There is a terrific old lumber yard a half mile from our home. Two brothers, probably in their 40s, struggle to run it efficiently. At times, their management of the yard drives me to The Home Depot.
But at other times, I return, knowing that only they will have the special lumber I need. When I started the cupola for the house, I knew that a big box store wouldn't do.
Paul, the brother who works in the office, persuaded me not to buy cedar. He steered me to a much cheeper wood that looks like mahogany. Nearly two months ago, I finished building the cupola in the basement and reassembled it in the yard, ready to have it hoisted by crane to the roof.
Then it rained. And then the faux mahogany bled. Reddish-brown stains came through three coats of solid white acrylic stain and streaked like rust over the white.
The only solution, I learned, was to cover the mahogany with a synthetic lumber. (Stain sealers apparently won't hide it.)
So I returned to Paul and asked what he had in faux lumber. He had some 5/4 inch that he could rip to 3/8 inch, he said. That's great, I said. Let's do that.
That was some time in early December. He promises I will have it by Friday, Jan. 22. If it takes much longer, there will be no more frost in the ground to support the crane.
This is the sort of problem that sends customers away from Paul and Dave. But the alure of their lumber yard keeps us coming back.
There are planks of every imaginable species of wood in their long, rambling shed-like building. (They just recently completed renovations that, while not altering the ancient ambience of the place, keep out the rain.) There are sheets of plywood in every possible grade, old paneled doors and casement windows. There are moldings of types last used in the early 1900s, perfect for repairing a home built at that time. There are wooden columns, railings, balusters -- and many things, I'm certain, that I've never seen.
The cupola roof went on when Monica helped me bend the deep red, PVC-coated aluminum. When I assembled it outside, my carpentering/piano guru, Bill Haldeman, gave the cupola high (explative) marks.
So I'm looking forward to Friday,l when I can complete the job.