Sometimes Jace over at Sawdust and Cowpies just makes my day. Today he's posted an entry about bringing a delightful piece of furniture back to life.

It would be nice if he made house calls (from MO to SoCA? Uh, I don't think so.) Most of our furniture will be blessing some broke, escaped-battered-women's home when we move to Utah, but we do want to take our dining set. We bought it about 25 years ago from Ethan Allen and it's as sturdy today as it was when it was delivered. I still love the design and we've designed our new dining room around it.

I had a club meeting at my house one time, though, and one of the members sitting at the table ran his hands over the surface of the table and asked, "Did you distress this table?" My reply, "This table has been distressed by life."

The worst scars on this dark pine set are the dozen or so grooves dug all the way down into the light pine (through the varnish and the walnut stain). I thought they'd been made by my husband scooting his computer across the table (yes, I blame him first for everything.) DS1 finally fessed one day that his dog - a 110-pound Akita - had gone after a plate of ribs on the table one night and dug the ruts as he kept slipping back. Can you get the picture of this big boy? His back legs were on the floor on one side of the table, his front paws trying to get purchase on the tabletop on the other side of the table.

The rest of the set is festooned with scratches from car keys and drum keys in growing boys' pockets.

Maybe I won't get it refinished, after all.