Hey, congrats; great story (well told)!   :)

Learned something new:  had to Google image ''bruce flooring''.

--Travis (Brisbane, AU)

On 4/4/09, Matthew and Cathy Groves  wrote:
> Ok, the recap.
>
>  I let a craigslist ad linger unanswered for several weeks, and watched as
> the description went from FULL barn, to Half, to Quarter. Mostly Pine. They
> wanted $100 for the remaining lumber. I needed some pine. Who doesn't need
> rough pine?
>
>  So, again, there I was in the barn itself.
>
>  The lady had changed the description, but to my glee and amazement she
> hadn't sold ANY of the lumber yet. People that came and visited were
> overwhelmed with the quantity, and didn't want to have to take it all. As
> the lady was able to clear more and more "stuff" out of the barn, she
> revised her listing, but hadn't made a sale. When I asked her on the phone
> how much was there, she estimate 10 loads of a pickup and trailer (if it had
> sides on it). That's a lot of wood, folks.
>
>  I couldn't see the lumber clearly, as piles of stuff obscured most of it.
> Two bins clearly contained oak, and they were off limits to me. Yet, there
> was enough peeking out that I couldn't resist the lure of it all.
>
>  Like I said, I'm no Todd Hughes when it comes to negotiating. I wish I
> were. After all, I was going to pay this lady for me to clean out her barn?
> I'm sure other suitors thought similarly, but I was game for an adventure,
> and an adventure we did have.
>
>  Out came 5 20s and we had to go home. We'd make some more trips in the
> coming days.
>
>  All the while, my poor negotiating was hounding me. Didn't she say $100
> OBO!? Why didn't I offer less? What if the bins that were off limits really
> contained the lions share of the good wood? did I really want to spend my
> time loading truck after truck of old doug fir trim peices?
>
>  We borrowed a 9ft trailer and used my full size, yet short bed pickup. We
> started to load the wood. I was faithful in taking "all" of it, but I had no
> problems leaving items that were indeed made of wood, yet were bed
> sideboards or cabinet doors and such.
>
>  My eyes widened as we began loading the piles.
>
>  Piles and piles of cedar. ok. Wow, I didn't know cedar came in widths over
> 15inches. ok.
>
>  Here comes the walnut. I could maneuver a few boards at a time when they
> were only 10in wide and 1in thick, but when I hit the 8/4 planks, I had to
> move one at a time. 10ft lengths of wood were too long to fit in the rails,
> so we just saved the long stuff till the pile was at least a foot high in
> the trailer bed.
>
>  More cedar. This is some nice stuff. Oh, wait, it's not cedar, it's cherry.
> wide boards, heavy planks, thick beams. Load em up.
>
>  My fortuitous haul last year was full of exotics, but this barn yielded
> very meat and potatoes loads. Walnut, Cedar, Cherry. Oak. Rinse. Repeat. I
> developed epileptic-type responses as my every glance landed on yet another
> pile of good, wide, dry lumber. The removal of each pile revealing another
> stack behind it. Yes, except for one other time, this never happens to me
> either.
>
>  Everything short enough to fit in the pickup went there, and the rest went
> on the trailer.
>
>  We loaded to capacity, headed home, unloaded in small bits as life allowed.
>
>  After rejecting the piles of non-lumber items, we took a total of 3 trips,
> loaded to the brim. Variety is the spice of life, so it was nice to load up
> some maple and white oak along with the other stuff. Standing sticks on end,
> I packed out my pickup with an insane amount of wood. Bundles of dowels.
> Bunches of trim stock. Over and over til the load looked like overgrown
> wooden hair, overloaded like something you'd see in a third world country.
>
>  I went ahead and sold the 4 tattered boxes of bruce flooring that came with
> the load, and recouped my $100 quickly. I'll be selling the boxes of cedar
> closet lining next. I did have to buy some more tarps to protect the 3 huge
> piles of lumber off the ground, but un-roofed in my yard. That's the price I
> pay for a deal that I don't deserve.
>
>  The son in law of the deceased met me on one of our last trips and talked
> about the barn owner. He apparently ran a sawmill for a portion of his life.
> I guess I'm buying his stock. This lumber hasn't seen light in a few
> decades, judging by the dreck in the barn. The son in law said he had a
> bandsaw mill, but all of the lumber has clearly been cut with a circular
> blade. This was no time to argue.
>
>  My only regret...the lady wasn't telling the truth. There wasn't hardly any
> pine. I really do need some pine. Is that so wrong?
>
>  I'll keep looking.
>
>  Keep your eyes open, and don't assume.
>
>  Matthew Groves
>  Springfield, MO
>  www.matthewgroves.com/Hobbies
>
>
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