I’ve been pretty good about wife-surprising these days. I took her on a “date” to the Opera last week, randomly showed up at her job with some of her favorite gourmet chocolate, and have been good about cooking dinner a few nights a week so she doesn’t have to. It’s all good… 3 years ago

So, I like bringing old things back to life. Record players, clocks, etc. We already have an antique brass bed that I put back together some years ago, but it’s well…creaky and smallish. My wife hasn’t complained about it, because she doesn’t complain about much of anything, but I could tell she was ready for something a tad bit bigger and (hopefully) quieter.

In these three months that she’s been away on research, I’ve done a lot of sprucing up of our new place here in the city. A nice flower garden oustide, and some new paint and fixtures inside, which she gave me some solid decorating advice on. What I didn’t tell her, however, was that I relegated the brass bed to the spare bedroom and found something that’s going to knock her socks off.

While wandering around one of those antique shop/barn situations in Wisconsin this summer, I stumbled upon this ancient old solid cherry four-poster, with the most intricate detail carvings one could imagine. Although the antique patina police/purists would surely crucify me for saying so, the only thing it needed was to be stripped and refinished. So, without telling my wife, I purchased this piece (for a song) put it down in our basement, and spent a great deal of the summer sanding, staining, and sealing. The results have taken even my breath away. For starters, the thing is H-U-G-E, but more importantly, it dates from the 1840’s, the era she does the bulk of her research in. I lovingly sanded the grime, shellac, and old badness off of the wood, exposing cherubs with smiling faces, rosettes, pineapples, and what I think is an owl hiding in one of the little bedpost finials. I set it up in our bedroom this morning and just sort of stood there for awhile looking at the thing.

She’s home in three days…think I’ll walk her into the spare bedroom first, smile at her look of masked disdain, and then say, “oh yeah…I forgot, I umm…completely refinished this 160 year old bed for us in the bedroom right up the hall. Didn’t I tell you?” :o)

Cue unbridled happiness from favorite girl in three…two…one. ;o) 4 years ago

A white MacBook, to replace her iBook.

She was puh-leased, I can tell you that.

And she appreciated how much secrecy I’d had to go through.

My level of secrecy is otherwise a 2 out of 10. 6 years ago