We are staining some boards right now to make a bookcase. These are stair boards, they are pine and not expensive so they really dont take sanding or staining well at all. But, it is a relatively cheap project. We desperately need more book shelves.
   
We are using a stain and poly in one so we wont have to do several periods of drying. I did all of one side yesterday and we heated the garage overnight. It has a heater built into it so its pretty easy to do. 


Today Tad finished staining the other side. I helped him on some of the parts. Its just not great quality and so we are not expecting it to be perfect. They are not rough, but they are not amazing boards. We dont want to spend a lot of money on something we will likely sell rather than take with us when we move.