Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Extinct American chestnut

I'm dismantling tongue and grove panelling and floors from a 100 year old house on our property.

The obviously wormy chestnut, to my surprise, was not the choice cut in those days. It had been relegated to cover the walls on the upstairs bedrooms.

The chestnut, clear of worm holes, was proudly displayed in the front foyer as well in the sitting room.

All the windows are gone in the house and the roof leaks. Deterioration of the old structure is rapidly increasing. I will reuse the random width white oak and the wide board pine flooring on another project.

Other than building kitchen cabinets for our new venture with the chestnut, I hardly have use for the hundreds of square-feet of the rest. My dilemma is whether to spend time on removing the chestnut or let it slowly decay.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you can think of a project - I would recommend reusing it. I'm associated with the American Chestnut Foundation and I attempt to find chestnut that can be repurposed and milled for frames and other projects that we either give in honorarium or could sell to raise money to support our mission. That mission is restoring the American chestnut to its native range.