Just hit 1000 board feet of reclaimed lumber I've pulled and processed myself

I started keeping a log when I got my first house in 2018, mostly just to see if the work was worth the effort. That number hit me when I was stacking some old barn wood from a tear-down near Toledo. It's not just about the wood, it's about the shift from buying everything new at the big box store to seeing the potential in what's already there. Anyone else track their material use like that, or am I just weird?

2 comments

2 Comments

blakeharris14d ago

Used to think that was just junk until I started seeing the stories in the grain.

sarah19814d ago

I read an article about a guy in Maine who tracked every single nail and board from an 1830s barn he took down. He said the real cost wasn't in the wood, but in the TIME spent learning to see the value in old things. Your 1000 board feet number is a huge deal, it's a real measure of that shift you're talking about. It's not weird at all, it's proof you're building something with a real story. That Toledo barn wood is going to look amazing knowing you saved it yourself.