Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from a mutual friend. “Can you meet me at 6:30 tomorrow morning? We haven’t got much time… They’re coming at 9:00.” It was an opportunity I couldn’t resist. This morning before the sun came up, I grabbed my flashlight and drove over to the house and shop of a recently-deceased furniture making friend to make an offer on whatever tools and lumber I wanted before a dealer showed up to bid the entire estate. Turns out our two and a half hours barely scratched the surface of the buildings full of lumber and tools.
I tried to remain level-headed as I processed what I was looking at. Long story short, I bought a small fraction of his tools (which was an enormous pile in itself), all his furniture-related books, and all of the lumber on his property. I honestly have absolutely no idea the board footage because there is wood tucked in every nook and cranny of every building. What I do know is, it’s a lot. There are hardwoods and gorgeous wide pine (the smallest of which is around 16” and the widest is 25”). Mike and I spent the day searching through the buildings, hauling the tools back to the shop, and sorting them out by type. We didn’t really even know what we had because in the early morning mad rush I just had to grab now and think later – there was no time for picking and choosing.
Next week, we’ll load all the lumber onto a trailer and haul it back to the shop. We’ll construct a winter-proof shelter for the boards to get us through to spring when we build our lumber storage shop addition.
I had no plan to get into anything like this today but when an opportunity this special comes up, all you can do is make it happen.
Just wait until you see these boards.
- Joshua