It all started years ago. I was a carpentress for a couple years always working for my dad and my parents decided to move out of the state leaving me looking for a job. Long story short, an old employee of my dad’s was looking for help and decided to hire me. Longer story even shorter…I ended up marrying that man. Between him and my dad they taught me everything I know about building. I now have 12 years of experience in this field and I have done everything from digging holes for footings and hand mixing concrete to framing additions and installing kitchens. I blame it on the amazing trainers I had, but in less than 10 years I went from barely knowing how to use a screw gun to running big jobs that had me reading blue prints, communicating with subs and homeowners, and being the go to person on the jobsite. Being a young female in an extremely male dominated industry, this feels like a huge accomplishment. I love being in charge on big construction jobs but it definitely brings on stress and my heart started calling me elsewhere.
Growing up in New England I always had a love affair with antique homes and things. One day I had an idea to start looking for barn wood and trying to build furniture on the side of my regular full time carpentress-ing career. I stumbled upon a couple who was looking to take an old barn down because it was beyond repair. We went to look at it and Casey said “Hell yeah let’s do it.” It was not ideal. More than half of it was rotten and it was 60 yards away from where we could bring a truck to haul it all out. After a couple hot weekends we got ‘er down. Over that winter we got it all de-nailed (well, mostly) and stacked neatly in our basement. With the incredible support of my husband I decided it was time to leave my career in the construction industry and really pursue this passion. Life isn’t about grinding just to get a paycheck just to pay your bills. It’s meant to be joyful, creative, and FUN! And to me, that’s what this barn wood thing is all about. And making money doing it is a MAJOR plus. I love being able to take old things and give them a new life.
There is so much history here in New England and the way things used to be built is absolutely fascinating, to me at least. With this business I can take what someone 100 years ago intended to be a barn for their livestock and turn it into a beautiful piece of furniture that could live on for another 100 years instead of letting it rot into the ground.
It’s Hank the Wood dog! The most handsome chocolate lab that ever lived! He was there for that first barn demo napping in the sun and chewing on sticks watching us work hard. If you ever get to visit our shop you’ll most likely be greeted by this chocolate doofus.