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Thanks to fellow blogger TomW, my dining room is nearly finished with its renovation. There's still lots to do, but the big job of staining and sealing the wood is almost complete. This is after four months of sanding (thank you to James and all our friends who pitched in) and, of course, the two-month paint stripping blitz back in the fall (huge thanks to my former roommie Paula who did sooooo much work!).

Back when I tackled the living room two years ago, I knew it was a big job. I was not looking forward to undertaking the same project in the dining room -- which has way more wood in it. But now that the end is in sight, it has been totally worth the effort. The room looks beautiful.

To put this in perspective, here's what the job has been: My house is a 1917 Craftsman bungalow in the Oleander neighborhood. It has tons of wood trim and built-ins, all of which had been painted over multiple times over the decades. My goal with the house is to restore it to its original state. This has meant stripping layers of paint from the wood, sanding out the paint remnants, old stain and nicks in the wood, and re-staining and sealing the wood. I started with the living room, then progressed to the dining room.

I have decided these will be the only two rooms that get this treatment — unless I get ambitious with the bathroom. But the two bedrooms and breakfast nook will keep the white painted trim.

There have been some other updates over the years which I'm not going to change -- or are impossible to restore to original. I will keep the sunroom as an enclosed room in the house rather than take it back to a screened porch. The kitchen will need complete gutting to start over. And I've already replaced the wood floor in the living rom with new wood because the old was too badly damaged by termites.

The house is a labor of love. It has taught me to appreciate the Arts & Crafts movement of the late 19th-early 20th centuries. It has also taught me patience. But the home is more than a roof over my head. It is a piece of art in which I live.