All desks are NOT created equal

Remember back HERE when I had that awesome idea for a table & toad stools for Char and Levi made it happen?
Well, he's done it again! Levi made me a beautiful new desk.
The one I was using was a door covered in vinyl placed on two filling cabinets.
It was amazing and huge and great for the time I was in school.
However, it was also taking over my entire second room and I needed a new look.

Here is the masterpiece before any stain:

And here is a really pathetic story about how the rest of this unfolds...

You see, I travel (A LOT) for my fantastic job.
No really, I do have a fantastic job that I love. Love! Love!
Levi built my desk while I was out of town on a particularly long trip.
I picked it up on my way back into town and was so excited to get started I could hardly stand it.
So that night I brought the table and my baggage inside my apartment and ignored the screaming laundry, dishes, unpacking, dinner, etc so that I could work on my desk.

I pulled everything out of the closet and got started.
About halfway through staining it I thought "hum, I don't remember this stain being so brown."
When I was finished with the first coat I stepped back and thought "it will look more like the color I want it to be after a few more coats."
Finally resolved to go to bed I was washing my face and it hit me:
I wasn't using stain.
I WAS USING PAINT!

Ugly paint on beautiful desk:

I flipped.

I ran into my workshop/living room and just stood there staring at the desk thinking "If I had the energy I would cry. Levi is going to kill me."

By this point the paint had dried so I grabbed my sander and went to town.
It didn't make a dent.
The next morning I sanded some more.
It made a small dent.

[Pause for vehicle trouble]

The next day I had to take my Kia into the shop because I noticed a leak when I picked it up from my office after my trip. They brought me home that night and there I sat without the ability to get to a home improvement store for assistance with the desk and me one day closer to Levi coming over for Easter dinner.

The next day (Wednesday) I was told it would take approximately $8,000 to fix the Kia.
So I bought a new car. Appropriately enough I now drive a Chevy Cruze.

To add more glitches to my schedule the big boss was in town from Detroit so after I bought my new Cruze I ran back to the office for a meeting and then out to dinner with everyone. I managed to leave early, having shared my story with the entire office for sympathy, and jumped over to Home Depot.

At Home Depot I purchased (non-stinky) paint remover and the necessary accessories to make my nightmare end. I went home and started the next phase of the project at approximately 9 p.m. By 11 p.m. with paint still visible on the desk, but plenty removed (nasty) I decided to go ahead with the stain and see what happened. At this point there was little I could do to make it worse, Levi was going to kill me anyway.

To my utter surprise once I applied the first layer of stain the desk began to look exactly how I imagined it would. It was beautiful!

Almost as if I had painted it first on purpose...just to get that effect.
And yet, no, I did not.

Finished product:

Isn't is lovely?!

It has since been moved to the wall on the right, but looks just as amazing!
Levi did hear this story first hand and did not, in fact, kill me.
And by the time everyone showed up for Easter dinner at my place...the whole mess was cleaned up...workshop and all.

Now I sit peacefully at my new desk happy as a clam wondering when Levi will start on my dinning room table. Kidding...I know I need to pick out the legs.

Thanks for my desk, I love it.