Only Took 15 Years

Way way back in my early years, growing up in Boulder, Colorado, I remember a piece of furniture in our home. An antique victrola - a Victor Talking Machine. I have no idea how old it really is, but I do remember thinking that it had been something that my dad grew up with in his house. I could be wrong about that. I'll have to check. In any case, back in 1984 when we moved from Boulder to SLC, the victrola came with us, and I believe it pretty much stayed in the garage. I don't ever remember it being a part of the furniture in our home here. And then when my folks sold their home and moved into a town house, they were going to get rid of it. I asked my siblings if I could have it. Troy kindly made space for it in the garage. It was definitely too banged and scratched up to be on display. I had just had a baby a few months before (the baby who just turned FOURTEEN) and so I told myself I'd get to it later. Little did I know that when I said later it would be nearly a decade and a half.

Seriously, that victrola has been on my "to-do" list for all of those years. I was so intimidated by refinishing it that I just never did it. But finally this fall I made myself do it. I pulled it out of the garage and got advice from my friend Becca who refinishes furniture a lot and assured me it wasn't as hard as it looks. She was right, it isn't that hard. But man is it messy. I spent many hours on the back porch in the early fall stripping off the old stain and sanding it. It took multiple tries to get all the stain off of the exterior. We decided to leave the stain on the interior partly just to show off what it originally looked like and also because it would have ruined the logo that is inside the lid.

I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish it once it was all stripped and sanded to baby-bottom perfection. Troy suggested we try just rubbing it with boiled linseed oil and I absolutely fell in love with it. It looks so beautiful. We had to do some rearranging of our house to find a place to fit it, but now that it's in our house I love it even more. I can't help rubbing the top of it every time I walk by, it's so smooth and soft.

Now comes the next big challenge: getting it to work. I'm hoping to get that done before the next 15 years go by.