"Just sand and refinish it," they say...

They make it sound so easy in magazines. My beloved/behated Real Living recently had a whole feature on ways to spruce up tables, with the first step for each project being a simple "Sand the table to remove any old varnish." What they didn't mention is that even with a special varnish removing disc attachment for a power drill this can take SIX HOURS.

Anyway. Before:

Nearly done:

I won't have proper "After" pics for a few more days, after a couple more coats of stain & varnish. But I think it's going to look good.