Octagonal Barn
 What a great old barn for sale! This little gem is an 1881 Italianate 3-story, Octogon Bank Barn located in Hudson, OH. It boasts about 8500 square feet over 3 floors. As currently finished, the floors are 2760 SF, 2964SF, and 2804SF. Each side of the octagon is 24 feet; making the basic footprint 58 feet by 58 feet. The octagon barn was built by dairy farms Hial and Milton C. Danforth in 1881. The Danforth family was from Vermont where dairy farming was prevalent. Most farmers in the area were dairy oriented. Thee were many cheese factories in the region. The barn was ingeniously designed to simultaneously feed all the Danforth cattle at one time. The hay was pitched from the mow thru the center hole in the barn to the ground floor where the cattle had gathered to feed.  Hial was 73 (37?) when the barn was built; Milton was 45. The tax value of the barn was listed at $800, in 1881 and was further listed under Hial’s vast real estate holdings. The local atlas of 1910 pictures a house, the octagonal barn, and several other out buildings. The foundation of the bar is tooled sandstone. The siding was originally board and baton and was vertically hung. Termites had done considerable damage to the siding. It was inspected, treated and re-used within the building during a renovation in 1976. Much of the original siding is found in the building’s foyer. The 2 inch poplar flooring in the foyer is also original. In addition, the interior staircase was fashioned of the poplar flooring. The structure is reportedly from local hardwoods – Hickory, Beech, and Oak. New brown stained board and baton siding covers the exterior. During the renovation, the 8 sided cupola’s wooden louvers were replaced wth glass paneled sides The barn was completely remodeled by Don Reisig in 1976. Allan Sveda was the architect. The barn was turned into an office building with three floors of usable space. It contained conference rooms along with kitchens and bathrooms and house the office of the Smithers’ Oasis Company, which makes water-holding floral foam. The former root cellar with its foot thick stone walls contained a vault.The barn has been put to many uses thru the years. It formerly served as boat storage, an antique auction house and a meeting place for Civil Air Patro in World War II. Prior to renovation in 1976, the barn’s only tenants were pigeons. It currently needs to be moved to allow residential growth in the area. More pictures available. More info can be found on the listing on our site. Make an offer, this place will not last long! Labels: barn
4x11 Oak Farm Table
 What a thing of beauty! A 4-foot by 11-foot white oak harvest table. This one will seat about 14 people comfortably at your next holiday party. (This table is heavy enough, those 14 people could probably dance on it too). For the tabletop, we started out with 12x12x23 foot hand hewn white oak beams from an old 1800s vintage granary in Glencoe, Minnesota. Yes, 12x12x23. These beams were less than perfect  -- rounded edges, some heavily rotten faces, tapering, and other challenges. We skinned the beams to get 2.5" thick boards with the best patina. Then, we then slowly planned each board about a half-a-dozen times to get just the right look -- functionally smooth, but with shadows of old hand hewn marks, cracks, and bug trails. You'll notice the "live" edges with the rounding and knots that were once just under the bark of the tree. The base is made from rafter beams from an old log barn in Ellsworth, Wisconsin. They turned out to be just the right size to balance out the massive table top. Original hand hewn marks were sanded down a great deal, but left  in tact for the added character. Go ahead and browse through the complete set of pictures. (including ones in a messy finishing booth and more original granary pics). Note, the pictures were taken while the table was still on the cart to move this 500 pounder around! Labels: farm tables
Reclaimed Pine Floor
 What a great project! Back in September, a gentleman and hobbyist woodworker came to our shop to mill some reclaimed wood into flooring. After pulling the old white pine from the kiln, we went pretty much ran full circle together - denailing a bit, ripping the wood straight, and the putting it through our molder. We cut the surface just right so that the old patina looked great. He enjoyed the Saturday in the shop and went off on his merry way to install. The flooring went down perfectly and after five coats of Waterlox Tung Oil, I finally finished the project and was able to place some of the furniture back into the porch. We think the floor looks just terrific!
Thanks again for all your help in making this project so special. I think its great that we have been able to incorporate such a special floor and we know exactly where the wood came from. Having the chance to help you mill the wood was an extra bonus. Lots of our friends that have been watching me complete the porch agree that it has been a neat project.
 The wood we reclaimed that day was from an 1870's transitional timberframe-stick frame house in Norwood, Minnesota. It was in built by phenomenal craftsmen who mortised-and-tenon’ed everything -- even the studs. There were very few nails where today the guys would have gotten carried away with their air nailers. The place was a straight as could be. While we wanted to save this building as a whole, we couldn’t find a buyer in time. The reclaimed pine floor that we crafted was from the outside shiplap sheathing that had developed a great color over time. Stay tuned for more information on about this old house. Labels: antique floors
Scarf Joint Mantel
 We just cut out a 7 foot section out of a 6x8 white oak beam today. The beam was incredibly tight white oak with great patina, but I digress. The section was scarf joint. When the old barn builders needed and extra long span of wood (something more than 20 feet), they would often join two pieces of wood together with angled cuts and sometimes some iron work to create a scarf joint. There are actually many different variations of scarf  joints and it's fun to look at how different builders worked. This one used metal bands of sorts. These were original hand forged pieces. Some guys will just use bolts and big washers. Others will use a wood peg to tighten the joint. Take a look at this potential fireplace mantel to get a better look at these pictures. As we run across a few others, I'll be sure to get pictures and post here. Labels: fireplace mantels
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Farm Table, Wood Countertops, Fireplace Mantels, Antique Wood Flooring, Harvest Table
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Hial was 73 (37?) when the barn was built; Milton was 45. The tax value of the barn was listed at $800, in 1881 and was further listed under Hial’s vast real estate holdings. The local atlas of 1910 pictures a house, the octagonal barn, and several other out buildings.