Sanding Wood, Simmering Sauce, and Steaming Temps

I've been offline all day.  I decided to try to recover the seat for this chair that I bought from Milly and it turned out to be a bigger project than I intended!

I started out at Hancocks Fabric Store and found the perfect fabric.  I bought some foam padding to replace what is there.  I got home with my supplies and broke out the Murphy's Wood Soap and started cleaning the chair.  The more grime I got off of it the more I was convinced it needed refinishing.  I try to leave things "as is" as much as possible but the more I got into this chair, it became a rescue mission.

The chair itself is solid and sturdy but the veneer on the upright part of the chair was warping off in the back.  The top of the upright part was becoming vulnerable where moisture could get down in there as well.  As the grime came off I could see the wood is really pretty.  Then I popped the seat off, removed two layers of upholstery and discovered that the wood underneath the batting is warped and cracked.

I'm going to Home Depot tomorrow with the seat to see if they'll cut me a new piece of plywood to replace it.  I've sanded and stained the chair today; will do the polyurethane tomorrow and get the seat finished.

I'll post an after picture when I'm done.  It already looks better!

While I was doing all that, I made the sauce for lasagna and let it simmer while I sanded.  Lasagne in the oven now, chair drying happily on the deck, and it's time for me to pop an Octoberfest and see what is happening in the world.

Currently 106 degrees outside.  Bleh.