A New Project and a Great Gift

We are hosting exchange students for a couple weeks in July and I needed to get more beds to accommodate everyone.  I bought a used bed online and planned to just use it and then get rid of it, until I realized how cool the bed was.  

It's a bunk bed with a third bed that looks like a drawer under it all.  Each of the two beds on the actual bunk bed have a shelf for books and storage.  In order to make things feel a bit more new I decided to take on the task of sanding it down and refinishing it.  I've never done this before but it didn't sound hard if I had the tools.  

So I bought them.

Any excuse to buy a new power tool makes me happy.

That's my new power sander, it's one of the few power tools I didn't own yet.
And that's one of the headboards "before" I got to work.

The youngest wanted to help.

And I made the oldest help.

It was looking exactly like it did before I started the task.  I'm not sure if that means I did a good job picking out the color of stain to match, or if I didn't do a good job making it look new.  :)

The right has the first coat of stain, the left has only been sanded down.

 It won't be put together until tomorrow and I still want to buy a new mattress for the youngest to have on the bed, but once it is complete I'll take a final picture.

UPDATED:  Here's the finished picture along with nightstand that I bought and finished.  I also got a small dresser that I finished but you can't see it in this picture.

And then I took on building my new grill.  :)  The parents pooled money to get me gift cards to Home Depot (among other places) for an end of the year gift.  I really don't think I will ever experience the kind of gift giving that I did at my old school.  Those parents were amazing, and I felt awkward as I'm not used to that type of stuff and it's unexpected.

Despite my desire to use the gift cards for practical supplies to build shelves for the canning supplies in the basement, I decided to get a real "gift" with them and I replaced our old grill.  This was the biggest grill that Home Depot had in stock.

Can't you just imagine how many steaks I can grill while also cooking corn on the cob, zucchini, and shrimp kabobs?  :)  Tomorrow we will grill our first meal of chicken and corn on the cob, and then I think I have one final package of pollo and carne asada.  :)