Althouse: In the future, barn wood will be famous for 15 minutes.

September 1, 2016

In the future, barn wood will be famous for 15 minutes.

It will even have its own TV show.

20 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Save the Barns. Give away free Thompsons WaterSeal. And we can have the new Clinton Army of Syrian Refugees spray America's barns.; 9/1/16, 8:16 AM
MAJMike said...: Barn wood's been popular for picture frames for over 40 years.; 9/1/16, 8:18 AM
Curious George said...: Barn wood has been in demand for many years. I almost got a barn for free up near Wausau. The owner bought an old farm to develop and just wanted it gone. I arranged an appointment on a Wednesday for a Friday meeting. Someone must have told him on Thursday how much it was worth because he cancelled.

If the barn is timber frame construction the frames are quite valuable for re-using in a new home build.; 9/1/16, 8:21 AM
Titus said...: There is a beautiful barn at my parent's farm. They just recently had it repainted. Red on the sides and white roof. I always thought it would be a great loft, but I would have to live in Lodi, Wisconsin and my sister would be my next door neighbor. I would love to move it to Vermont or Maine.

I love octagon barns.

tits.; 9/1/16, 8:21 AM
Curious George said...: http://lgc.uwex.edu/barns/; 9/1/16, 8:23 AM
Titus said...: I just googled barns and this pic popped up:

http://elariophotography.com/jamie-eamons-barns-nipmoose-maternity-photos/; 9/1/16, 8:24 AM
Levi Starks said...: Only NPR could turn a story about old barns into something of existential significance.
I'm not sure how to deal with my newfound angst.
If only there were a way to protect this vanishing resource. I fear that we may have already reached peak barn, we need act now protect our vanishing barn reserves.
I'm imagining a future world in which our grandchildren will scarcely believe our tales of the ramshackle buildings that once were.; 9/1/16, 8:29 AM
rehajm said...: My new house is getting reclaimed wood floors, supposedly wood from an old tobacco barn or something.

Suff is real purdy.; 9/1/16, 8:30 AM
rhhardin said...: The trouble with barns is that they take up space that could be planted and you have to plow and plant around them. Vultures like to perch on the peak of the roof though. It's a habitat.

Since ethanol farmers have been knocking down forests and barns to plant more space. Also they all have new combines and tractors.; 9/1/16, 8:33 AM
Big Mike said...: Barn wood is very old news. About a dcade ago the wife and I were renovating our family room and thought about paneling the wall with the stone fireplace in barn wood. Then we found out about the price of barn wood. People were bidding it up to the point of ridiculousness already back then.; 9/1/16, 8:47 AM
Henry said...: What Big Mike said.

I priced barn board for my barn, and pine shiplap was way cheaper. So I'm siding with new pine shiplap, aged six months on site and stained gray. In one-hundred years my descendants can knock down the barn and sell the wood to designers for way more than the dollar-a-board-foot I paid.; 9/1/16, 9:00 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I'm guessing that making a coffee table out of an old hatch cover is something of a lost art.; 9/1/16, 9:03 AM
William said...: I didn't read the entire article, but I clicked on it. Those two farmers in the first photo have aged well. Their faces look weathered and experienced, but the experiences have been digestible and nourishing. We should all look that way in our later years......I just hope that in the future that they will develop face transplanting technology that will allow us to purchase the aged, time worn faces of farmers for a reasonable price.; 9/1/16, 9:06 AM
vermonter said...: What, you don't watch Barnwood Builders on the DIY channel?
http://www.diynetwork.com/shows/barnwood-builders; 9/1/16, 9:20 AM
Known Unknown said...: Tons of barns around here. Several falling down. I want to buy their wood and re-sell it for a profit. The only problems are time and me not having a real truck to haul old wood.

We put a wood wall in our basement re-do. But we cheated by using engineered hardwood flooring. It's so easy -- start at the top and click it together and nailgun it to the wall where the studs are.; 9/1/16, 9:33 AM
mikee said...: Antique wood of all sorts is valuable because newly harvested wood is often of inferior quality to the old growth wood of yesteryear.

Barns are a good source of antique wood. Another place to get old wood is an old house.

Living in Baltimore, I disassembled a strange set of shelves built long ago, probably during original construction, into the basement of my 1917-built rowhouse, discovered that the frame was dimensional redwood (exactly 2"x4", for example) and made a really lovely workbench out of it. I am pretty sure it is there still, in the front room of the basement, because I built it too big to remove and too stout to disassemble, and it weighed a ton.; 9/1/16, 9:35 AM
CStanley said...: I hope that all of the old barns around here don't get town down, I love painting them (that is, creating paintings of them, not applying paint to the barns.) The colors in that old aged wood are gorgeous.; 9/1/16, 9:50 AM
k said...: Barn wood's already had its 15 minutes. When I was in high school in the '70s, I distinctly remember my mom getting caught up in a neo-rustification trend in decor. It included distressed wood furniture, antiqued painted items (e.g., milkcans, galvanized buckets, farm implements), and barn wood. I still have an old painted sideboard with flour bin (avocado green, antiqued in shades of brown) that she did.; 9/1/16, 10:30 AM
Wince said...: My "morning wood" is infamous for about 15 minutes.; 9/1/16, 10:36 AM
Humperdink said...: According to the linked map, an historic barn was built prior to 1960 - younger than me. I guess I'm historic.

Amish built barns in Pa are made from Eastern Hemlock - it ages well and withstands the weather. You can use Red Pine if you treat it (paint/stain). Newer barns use pressure treated posts for "in the ground" posts.

Did not see any pics of barns with the "Chew Mail Pouch" sign painted on the side. But then it's NPR.; 9/1/16, 4:06 PM