Unique problems:

I had all six pieces sanded the first few coats of varnish applied one afternoon when with the marina cat, being pursued by the marina dog, ran up the ladder to the boat.  We were about to leave for the day and my only thought was that Dave was going to have to go up and get the cat out of the boat so we could lock up, when the cat jumped from the deck to the ground and made her ultimate escape.

Imagine my surprise the next morning when we got back, and I found that the cat didn't exactly jump straight from the deck to the ground.  She'd jumped from the deck TO THE WORK TABLE, RUN DOWN THE LENGTH OF THE BOARDS, AND THEN JUMPED TO THE GROUND.  Not only did I have little kitty cat foot prints down the boards, but there were tufts of cat hair like little cotton balls wherever the cat's tail or underbelly had come in contact with the boards. URRGG!!!

Figuring that if that was the worst thing that ever happened to us on this project, we'd be in pretty good shape, I pulled the larger clumps of cat hair off, let the varnish dry really hard over the next few days, and then took the sander to 'em.  I was so busy shaking my head and laughing at the stupid things that happen to us, I didn't get any pictures.

It was one of those times where work and family committments kept me busy and so it took several weeks to get the varnish built back up, but a few weeks later I had things back up to speed.  After putting on a coat of varnish the night before, I arrived one morning and noticed a lizard (we're in Florida) sunning himself on one of the boards.  I jiggled the board a little but he didn't seem inclined to move so I left him alone.  An hour or so passed and he still wasn't going anywhere so I picked up the end of the board and gave it a good shake.  EEEUUUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!  He was stuck in the varnish!  

I immediately decided this was a job for Dave, and moved the board (and attached lizard) out of the sun so the little guy wouldn't be baked alive.  We just kindof looked at each other for a bit, the lizard and I.  I'm shaking my head in disbelief at the fact that one of the boards that I just completely redid after the cat situation now has a lizard adhered to it.  The lizard is looking at me like, 'Lady, this isn't exactly my idea of a fun day either.'  

The more I thought about it the more I realized he probably wouldn't live until Dave got home from work that night, so after taking a picture for the scrap book, and several deep breaths, I chiseled him free. He was gone in a fraction of a second, but there was a perfect impression of his body left in the varnish.  You could count his toes and even see the impression of his scales.  In hindsight, I should of gotten a picture, but I was pretty grossed out at that point.  Needless to say, the rest of the morning was spent chiseling the worst of the damage up and then sanding down the spot and fairing it in.  Hopefully a hundred years from now Sarah will still be around and someone can scratch their head and wonder how in the world lizard DNA got on the settee.