A few photos that don't really communicate how much progress I've made...

...but I'll post the anyway.  I am well into stripping and refinishing the dining room woodwork.  I've decided to save refinishing the built-in until after Thanksgiving.  It is going to be a chore and I want to get the room back together before Thanksgiving as we are hosting dinner at the house.  I have all but three sections of ceiling stripped.  The entire room except these three sections have their first coat of stain.   

The improvement is noticable now.  I also started putting things in the garbage this week.  I am shocked at how much material and how many trips to the hardware store I've made in the past three weeks of this project.  I've gone through at least 12 rolls of paper towels, over 100 pairs of disposable gloves, 30 brass-bristle scrubbing brushes, 5 packages of steel wool, 3 gallons of de-natured alcohol and I believe I will finish the job with the single container of varnish and three cans of stain.  Oh, and a container of hand moisturizer.  I am a big pussy when it comes to this stuff and am thankful every day that my day job doesn't involve any sort of manual labor.  No matter how protected I've kept my hands, they are a mess: dried and numb.

We started priming the living room yesterday as well.  It is looking pretty good.  My friend John, who has some sort of fetish when it comes to painting plaster white, would consider the job finished at this point but we'll be performing an act of herecy and adding some very deep colors. 

I almost forgot to mention: I picked up the shades for the dining room light fixture on Friday.  I'll blog an entire entry on that expedition.  It was pretty awesome.  Unfortunately, I don't have too many pics but it was cool none the less.  Can't wait to get these things up on the light in the dining room.

Finally, did I mention the family is coming over for Thanksgiving?  I hope they like Boston Market...