More Curbside Treasures

I had another curbside find recently. Driving home one drizzly night, in the headlights I spied what turned out to be a small TV/VCR and a black toolbox. When I got them home, I saw that the toolbox was made of black painted plywood, peeling badly, oily, dirty and VERY STINKY!! It was moldy and moist, and the blue velvet inside the drawers was filthy and dry rotted.

The black paint was so loose that it lifted off with a putty knife, no solvent required. I pulled out the velvet and threw it out as fast as I could. The box still smelled just AWFUL. I tried scrubbing it down with paint thinner, to try to rinse away some of the embedded oil and grease. It worked pretty well, but it took days to evaporate.

The grain of the plywood looked so pretty that I decided to shellac it instead of painting it black again. To even things out, I hit it with a varnish remover, then over-stained it with a light color. I sealed everything inside and out with two coats of amber shellac. STINKY ALL GONE! Big yay!

This toolbox is really poorly made, out of whatever materials they could find. It's nailed and glued, and nailed more, and glued some more. This drawer bottom is made of what looks like slats from packing crates. The drawers don't work well. The box isn't square. But it has charm! I'll use it for my paintbrushes and paints.

The TV works!! I haven't tried the VCR part, but they break so often, that it's probably dead. It needs a remote control, but the buttons on the front of it work fine.

In other news, the ants are back, in the bathroom, out of an electrical outlet. What can they be looking for in the bathroom? I put out some "ant buffet" (Combat Ant Killing Gel), and they went for it. At least they will die well fed.