The Big Table!!

At long last we get to retire the ply wood table we've had for so many years 

(we get to keep the memories!)

So as most of you know we de-constructed our old barn in December 2013 and salvaged all the old wood - (with the help of Duane and Chuck !) and when I say barn it was hardly a barn... it was a building with very little holding it together in fact 1/2 of it fell down in the snow of 2008 and Brian rebuilt one entire side of with the help our one of my oldest and dearest friends kevin!! (artist and  one of those friends game for most any thing including holding up the dangerous end of a barn while brian put a jack under it) and then they replaced the main posts on the other side so we were able to continue using it into this past winter!  - the cool thing about this circa 1950's barn was the wood that was used in it was as far as our best guess from the original barn on the farm circa 1890 - 1900.

 

This is from an email from our table builder re the age of the wood...

"Based on the circular saw marks and the square nails, I would say this lumber can be dated sometime between 1860 and 1880, although some of it may be newer than that from when they built the second barn from the first. I'm sure they would have salvaged as much as they could from the first, but still needed to use newer wood as well to complete the barn. Still, even the "new" wood that was used is considered old to us now!"
 

So needless to say after painstakingly pulling every last nail and stacking stickering and re-staking the salvaged wood - we worked with a great couple in Vancouver (Sam and Cheryl) to build us our big table.

Cheryl and Sam picked through the boards and found the perfect ones for our big table and benches and did beautiful work! - we are so happy with this amazing piece of history in our home!!  They are also working on a picnic table and if any of you have been sitting at the old table or - or tried to move it ever will know why this is necessary!!'  it's had more than one repair job.

 

 (curtsey of Joe Rut : )  

 

I just love before and after shots! : ) 

 

 

the nails!  

the table is a VERY siple design based on the origianl plywood table brian made all those years ago...

 

the proud craftsmen!  

They have the remainder of the wood so if anyone would like to also have a table made from big table farm's old barn.  They do have a website www.lakeshorehouseandhome.com.

 

I'm finishing the table with tung oil which will take a few coats but is really beautiful! 

thanks also goes out to Jon Basile for helping us to look over the wood in the very beginning to understand what we had...