Picked Up Some Dirty Dirty DIRTY (Mr. Mod. Likes It Dirty) Little Tables At The Belleville Flea Market Saturday. Let's See If They'll Clean Up Enough To "Take Home To Mother". Status: Did I Mention "Dirty"?

Ever "pass" on an item(s) at a flea market, thrift or antique mall thinking "if it's still there when..." only to find yourself either relieved or disappointed that it disappeared before you got back around to it?  This happened a couple of times to me Saturday, but not with these filthy things.

I walked past a little vinyl upholstered danish style bench, an aluminum Christmas tree (pom pom

style) in a big cardboard box and a couple other interesting items thinking that I might check them

out more closely if they were still available when I passed them again upon making my way out.

Those were all gone (no real regrets) but these were at the far end of the flea market and so there

wasn't much time for someone else to recognize their inherent awesomeness before I passed

them again.

It would have been hard for anybody else to see their beauty, covered by so much dust and dirt

and the Teak dying of thirst.  I didn't give anybody else that chance.  I just went ahead and

snatched them up and hauled them the Long, Looonnnggggg way back to the car.  For real, they

couldn't have been any further away from each other as I was parked as far away from the flea

market as I think you could get!  It was a busy day at the flea.

At least the cleanup wasn't any big deal.  These tables were easy to disassemble, clean, slather

and re-assemble.  For how filthy they were, they are in surprisingly good condition.  One of the

nice features is that the smoke colored glass "tops" can't fall out unless you disassemble the Teak

frames.  I'm just making an educated guess about the wood.  I'm no expert.  The frames "feel"

like Teak.  Anyway, the wood soaked up the Watco Danish Oil with aplomb!  Oh, it was so

thirsty!  You can really see the difference in the two pieces, one before and one after treatment.

But first I needed to give everything a bath.  I had to douse everything with Pro Green Kleen

first just to remove the grunge and random filth.  Afterward I sprayed the wood down with Murphy

Oil Soap to remove the last of any remaining detritus as well as any film the Pro Green Kleen might

have left behind.  Once satisfied that the disassembled wooden bits were nice and clean I slathered

them down with the Watco Danish Oil.  I let that soak in and "dry" for about 20 minutes and then

rubbed any remaining oiliness off with paper towels buffing the wood at the same time. 

Turned out kinda nice, right?  Not too shabby for a couple hours work on the pair.  It got too late

to take a photo of both finished tables but I assure you, they both turned out very nice.  Drop by

the Green Shag Market on June 2 to check them out for yourself at the Parking Lot Sale starting

at 9am!  If they don't get snatched up at the sale I'll probably leave them as part of my IPO (Initial

Public Offering) at what will be the Mr. Modtomic Boutique (hmmmm...may have to work on that)

antique mall booth number 44 inside the Green Shag Market proper.  So you may get another

chance to litter you joint with this amazing matched pair of newly rehabbed side or end tables.