Despite having ‘baby’ in the title and ‘baby’ in the first sentence (twice now!), this post will have little to nothing to do with the baby (three!) that we expect any day now (the 16th, at the absolute latest). Posting here is about to increase substantially, as I’m planning on doing the same weekly photo project that I did with Mary with the new baby.

Instead, this post has to do with a little home improvement project that I took on. We’ve been looking for a computer desk that we can put in our main living area upstairs to house our old (rebuilt by me, sometime soon, I swear) computer for general family use. By design, we are placing it in a public, heavily trafficked area. This will be the general family PC, particularly for use by the kids for homework and research, etc. So Kate looked for weeks on Craigslist, hoping to find something suitable. Eventually, she stumbled upon a decent looking piece of furniture for the low price of $20. It looked to be in good shape, but had a nice spacious cabinet for CPU storage, a hideaway keyboard tray, and some drawers for all the sundry crap that inevitably invades a work space.

Since Kate is very pregnant, it fell to me to pick it up, haul it back, sand it, and paint it. Here are some before, during, and after pics of the project.

This was the desk in its original condition (hardware already removed).

The top was pretty beat up. It was worse than it looks in this picture.

The keyboard tray door shows some of the “graffiti.”

The desk after sanding with belt and finish sanders to remove some of the finish to prep for painting.

This is what happens when you’re overeager with a belt sander and particleboard. Oops, divot. Painted over it and hoped for the best.

Painting the knobs.

The finished product.

We painted the inside green to match the accent wall in the family room.