IT'S ALIIIIIIVE!!

Since the man and I are all about vintage electronics, it would only be fitting for us to have a working record player. Well, easier said than done.  We lived on a limited budget which makes our search even more difficult. Of course we can just buy a fully working, refurnished/refurbished vintage record player.......for upwards of our life savings!! But, we are thrifters and every where we go we keep our eyes peeled for a record player. On one of our most recent trips to Racine, we picked up this beauty.

(I wish I had the forethought to take "before" pictures *d'oh*)

It was sitting, lonely and dusty, in the 'Clearance Corner.' There was some other objects sitting on top of it, but I was sure it was a record player! We opened the top and lo and behold, a radio and record player with a little homemade label marked "1967." We quickly moved it toward an outlet, crossing our fingers. At this point we attracted some attention from other customers, who were more than happy to share their thoughts on the subject of record players. It's funny how people are so eager to share their stories about "the good old days," and how "you young kids probably don't even know what this is!" We get a good laugh out of this. We are 34 and 29, respectively, and dress like we walked out of the 50's, with a working knowledge of record players, hehe. But, we indulge them. Annnnnyyy way....I digress. It was marked $60 originally, reduced to $20. We plugged it in and it lit up, the table turned begrudgingly, and we knew it was ours.

Here's where I really wish I took before pics.  The top was full of water stains, some of the varnish and stain had worn off. The legs were wobbly, we didn't know if the radio or speakers worked, much less the actual record player. We debated about whether to keep it wood toned (which I am almost always a proponent of) or to paint it a funky color and whether to keep it a record player/radio or gut it and turn it into storage.

Here it sat in our "second living room" with all of the other projects.

 Well, our questions were answered when we plugged it in at home. The radio worked, along with the speakers. The turn-table still turned slowwww, but it moves, so we're taking that as a good thing.  No gutting. I assumed the piece was mostly solid wood. I assumed wrong. I got to sanding the troubled spots only to find that it is in fact a veneer. Nevertheless, we are still going to sand and stain it.

The Man in action!

The legs and the front speaker cover, mid-process.

 I never thought sanding off old varnish would take soooo much work :/ Lots of literal sweat is going into this project since we are working on this in the humid Wisconsin summer.