1877 Yellow Pine

We have a limited amount of some really nice 1.5” thick yellow pine that was salvaged from an 1877 building. The wood was used for support pieces and is not flooring so you will see the occasional nail hole. The color is a warm honey. Perfect for the farm table look.

Recycled things for your home has always been around. Think about the furniture in your first apartment. Unless you spent 3 months salary at a homes furnishings store, you most likely had some used furnishings. They all have a story and it can be hard to let them go when we upgrade.

The house I grew up in was full of salvaged architectural pieces. My father had a sideline business that did demolition and salvage on old buildings all over the area.I spent many summers tearing down these old buildings. You can’t imagine what type of things we’d find.

In my father’s case, he had a lumber/storage yard where he would keep all of this stuff. It was a maze full of all kinds of architectural pieces, doors, windows and all kinds of oddities. When we would demolish a old building or house we’d find old coins, jewelry, letters and magazines, even a few teeth. My point here is that if you want to use recycled/repurposed or whatever the current word is for old used stuff, go to the source. Go to where you see a building being torn down and talk to the contractor about buying or sometimes they’ll be happy to give it to you just to get it out of their way. But they also certainly have the right to charge for it. Unfortunately it’s cheaper for them to tear a building down and haul all of the contents off to a dump.

For them to store lumber or flooring takes up space so they don’t usually want to keep it. If you are successful in obtaining something, you’ll have the same issue so be ready to have place to store it. To find out about buildings facing demolition check your local demolition permits issued by your city.

I remember one summer we were demolishing an old brick railroad storage building. It was just me and another guy to remove all the contents before demolition began. I was exploring the catacomb type basement with a flashlight looking down all these long concrete corridor storage areas when I came across what looked like an airplane wing way down at the back of the room. Upon closer inspection it was indeed the partial wreckage of an old Lockheed Elektra 10-A (think Amelia Earhart’s plane, and no it wasn’t hers) It had belonged to a prominent family that crashed in the Bahamas back in the 50’s and there was always a question about the cause, so I guess they drug the plane back to examine it and then tossed what was left where we found it. There was a fuselage, vertical stabilizers and one wing. The cockpit was intact and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I would have salvaged some parts. The last time I saw the plane was on the back of a flatbed truck headed for the landfill.I could go on about the story but people in the recycle and demolition business come across some great stuff if you are able to get in before they start the demo.

So back to our yellow pine. It’s old, been sanded and re-planed and is ready to make it’s debut into the light. Help it shine. The tops are all shipped unfinished.