Saturday, March 7, 2009

Reclaimed Lumber A Treasure This Saturday




Call the couple that lives at Annie's Goat Hill a little on the different side. But are we?


Bob likes to work with wood, especially reclaimed lumber.

I love old things. I have several things around the house that others have asked, "Why did you want that?"

These past few months, each time we drove to pick up a load of hay, we noticed an old red barn being dismantled (but never caught anyone at the job site). Once it became obvious that the barn was being taken down very carefully, Bob decided to find out who owned the property. We live amongst of community of Amish and Mennonites. Someone normally knows something, if you start asking. The person working on the barn project, cool as can be, does indeed rebuild old barns! He gave us permission to remove any lumber or materials left on the ground (not a structural part).

We claimed red bead board siding, other types of red painted lumber, and my treasures are...(drum roll)...an old barn door with rusty hardware! I am thinking about having it hinged in 3 places and using it as a screen in my living room. Yep, you read that right! And, under the huge piles of rickety lumber I found an old primitive dresser. The dresser was beyond repair but the drawers looked like keepsakes to me. As you can see in the picture above, they are heavy duty drawers. I actually could see them hanging on the wall in the front room of my house. Some of the drawers have 4 compartments. But they are too heavy, despite my plaster walls, I still think I would create troubles. So, we are going to build a rustic desk of sorts, and attach the drawers to the back, as if they were shelves, compartments. I am way too excited!

Annie's Goat Hill sells gift sets in wooden crates, and when I say they are made from reclaimed lumber, you can trust that they are. You may be getting a part of a 100 year old barn, you may be getting a part of an old piece of non-repairable furniture, you never know. And in these times, I try to go as green as possible (re-use paper, packing materials, and wood). It is no longer tacky, it is smart to the environment and economical!

Some of the barn siding...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't be fun if we were all the same, LOL! When we first moved down here and we go to the Deli alot and there's one lady that works there and her husband was running for an office here in Holmes County, Ohio and she asked a lady that goes to our church who the strange family was, LOL just because we have alot of different races in my family doesn't mean we're strange! We have Indian, Caucasion, Asian, etc. One time we went to a Turkey restaurant in Columbus, Ohio and the waiter asked what kind of group this was and my Mom said family because of the different races we had and a lot of dark haired and dark eyed people!

Debbie said...

Old wood is best! I build things to decorate with and love the opportunity to get old barn wood. You go girl........

Mary Humphrey said...

I love old barn wood!!! Especially the rough sawn wood!

Amy, I loved your mother's response, dark eyed and dark haired people. Perfect!

Joanna@BooneDocksWilcox said...

I have a friend that builds birdhouses with reclaimed wood and tin. He is somewhere every Saturday morning/weekend selling birdhouses and does quite well for himself. He goes to a lot of Farmers Markets and festivals.

KathyB. said...

I found wood 4 compartment drawers in my brother-in-laws burn pile and thought , TREASURE! I painted them all white and use them as display shelves. So I am jealous you have 100 year old Amish barn wood ( there are not many structures around the Pacific Northwest that are 100 years old)..and I can totally see a living room screen there...

You and your husband are very creative and make a wonderful team.

crowson2000 said...

I did a similar salvage while working on my house. There was a new chinese restaurant opening in town which was remodeling an older steakhouse. They had huge piles of wood and a dumpster ready to be filled. It just so happened I'd run to town in a borrowed truck; so I stopped and asked, and got a truckload of pretty usable 1x4s mainly. I had to pull out all the finishing nails, but I thought I did good... ;>)