tried doing some online research. I didn't find anything terribly conclusive, and that home based tests can be unreliable. So I emailed the lady who knows more about paint than anyone in the Blogosphere. Miss Mustard Seed. She was really sweet and emailed me back, letting me know that there isn't really a product for furniture that can "seal in" the paint like you might find for walls. And that painting over it wouldn't work for long if there was already chipping paint on the furniture. She advised me to move it out of the house with young kids around. Sad face, but I really appreciated the advice.

I took one last shot at home based lead tests and found one that seemed to be the most reliable.

I just bent the test, squeezed it until some liquid came out and rubbed it on the paint. If the test turned pink within 2 hours, there was lead present.

Well the test turned RED almost instantly. Soooooo I sweetly said "Mr. Wonderful? Do you think you could use your muscles and take this dresser out to the garage for me?"

That man. He endures so much for me. :0)

So, on to plan Q. I think I'll try to strip the dresser next spring and go from there. That's not the only fail we've dealt with this month. But I think I salvaged the next one. I'll have to post about that one next.