Lumber Brand Loyalty

One of things I’m most proud of in our work on second floor is that I’m using salvaged materials wherever possible. When I haven’t been able to get salvaged material for trim I’ve gone to Hawkeye Lumber here in Iowa City which has great wood. The spindles for our stairs are from there. Unfortunately they will be going out of business next month after 90+ years in the same location. When we had to pull some of our subfloor last summer to run plumbing etc. Many of the board were signed by Hawkeye. Therefore I was quite happy happy when stripping boards for our window trim to find another signed by Hawkeye among my salvaged wood:



This piece ended up as the apron for window in the sitting room. An apron is the piece of trim that goes at the bottom of the window. Here is that same board from above




Other pieces of my salvaged trim came from a school in Tipton, Iowa, which is about 30 miles east of Iowa City. Some of those boards are signed too:



This one is harder to read but it says “Fanning Const. Co. Tipton Ia”

I will have to get some 1x6 this week from Hawkeye to finish my baseboard, I plan to have the guys at Hawkeye sign it on the back.