Obsessions

K, so a few weeks ago I got talking to Gladys about old stuff and trunks and things and, as I have said before, I have been wanting a project to do quite bad.  Well I fixated on trunks.  I have always been fascinated by them in all shapes and sizes.  I had a little box when I was little that I always pretended was a treasure chest and kept all my little treasures in it.  I decided I wanted a real one. I started watching the antique section of ksl.com and then I got looking at trunk restoration sites and got more specific about what I wanted.  I went to an antique shop with my mother-in-law and found one there but it had been poorly restored already and they wanted way too much for it.  I found one on ksl that wasn't worth having, too rotten, and then Andy and I went to a couple antique shops and we finally found one.  It's huge! Its far bigger than what I had in my mind ( I can fit in it) and more than I had been wanting to pay, but it's beautiful and only needs minimal work. It even still has the tray, which is awesome.  As far as I can tell, this was made sometime around the turn of the last century.

Someone took some time and did some restoration to this trunk at one point, but still a long time ago.  The paper inside stunk, was discolored, and starting to rot.  We started by removing the ugly paper.  The black is what's left of some really old cardboard stuff that was on the roof and the bottom.  The next step will be to get whats left of that out and then sand the inside smooth.  I think it already looks tons better.  I also talked to my dad and he said he can fit a key for it, yay!

We plan on brushing the canvas and polishing up all the metal after the inside and tray are sanded, then all it will need is some tung oil mix to coat and protect it inside and out to finish it up.  Oh and to replace the handles, it's too awkward to move without them.. I'll post pics as we go.

So I thought I was done.  I had my project and Andy is going to help me with it.  But....I keep looking at ksl.  I can't help it, it's another obsession.  Well, today I found another trunk.  It's smaller and beat up and older than our other one (which is actually appealing to me).  But it was super cheap!  and it wasn't sold yet.  and we just got paid.  So I went and picked it up.  :)  On a side note, I LOVE having gps.

This one has had a hard life.  It's beat up, has some water damage, has loose nails and the top is not attached to the bottom, but we both agreed that this will be our practice project before we go on with our bigger one.  If we get this one right we will feel safe moving on with the big one and we can sell the small one for far more than we paid for it.  If we screw it up, we aren't out much.  I'm super excited about both of them!  I know, I'm crazy!

I'm done tho.  Andy made me promise I wouldn't get any more no matter how cheap they are LOL