Reclaimed lumber!
My paternal grandfather, Carl Englund, built a house on Collins Street in Caribou, ME shortly after 1900. He and his wife Anna were married in 1905 so it's possible it was right around then. There is some speculation it may have been a Sears Roebuck home, which apparently was more common than I would have thought. Here is a photo likely from the 1920s:
After he died in 1935 Anna and my father moved to a smaller home. The house was then owned by another family until the late 90s when the owner died and the house sold. A young couple bought it and immediately ripped it apart and renovated it (side note, it's my understanding the work continues, ten years later.....). One day a friend was driving by and saw a pile of lumber in the front yard, nails and all. He stopped and asked about it, as he would use it in the wood stove. They gave it to him and in the process of loading the scraps into his truck he saw one board, obviously a stair tread, with "Carl England (sic) 906" hand written across the (unfinished) bottom surface.
He gave it to me and it's been under the workbench ever since.
I wanted to do something with it. A shelf? Yeah, maybe. But that's too normal, and nobody will ever besmirch my name by using the word "normal" in the same sentence!
So right now I'm reading Pete Seeger's biography. One of Pete's contributions to the music world is the development of the long scale banjo. In the 1940s he took one of his banjos to luthier John D'Angelico and had him cut the neck right down the middle and add three lower frets. The result is a banjo with a 32" scale and a tone like no other. I didn't say better, just like no other.
Hmmm...
Out came the yardstick and pencil.....Click here to continue