A very uncommon project....

[Michael Mayo]

That is truly awesome to see! Thank you so much for sharing this process with the rest of us unworthy individuals...... I was showing my wife the pics and she is just in love with your farm and the amount of land you have. How many acres do you have down there in NC? We have been down that way to Kiawah SC and it really is very beautiful country down your way with still significant amounts of virgin untouched land available. Our property taxes here in CT. are $6,000 a year for a tiny 1/4 acre lot and that isn't much land with neighbors all around us. She was checking some listings in Vermont and she said the taxes were $1,100 a year for 60+ acres or something crazy like that. I would guess you don't have to pay much down there either plus with all of that land you don't have any worries about bugging the neighbors with all the noise. Please do keep the progress pics and story going.

[Scott T Smith]

I live "outside DC". What is the name of the restaurant? I would certainly visit this restaurant.

The bar where the timbers will be used is going to be called "Open Road", and the restaurant will be the Treo. I would estimate that both will open in Q4 '13.

[Scott T Smith]

Wow, that's really something Scott! Happy New Year to you, sir.

My little poplar logs feel so inadequate now.

BTW... Speaking of my little poplar logs...

;-)

K

<grin> How's the house project coming?

Speaking of your poplar logs... I'm booked this weekend, but how are your weekends looking the rest of the month?

[Kevin Nathanson]

Hi Scott,

The house starts getting drywall on Tuesday, and is on schedule for completion in April. I now virtually live in the workshop trying to get stuff ready for it.

Every weekend looks good for us; just let me know.

K

[Scott T Smith]

Looks like it will be February; as the customer is working through some issues on the building permit. I'll be sure to let y'all know in advance before I head up.

UPDATE: It looks like the customer has resolved both their building permit as well as consulting engineer issues, and we're gearing back up to complete the milling of the remainder of the project. The current delivery date is looking like sometime either during the last week of April or the first week of May (which should prove beneficial from a weather perspective). Hopefully we can have a SMC "get-together" while I'm making the delivery.

[Philip Duffy]

Fantastic pixs and great project for us to see. Thanks and will look forward to more of the same. Philip

[David Nelson1]

Hey Scott

When are you moving the timbers?

The bar where the timbers will be used is going to be called "Open Road", and the restaurant will be the Treo. I would estimate that both will open in Q4 '13.

[Rick Moyer]

Hey Scott

When are you moving the timbers?

UPDATE: It looks like the customer has resolved both their building permit as well as consulting engineer issues, and we're gearing back up to complete the milling of the remainder of the project. The current delivery date is looking like sometime either during the last week of April or the first week of May (which should prove beneficial from a weather perspective). Hopefully we can have a SMC "get-together" while I'm making the delivery.

your answer

[Dan Hintz]

Keep us updated, Scott, so we can plan appropriately

[David Nelson1]

The bar where the timbers will be used is going to be called "Open Road", and the restaurant will be the Treo. I would estimate that both will open in Q4 '13.

Hi Scott,
Any news on your trip up north with the logs?

[Scott T Smith]

Hi all. It's been a while since I've updated this thread, so I thought that I'd take a minute to bring things current.

As of early June, all of the 90,000 lbs of oak lumber that I milled have been delivered to the jobsite.

When I made the first delivery, I ended up driving up during the night in order to avoid traffic. When I arrived (at 6 am) and unloaded, I enquired with the Project Manager about having some SMC members meet me during one of the deliveries, and they asked that I wait until the facility was complete as the jobsite was very crowded and the construction schedule was intense. As you can imagine I was a little bit tired after being up for 24+ hours too, so it wasn't the best time to meet. Based upon the customer's request for 6 am deliveries, all of my subsequent deliveries were made at 6 am as well.

Here is a photo while we were unloading the first delivery from my truck and trailer. The long beams sticking past the end of the trailer are the 43 footers:

First delivery unloading.jpg

They are working to complete the facility by August, and I will probably make a trip up to check it out once it is complete and open. What I'd like to do is see if any local SMC members are interested for a "meet and greet" at that time.

The facility itself is quite interesting. It is a combination Italian market, restaurant and bar, divided into three different areas of a larger building. My portion of the project was supplying a lot of the wood that was used in the bar area. It is located on the North side of Lee Highway / 29 / 237 about a block east of the intersection with Galloway in Falls Church. This is just west of I495. The restaraunt is called the Treo, and the Bar is called "Open Road".

In addition to the timberframe structure, we also provided the lumber for the top of the bar. Earlier this year I was able to source an incredible "old growth" cypress log. This particular log was harvested from a massive, ancient cypress tree that grew in the swamps of eastern North Carolina. The tree yielded quite a few logs, I was able to obtain one that came from a spot in the trunk that was 60' above ground. Three 16'6" and one 12'6" logs were harvested between the ground and my log. At 60' above ground the main trunk was still 35" in diameter!

We recently milled it, and the results were quite stunning. I had originally estimated the log to have been around 500 years old, after milling and counting the growth rings it turns out that it is close to 1000 years old.

Here are some photo's of the slabs obtained from the log. The first photo shows one of the 35" slabs:

35 inch plankv2.jpg

This next photo shows a close up of the grain. Under magnification, we counted 88 growth rings between the 2 and 3 inch marks on the tape!

Tight growth rings!v2.jpg

All in all this has been a really fun and unusual project. The customer has been great to work with, as has been the extraordinary logs and resulting lumber and timbers.

I look forward to meeting some of my fellow SMC members at this location in the near future.

Scott

[Peter Aeschliman]

Wow, 1,000 years old! Really puts our lives in perspective, huh?

Thanks for sharing.

[Brian Brightwell]

I cut this Burr Oak that grew in the bend of the river. I sold it to the stave mill. They said it was going over to Europe to a winery. The butt log was 36 inches. The logs were (4) 12 footers and two nines. I wish I had gotten better pictures. I got enough from this tree to pay for sawing my other logs. This tree was starting to die so I harvested it. It was all my antique Ford wanted. Gosh I wish it had been a white oak.

[Brian Brightwell]

I came across this photo. It looks like a similar mill.

[ray hampton]

I came across this photo. It looks like a similar mill.

I hope that this log did not need to be pull uphill, downhill pull would be hard enough