I just spent an hour and a half cleaning off part of the top of my future kitchen table.

A couple of months ago, Dad brought this table home from a yard sale, where it had been sitting in a garage for years. It has red and gold paint on it, something had leaked on it in two places, and one of the gatelegs was broken off. It is a gateleg dropleaf table, and now I wonder if it's too good for the kitchen. :)

It's solid cherry and weighs a ton. Dad paid $50 for it. He started cleaning off the grime about a month ago, but didn't get very far. Today, in a spurt of something-or-other, I decided to give it a go. (In truth, packing bores me. And I rationalized it by saying that we're going to need to clean it anyway, so I might as well do it now.)

It's lovely. What was a filth-encrusted top is now softly shining in the light of the big dining room. The paint's still there, but the two places where things leaked (or rusted) on its top vanished under my scrubbing.

I used Orange Glo Degreaser and Murphy's oil soap along with plenty of elbow grease. And it worked. I'm actually looking forward to doing both leaves, which are twice the depth of the top of the table. It will be nice to see how it looks when I'm finished.

So Dad would notice when he got home, I left the light on and set up the punchbowl set I got at Goodwill (for $5) over the weekend. I also put my electric teapot (from the 50s, a lovely chrome piece) on the table too. I can see the reflections of the curtains behind it. It looks great. :)

It sure doesn't take much to make me happy. But I think that's a good thing!


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