ORGANIZING-PACKING-ORGANIZING and adding in a little sanity

We are moving!! Yea! I am so excited to be moving to a new house (not new, but new to us) but the excitement always comes to a screeching halt when you start thinking about packing, ugh! While your sitting in your living room looking around at the things that need to be packed it never seems that bad. You look at your organized room and say "it won't be that bad, we don't even have that much stuff!" But what we don't think about is that storage room that we owe all of our thanks to for allowing us to have an uncluttered home. Or the garage, that has become the home to all of the great things we have hunted down to make beautiful. Or again, the garage, that has become the work space that hold all of the tools, and the mounds of paint, sanders, supplies, and oh the small hoard of furniture wait to be redone! (Did I mention that already??)

OVERWHELMING??? HMMMM

LOOK AT ALL OF THOSE CHAIRS JUST SITTING THERE WAITING
TO BE MADE PRETTY!
(IT'S LIKE THE WAITING ROOM OF THE PLASTIC SURGEONS OFFICE, LOL) 

Anyway, as I enter into my second week of semi freedom, with 2 kids in school now, I put my fun of the finds and the fun of the refinishing on hold to pack :-( 

EXCEPT.....

I STARTED SANDING BEFORE I TOOK A "BEFORE" PIC

DIDN'T NOTICE THE SQUARE PATTERN TILL I GOT THERE

So I was wanting to replace my glass and metal coffee table with a wood table that I could refinish for our new living room, but when I got to the place and picked it up, it was smaller that it looked in the picture and I also didn't notice the squares (is that parquet?) so I almost left it. But the guy lowered the price and I couldn't say no. If it didn't end up being my taste when finished, it would be somebody's! My husband was OK about the table when he thought it was replacing ours, but is definitely NOT looking to add furniture to move! Oh, well!! ;-)  (these projects = sanity)

As I said before, I started sanding it before I took a picture, but turns out I had time to do it after all....

DOESN'T WORK TO WELL LIKE THIS!

NOW I HAVE THIS!!! SO CLEAN, HUH?!

I'm SO excited to finally have a sander that works correctly!

I'm thinking about staining the squares in a "checker" kind of pattern, alternating light stain and dark stain. Then  painting base of the table.

OPINIONS ANYONE???
I would love to get some input!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
I'll keep you posted on the progress of the move and the fun of decorating a new house!!