First, stop with the toxic, stinky stuff! Try something nontoxic like the Citristrip or Soygel. It is SO worth the money!! I'm using it and it's absolutely fun! Particularly for lovely detail work. Your tool is a toothpick! You put it on (for stain) and leave it until the clear finish and/or stain starts to look like BBQ sauce. Then you gently rub it off with a kitchen scrubbie and water. (Mineral spirits liquifies the stain and old finish back into the grain of the wood. Give up that idea! :) They say NOT to use steel wool because Citristrip is water soluable and will cause the steel wool to rust. The plus side is the water soluable part! No chemicals, no toxicity, just beautiful wood. I'm on my 4th antique door today doing just this. I am WAY into watching old finish bubble up and scraping it off into a drywall bucket to bare wood. I swear it's almost too good to be true. As far as rehabbing a finish, Holly-kay, have you seen the incredible work online people are doing with olive oil and vinegar? Yup. Salad dressing. They're using the 0000 steel wool with that and scrubbies. I'm coming to find that horrible, burning chemicals aren't necessary and love it. As far as not liking your first coat finish? Before you put another on, take the 000 steel wool and water and smooth out the coat. You can also use a dry lunch sack. It doesn't leave any scratches to fill. Wipe all the dust off and put your 2nd coat on. I'd actually use the darker wax before your final finish coat. I think that's a good idea, though. You can feather it in where needed. I am so into this it's nuts. I can't wait to build my 2nd credenza!

When the word McMansion is hurled as an epithet, it comes from those who seem to genuinely hate the idea of people having the freedom to live as they wish. They are often the same ones who decry middle class flight from urban areas, and wring their hands over the alleged harm of urban sprawl. It is an attack on middle class prosperity, and against families in search of better schools and child-friendly spaces. Those who cry McMansion are every bit as contemptuous toward a subdivision filled with 2,000 sq ft vinyl clad homes with fake shutters and small, newly planted trees on 0.15 acre lots as they are of 4,000 sq ft homes on 0.35 acre lots, and of any size houses built on 2-to-5 acre lots. They don't like when the houses look the same; they don't like when a new house doesn't match the character of the older houses in the neighborhood. They don't like infill lots being developed. They are furious when an outdated 1,200 sq ft home with a leaky basement, decaying plumbing, electrical fire hazards, and cramped rooms is torn down and replaced with a more spacious, energy-efficient home designed to accommodate life in the 21st century. Why, oh why can't the middle class be herded into high-density urban communities, where they can provide a meaningful buffer between the rich and the poor? Why can't they be forced to endure a cost of living so high that they will forsake car ownership, and feel pressured to limit their family size? Why can't they just cry "uncle" already, and confess that the lives of hipsters, bohemians, affluent empty-nesters, and fashionable singles is superior to the middle-class aspirations of suburbanites?

Wakefield, MA became the home of Wakefield Rattan Co in 1836. It prospered for many years and after founder Cyrus Wakefield's death, the company merged with Heywood Bros. Gardner, Ma. The company was then called Heywood-Wakefield. If you are lucky enough to have a piece, it has become valuable…i.e. you can grab this little table on 1stdibs for $4850.00!

Nidnay - great idea! We'll have to come up with something. Alison - we are using cedar from our land, too. Our front porch was just laid using it; the posts are solid cedar. It was milled and air dried for several months. Then we took it to be planed. Everyone seems confident that it should be fine (the mill, carpenters, etc.) - I've got my fingers crossed that they're all right. The pecan and walnut was kiln dried right after milling (back in July or August). Air drying would have been preferred for it, but we didn't have time. Everything was (luckily) mostly unwarped and what was warped could be planed down.