Last weekend, Brian and I built the new Nightingale bar out of the wood we reclaimed from the attic floors upstairs.

Together, we painstakingly removed the crude iron spikes that passed for nails one hundred years ago, planed, trimmed, and selected the wood for placement, one piece at a time. We carved and leveled and chiseled. Brian honed the skill of making perfect 45 degree cuts on a compound miter saw – some cuts took as long as twenty minutes to get right (chalk that up to a blend of inexperience, questionable tools, and a floor that is far from level), while I selected the boards and ensured that we had enough of each width to get us around our turns (math is hard).

Now I understand why reclaimed wood costs a fortune to buy.

Considering that all of these skills were completely new to us, we’re pretty pleased with the results. We couldn’t have done it without Glenn, who provided mentorship and tools to get the job done. I can’t wait to see our guests belly up here this spring!

A little hand plane action to smooth out a rough spot before we fed the boards into the planer.

Some of the boards were painted white. We left a touch of the white paint in the deep groves, but whiskered off large patches with a wire brush.

planed wood

None of the boards were straight, so we had to trim them to create straight lines.

The first successful mitered corner. I think the first one took an hour to get right.

Laying in the very last piece

A white, resin-coated countertop will complement the rustic wood look. (this is a sample that we made using white colored epoxy resin)

Hard to believe we’ll be open in 4 months!