Rough Fir Flooring

We finally found wood to use for the floor in the kitchen of the Gothic Farmhouse. Wife and I searched the woodlot/homeless camp at Recycled Lumber in Arcata, nothing that would really work. Almquist had piles of flooring of all varieties of wood but not what we were looking for. Most boards were 3 inches or less in width. We wanted something that was rustic, having the saw marks from the mill would be preferred, wide plank would be even better. On the way home we stopped at Valley Lumber, I love the people that work there, they are all so friendly. We saw some rough milled Redwood 1x12 that looked interesting but it was already 3/4 of an inch and was full of knots and flat wide grain, definitely second or third growth logs. We talked to Troy and he suggested talking to Dave Short. Dave is the guy that milled the curly maple I am working with now and also the cypress I used in our bathroom.

Locally milled douglas fir

Sure enough Dave had what we had been looking for, full one inch Doug fir boards ranging in width from 4 inches to 14. Some boards have knots, some have patches of a blueish/black stain. That is okay, we are thinking of torching the wood with a propane torch, wire brushing it, then oiling it before it even gets into the house. That should make it look old and also help to preserve it for centuries to come, this is a Japanese technique for preserving wood.

Window sash glue up

In the shop I just glued up a couple sashes and now need to make stops. Old growth redwood is amazing wood! I am building a redwood deck for a shower for my sister's funky metal shower and hopefully I can jump back onto the kitchen soon. Although I forsee myself focusing on the flooring next so that it can go down before the cabinets. I promised to build the Arcata rental cabinets the first couple weeks of September so the last couple of August weeks are going to be busy pushing ahead on the house.