New (old) furniture

Friday I was able to paint my dining room, and after doing so was thinking it would be so nice to have a side board on the big wall there, and I would love a new dining room set. Ours was purchased by gun point (well, almost...) when we got married. Papa H wanted to buy us one for our gift, and that was fine, but to him that meant TODAY. So we got a cheap (but new) table, that neither one of us really liked as we found nothing else we liked after looking at most the furniture places out there. We had recently been gathering mix and match antique and vintage chairs to replace the rounded back, country style, ugly, falling apart oak ones that came with the table. I needed one more chair and we would be able to get rid of the thing. So, Saturday we went garage saleing during Altoona's city wides. I wasn't looking for much of anything, but hadn't been for a while and thought we might find a chair, though Altoona's clean up weekend was this weekend so, I knew I could look then. We were cruising around, had picked up a few knick knacky things when I spotted a sideboard from the era that we love (art deco). I stopped and looked at it, and then asked how much as there was no tag. I expected somewhere in the ball park of $100 or more, when they said $40. For everything. Everything? "Oh, yeah, the table and chairs over there go with it-it is a full set." (Mouth drops). "My husband is going to the ATM to get the money and we will be back with a truck to take it all." I LOVE it! The chairs are rough, but I was less interested in them, than the side board and the table, which has three leaves so we can now, finally fit all the extended family at the table for big dinners. We are looking into refinishing the table top-which looks fine, but is craised enough that when you put something hot on it, it turns the finish white. If we were keeping it just for collecting purposes, I would let it be, but for everyday use, it needs to be durable so the oh so pretty walnut is not ruined. I just keep staring at it all and thinking it took us six years, but we finally found our table. The wedding gift cost Papa H over $300. If he had been patient, it only would have been $40. I was willing to wait;)