and I want to paint it back...."-Misquote of the Rolling Stones, with apologies-- only they haven't seen my living room window

My house was built at the turn of the 1900s. And while a number of things remain just as they were over 100 years ago, other things have evolved over time to suit changing tastes.

At one point, this meant someone had switched the orientation of the staircase, in order to add a coat closet underneath.

In another case, it meant someone had closed off a doorway to the kitchen from the entry hall, making a new entrance elsewhere.

And, perhaps even later, it meant blocking up the side window in my living room (which directly faces the neighbor's unsightly wall), and painting the Window Frame to Nowhere white.

The thing is,on Wednesday was not wasted regarding the desk I'd thrifted from St. Vincent de Paul thrift store. I listened to the Pro-Paint, and the Con-Paint sides of the Desk Improvement Dilemma we'd discussed.

And I decided that the outcome of a good cleaning and some scratch oil would determine which course I should take...Well, as you can see, the desk cleaned up a treat. And the dark polish was just enough to minimize the dings and scratches to where they were no longer a focal point. So now the desk is residing happily in my blue sitting room...Along with, ironically, the pink needlepoint chair I'd thrifted at the Salvation Army years ago.

Where the pink chair had been, I moved in a brown tapestry chair that's a bit worse for