Shawn and I are always looking for a new adventure as we search for sources for wood for our projects. I found a place called the ReUse Warehouse when I did a recent web search and I have also seen some ads on Craigslist for some of the material offered there. Finally everything in the schedule lined up so we could seek out this mecca of opportunity early Saturday morning. We were there for quite a while as Rick, the site manager, walked us around and showed us old growth lumber recovered from various houses and barns in the area, stacks of wood with real character and even some furniture projects in progress as his staff finds ways to use old wood rather than send it to the landfill.

We love reuse. The playhouse I made the girls years ago became flower beds, rabbit hutches, a garden trellis, even an arbor after they outgrew it. The oak entertainment center in our living room was shortened to make a flat screen TV table and the rest became a head board for Michelle to use at college. When she no longer needed the headboard it was reconfigured again and part of it now resides in the upstairs bathroom as an inserted “what not” shelf.

I never knew oak beams 6”X12”x RealLong could be purchased but ReUse had them. Talk about heavy! We found cedar 1”x4”xRealLong and it smelled so good. There was a host of old growth pine both thick and thin. Our search Saturday was for wood suitable for making a kitchen farm table for Michelle’s new place. It needed to be old and it had to have character. She sent me a recent picture she found on Pinterest with a query – “Dad, can we make one of these?” Well, Baby Girl, do bears poop in the woods? Of course we can make it, if we can find the right wood.

Rick had a stack of 2”x12”x20’ pine and the top two boards in the stack offered real potential for a table. From the nail holes and the weather patterns it is obvious this wood has already been installed in at least 2 houses. Michelle’s table will be the third assignment for these boards. Pretty cool! We wrestled a couple out and Rick cut them to approximate lengths for us.

Next I needed some 1×4 wood for the rails of the table. A stack of very beautiful quarter sawn heart pine was the answer. We purchased about 24’ feet so there is some extra just in case. It has a lot of resin and sap around the knots, I mean, this is the Tar Heel State. So far I have managed to gum up two belts on the sander with little progress. I tried a couple of chemical mixes to dissolve the resin and found something that seems to work. Complete details will be shared, if we are successful at removing the resin.

Here’s Michelle’s wood as it arrived at NicholsNotes shipping and receiving. I have pulled all the nails and staples and done some early sanding and sorting. The wood for the table is in the garage and the remainder is on the front porch under the swing. I think we need a larger shop! Michelle will have to look it over and decide which boards are up and which are down and so on.

The ReUse Warehouse is easy to find and worth the drive. Here is the URL in case you want to investigate for yourself

http://www.thereusewarehouse.com/

 

Just received this picture from Shawn which shows the boards as we found them.