Thank you for your responses everyone, all are very helpful. We always use a very nice tablecloth for a large party because that is when we have kids of all ages, older folks, someone who might have had an extra drink or two etc. And with a large crowd in the house who is going to look at the table anyway. The tablecloth goes to dry-cleaners and is then stored untill the next occasion. But you guys are right, for a nicer table I might have to get some padding to put under the tablecloth. For every day use or for a small gathering I want to see the table. Tracie and everyone else with the glass covers, I am with you on that and would love glass but we need a table with leaves to accomodate DH's large family when we need it. That means removing the glass, taking it to another room and then putting it back. I don't think that would work, would it? Does anyone here do it? I am going to look into waterlox very seriously as it sounds like what we might need (mondragon, I love your table, it came our great. I am thinking of something like this but darker) and also will check the Antique Tables Made Daily shop (thanks amberley) and the Cost Plus Market (thanks beschenbach) cawaps, sorry about the acetone accident. johnliu, wow, those are some cool choices, so creative Sweeby, RH has some great things. I really like RH Camden Trestle Table but the larger one is too large and the smaller one doesn't extend. And even that one says "veneers". They do have salvage wood tables but that would be way too rustic for us.

Since everyone is chiming in with their favorite wood sealers, I'd like to plug Skidmore's Beeswax wood products -- the wood sealers and the conditioning cream are great. I know the maker, Vince Skidmore, who is a woodworker himself, and he hand-produces all of the products from beeswax and natural resins and pine-based turpentine. The sealer is tough enough for exterior treatments, and the conditioning cream doubles as both a wood and leather restorer. (He sells the same product under leather and wood product labels.) Knew him back when he was producing in Wyoming, now he's moved the business to Port Townsend, WA. We'll be refinishing recycled bowling lane into kitchen counters, and I'm looking forward to using his stuff on raw wood from scratch for the first time (previously we've just used Skidmore's when restoring old, finished wood surfaces). FYI, I don't work for Vince, just love his products! Good luck, and have fun! Here is a link that might be useful: Skidmore's Fine Beeswax Products

uroboros, I have to ask this, because I can too easily believe that you were just casually scanning the real estate listings when this decrepit charmer reached out and grabbed your heart. (This has happened to me, although with a less expensive and more readily fixable house, so I know it is possible.) Here's the question: When you fell under the spell of this enchanting crone, were you actively looking for a smallish house in an lively urban neighborhood? If so, and * the size of the overall investment could be made clear by consulting with a contractor before making an offer, and * anyone can conceive of a way to render the house livable without completely erasing its preserved-in-amber decrepit charm, and * your DH magically became sanguine about the feasibility of what is needed and why it would be not completely financially foolhardy in the medium term, WOULD YOU REALLY WANT TO LIVE THERE? To me, it looks like urban nirvana. Having rooted around on Google Earth and various Montreal sites, I found a lively and lovely urban neighborhood with quite nice street trees and a Metro station only a long block away. Also, there is a restaurant nearby named Aux Derniers Humains, which has a menu as cool as its name. It looks as though the only room that is preclusively small (for someone used to rowhouse-scale spaces) is the kitchen. It is is a first floor-only extension off the back that is narrower than the body of the house, which is basically wide and shallow compared to other rowhouses in the neighborhood. The kitchen may only be a bit chopped up, as it is listed as 9 x 13, which could make for a nice galley design. If one did want to enlarge it, however, I see two options. Because the house is actually detached on one side, rather than part of a row, you could build out sideways to fill in the dogleg, which is exceptionally wide. Pop out some bricks, reinforce the new opening(s) with angle iron, et Robert est ton oncle. You would still have windows on the side of the house and if you created deep windows at the back of the new bit, you would have a nice perspective over what could be a charming garden. Alternatively, you could move the kitchen to the basement, having it go back further toward the front of the house and having clerestory windows. You might need a dumb waiter, but who wouldn't want one of those? I suspect that either of these options would not be extraordinarily expensive in the context of what needs to be done in the rest of the house, which to tell the truth is going to be more because you don't want to gut it. If Montreal is anything like DC, however, pictureseque urban neighborhoods are gaining value just because people are so tired of getting stuck in traffic. Sorry to be so pushy. This house is haunting my dreams. Cheers. hbk

I think your options are to cover it with color or sand down and refinish. Since you have wax on it the wax would have to be removed before you can do anything else. So I would sand just the top and refinish. Not really that big of a job. Mark F