Total Bust...well not completely, I guess...

So, as you all might have noticed there is nothing posted about any kind of excitement from being finished with the buffet redo. It's because I failed....I didn't meet my deadline of January 31st. But I have been working on it. It's just taking way longer than what I anticipated.

Over the summer, back when I first purchased the buffet, I was in the middle of like 4 other projects and so I only sort of started working on the stripping of the buffet. I chose the top because it was flat and easy to work with at the time. I put the stripper on and you could see it begin to work almost instantly, even though the jug says to wait for about 25-30 minutes. Here's an example of what I'm talking about from another piece I was working on. Those bubbles were like perfection, it meant the stripper was doing its job and I was on my way to a "new" piece of furniture.

(This table is now white and lovely, you see, because the stripper worked. Hmph!)

But I never got the bubbles with the rest of the buffet. I don't know what is going on but so far it seems like all the buffet is doing is soaking up the stripper. Awesome. I even let it sit for the entire amount of time mentioned in the instructions...and nothing. When I start to scrape its like I might as well sprayed the thing with water! Extremely frustrating.

At first I thought the issue was the kind of stripper I chose. I was out of the old, so I opted for the "environmentally safe" choice. It did "okay" but took forever....and while the smell was way more bearable and I felt better about cleaning my supplies and throwing things away, I couldn't take it. I broke down and bought some of the "real deal" stripper. The stuff that has to be "disposed of properly". (I hate it...I do.) But when I gave that a shot thinking, "I'm in business now! Bwah hahaha", nothing. More soaking up, waiting, and a whole lot of no real results. Here is what I got...

(One of the doors from the buffet..all butchered up now, sad.)

A sorta, kinda, half way there, but not really done door. What the?!?! So, here I am...and I need your help. Names of strippers (ha), tips that work, anything....please? This was supposed to be easy, well not easy, but not this hard.

I'm quite discouraged and thinking I might have ruined a perfectly good piece of furniture just because I wanted it to be a different color. Tear :*-( Any advice, or pointing in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Until next time....