Oh goodness, that reminds me of a friend I had years ago. She found this old rocking chair at a garage sale, it looked like it had been left out in the rain for a decade. The varnish was peeling off and there were even a few small cracks in the wood. She decided to take it on as a project, spent about two full weekends just sanding it down by hand. Then she stained it a deep cherry color and put on a clear coat, and I swear when I saw it at her house a month later, you would have thought it was a brand new piece from a fancy store. She admitted her fingers were sore for a week from all that sanding, but she was so proud of how it turned out. Some people just have that eye and the patience to follow through.