Re-finishing our tall table

Recently my husband and I finally finished refinishing our tall table. Oh, man, working in heat and  humidity is the worst. But, after a few set backs, we finally finished. 

a beautiful pic of  me during the process. 

This was our process:
- Sand the top off. Find areas that had been worn down that needed extra sanding (because of natural oils).
-Then more sanding.
-Lots of sanding basically. Tired but strong hands afterwards.
-Stain.
-Sand again because the humidity ruined the first staining.
-stain more carefully again.
-put on top lacquer. Sand again because of drips. Re-lacquer
-let dry. finally DONE

Lessons learned:
-sanding and staining in high humidity STICKS!
-spray painting would have been easier, but the stain is the look we wanted....
-If you want something to look nice, tons of hard work is required. End of story.

Result:

the finished product

We decided to do a light stain on top with dark legs to match the chairs (the chairs have yet to be refinished). When I finally do the chairs, we'll have the seat of the chair match the table top. For now, I'm just satisfied  how the table looks and that it is done....maybe I'll tackle the chairs in a few weeks.