Posted on 4 Comments

I’ve done a bad, bad thing

I don’t remember if I was blogging when we bought our dining room table a year ago, or was it 2 years? All my married life I’ve been wanting a nice, big, dining room table. Ricky finally said it was time and let’s go shopping. I preferred old. Something that had already got it’s bumps and bruises. He had his heart set on new. New and expensive. I can’t remember the brand of the table now, but the chairs we got to go with it were Ralph Lauren. Lots of money for us. I know there are furniture brands out there that are more expensive, but if this table was a person in society, it’d be upper middle class.

Before we made our first payment, I set a tile on it. The tile had been washed and dried, but the clay had absorbed the water and when it was sitting on the table, the water – OK it had lighter fluid in it, too to remove some sticky – condensated and lifted the finish right off the table. Ricky freaked, I cried, he worked with it and made the spot look less conspicuous. While he was at it, he worked on a cat scratch in another area.

This table is big. It will seat 12 or more people. Since we want to protect it, it’s the one flat surface in this whole house that isn’t always piled high with junk. Mail, keys, pocket paraphernalia, magazines, etc. I’ve been told repeatedly not to work on that table. Last night I got the bright idea to make some signs pointing to the shop. Sort of test the waters to see if they’d bring customers before having some professionally made. The table was so alluring. The light was good, I wouldn’t have to clean off a surface and besides, what could possibly happen? I’d be careful.

I didn’t have any poster board, so I figured I use paper with cardboard in between for sturdiness. I put paper under the paper I was working on. Traced the letters saying “antiques” and colored them in with a Sharpie. The underneath paper wasn’t as big as the paper I was coloring on, so I had to move it as I went along, but I got carried away and forgot to move the protective paper. When I finished that sign, I picked it up and there on the table were the shapes of q, u, e and s, the last part of the word, antiques. The Sharpie had bled through! Horrors!!! So I tested a little ink remover stuff called, “This Stuff Works”. Put a little on a rag and dabbed. It looked like it was going to work just fine, but it was midnight and I didn’t want to make a mistake because I was tired. This morning I got up fresh, went in there and SPRAYED the spots with the stuff and …… the finish lifted right off. Double dog triple horrors!!!!! Oh, no…..oh, no …..oh, no! What now? Restor-A-Finish? Didn’t work. Wax? Nope. I don’t know, but I’m not telling Ricky until he rests up a little. The mill’s in maintenance mode right now and he’s been working hard, 12 hour shifts and he’s tired and grumpy.

I hate that table. I love that table. It’s beautiful, but I hate that table. It’s too tempting and the finish is too soft. I don’t want to have to keep a tablecloth on it all the time. It’s so big, it’d be like having a bed in the dining room. I think we need to have the top refinished with a more protective coating, like what they put on floors.

Please, I’m asking everybody to say a prayer or two or three that Ricky will take the “news” calmly. My stomach churns every time I think about it. I just want to throw up. It’s so minor in the scheme of things and I can take it. I don’t know if he can. A lot of people who grew up with nothing try to keep new things looking the way they looked straight out of the factory. He’s the kind who would leave the plastic on lamp shades, use slip covers to keep from soiling a couch or chair, buy cheap floor mats to put over the mats that come in the car. He actually did that for my car. The cheap mats slide all over the place and look ugly and don’t really end up protecting the original mats. I have to say, after living with me 34 years, he’s not as bad as he used to be. I try to take care of everything, but I live in my house and the car and with the home furnishings. Stuff happens – and if it’s going to happen, it will happen to me.

4 thoughts on “I’ve done a bad, bad thing

  1. Wanda thank you for stopping by my blog and commenting. I appreciate it. It’s always nice to have comments from new people. I like visiting your blog and seeing what fabulous finds you have found.
    I was sitting here reading your story and I wanted to cry for you. I spray painted the new black top driveway and The Hubs Harley Ballet Slipper Pink once. Been there my friend! I was telling my husband your horror story and he said “tell her to try Aquanet Hairspray on it.” My mother also swears by Aquanet for getting ink out of my Dad’s work shirts. Maybe that will work.
    I love Ralph Lauren stuff too but sometimes Ralph dosen’t make his stuff to “live in” or “wear”
    Let us know how this all works out. If we don’t hear from you on your blog for a couple weeks I guess we will know how he took it.
    Timi

  2. I was thinking you could paint it white & tell him you were going all Shabby Chic! 😉

  3. Girl, I know your pain. That is why anything new in my house is damaged within a very short time. Like the brand new stove after 28 years of waiting, that the mother in-law put aluminum foil on the bottom of a self cleaning oven, because she didn’t bother to ask ME…or the brand new sofa after I waited 15 years for that my son spilled “water” on it that night, yes that night, and then tried to hide it by turning the cushion over. I have come to the conclusion that I was meant to only have “old ” things. New things cause too much stress.

  4. I’m so sorry that I sat here readig your story and laughed out loud that my husband (of 38 years!) had to ask what in the world I was laughing at….It just reminded me of something I would do…you just don’t think about things happening like that until after they happen…Tell Ricky it’s just a table then run like hell out of the house…My thoughts and prayers are with you….Sue in Atlanta.

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