Stripping...a difficult journey

Ha, ha. I gotcha there. Now all the pervy people who just viewed my blog due to it's title...leave now. (Or stay for an education on sanding/stripping for dummies).

This is only a progress report on the sanding of my dresser. I've been doing it in increments and it's been very very slow work. I started out using a stripper **insert tasteless joke here** but it just wasn't working that well.
I used citristrip:

It worked ok on 1 drawer, but not the other. I don't know if I'm just doing it wrong (yes, I followed the directions accordingly) or if it's just not that great (though the reviews I read on the product say it works well). Anyhow a fair amount of elbow grease was involved so thank goodness for my handy-dandy palm sander.

Here it is in the middle of sanding that stubborn finish off (and the sticky stripping gel too):

And to point out how stubborn and difficult it was:

Part of the problem (I think) is that the gel never fully dried (even after 24 hours - the max amount per directions).  Stripping it off was like old hard candy-you know how it gets kinda gel-like and sticky? Like, gooey? Ick. Trying to strip off the gel to get to the actual finish to strip was obnoxious because it was sticky.Like dried jelly. There. That's a better analogy than old hard candy. Does any of this make sense? UGH. It was just ick. So, I sanded. And the above pick shows the difficulty in that endeavour.

Here's the beauty (after I sanded):

Hello gorgeous. You look splendid nekkid.

I ran out of sandpaper so I was unable to completely sand the second (stubborn) drawer. But here's what they look like now:

I am so excited to see what the final product will look like! Of course, at this rate, it'll be for-ev-or before I'm done. but no worries. I have all stinkin' year, remember?