Restoration, Mending, and Maintaining

I've been planning on putting Candy into the toy store since before we moved into this space. I know I know, it's evil, but they do love it so, and watching them light up just makes my world go 'round, so the parents are going to have to be the ones riding reign. I'm getting candy, and it's going to be beautiful! It's all about the sex appeal for me where candy is concerned. I think I'm more into what it will look like than what it will taste like! Which brings me to the point of my blog this evening. Well, actually morning, 1:00 in the morning. I just finished refurbishing that beautiful oak case pictured above for candy to go into. I don't know how old it is, but it is amazing. Sylla McClellan the owner of Third Street Books asked me if I might be interested in a case that she bought from the hobby shop when it went out of business, so I went down and took a look at it. The glass was falling out, and the joints were all loose, and it had been a little abused, but it was beautiful... And monstrous! Twelve feet long to be exact. Don and my brother Cullen wheeled it down Third Street, and then down Baker once I had stripped the glass out of it. Tonight was the night that I put it all back together. I cleaned the dust out of the joints, and put wood glue on them, sanded and stained all the wood, replaced the end glass with oak panels to make it more solid, cleaned all of the glass and put it back together. The process only took five hours, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There is something deeply satisfying about returning a ruined thing to service. I feel the same about mending, patching, painting, all forms of repair. My father was a cobbler by trade, and I worked with him repairing shoes all through high school and for a few years afterward, so that may be why it gives me so much pleasure. New is nice, but the history and richness apparent in something that has been used, appreciated and maintained is truly beautiful to me. This case is made exclusively of materials that age beautifully. It is all glass, oak, and mirrors. The wood is worn smooth and has a few stains in it. The glass is rippled with age, and the mirrors are all crackled in appearance. There is a metal yard stick attached to the back side of the case with the name of a company inscribed on it. Every piece tells a story. I'll have to ask Sylla if she knows anything more about it, for now, I am falling asleep content in the work I have done.