Refinishing a Cedar Chest - In Progress

I've had my mom's old cedar chest in my garage for a few years now..waiting to be re-done. She hand painted it awhile back and though it is really nice, it is just not my style.

So finally I started working on it this weekend with the help of my father-in-law who has some experience at this. It's hard to find time when you stay at home with your almost 3 year old and have many other home projects that need to come first. But I'm happy we at least starting working on it.

The original plan was to strip the paint off the chest and then repaint it but then I decided that since I am not staining it, I would just sand, prime and paint it. Step one -sand!

Here is the chest after some sanding on the outside (I forgot to take a before-- oops!)

The inside of the top drawer - before (note the felt/paper stuck with strong glue in there...not coming off)

Here is the after of the drawer (this is all my father-in-law, Rudy; I tried my best but did not have the power/patience to get it all off):

And the inside bottom of the chest - before (notice the spots and wear on the cedar):

And the after: (amazing what a sander, sandpaper, and a handy man will do for you!):

Hopefully I'll get started on priming it soon but that all depends on if I can lug this thing outside by myself while A is at school. Stay tuned!