It Begins With A Barn
We discovered early on that when passion coalesces with intuition something extraordinary happens; synchronicity. Doors open and opportunities become available. Milestones and challenges alike present themselves when most appropriate.
As is the case of our grandfather's century old barn.
When we decided to begin our small design venture we knew that we wanted our pieces to be made from eco-friendly materials. Quality craftsmanship and a sustainable production process was our main objective. Shortly after, a visit home to Oregon led to a conversation with my brother who casually mentioned that our grandfather was planning to knock down the old barn on his dairy farm.
The 100+ year old barn was original to the farm, but had become so dilapidated over the years that it was becoming an issue of safety. I was unsure how to raze a building, but I knew immediately that we had struck reclaimed gold. With the help of my dad and eldest brother, we carefully dismantled the 4000 square foot barn in August of 2011.
We began by removing the the aluminum siding, followed by the original wood siding, then the roof and finally the flooring. As we continued to dismantle the barn, I gained a deep level of respect for how early homesteaders designed and built their structures by hand. Mortise & tenon and hand hewn beams tout their fortitude and craftsmanship.
After three weeks of gleaning as much barn wood as we could, we decided that the safest way to raze the remaining structure was too simply pull it down with a tractor. Note the jovial "yeehaw!" coming from off screen... that would be my brother from behind the wheel of the tractor.
After some site clean up, we transported the rescued lumber to our parents farm where we power washed, treated for pests, and finally stacked it in a retired greenhouse. Our studio is located in Los Angeles so from time to time we hit the road to restock our supply of Grandpa's barn wood.
One day, the wood will run out and we'll have to find another building with another story.