Sorry DCI, I didn’t mean to steal.

As I mentioned a week or so ago, I was down at Almquist Lumber to buy 3 feet of oak for the high-tank toilet frame. While I was there I was amazed to see that they had 1X8 redwood shiplap siding in the same profile as my house. I’m going to be needing a total of about 80 feet to fill in on the back wall of the bathroom after remove the two big windows and put in the small stained glass window.

I have some salvage left, but it’s really the bottom of the barrel stuff, and I knew there would never be enough. I had visions of paying huge sums of money to have 30 or 40 feet custom milled, so you can see why I was thrilled when I saw this stuff at Almquist. They didn’t have much, though. The guy told me they only keep a little in stock for people who need to make repairs. This profile was very popular at the turn of the century and you see it on a lot of homes in the area. Some refer to it as Rustic V Groove Shiplap.

I calculated that I needed 6 pieces 12-feet long, and 10 pieces 5-feet long to fill in after I removed the windows. From the wood shed I was able to get three 12-footers and eight 5-footers. That left me a deficit of three 12-footers and two 5-footers, so today I drove out to Almquist to get the remaining pieces.

I took in a sample and told the guy at the counter I saw some just like it when I was in here last week. He said, “Oh yes, the old redwood stuff. We don’t have much.” To which I said, “Well, I don’t need much”. We went back and found it and it seemed there was even less than before. There were two 14-footers and a few 10-footers, and then some scraps that were no longer than 6-feet. I was getting a littler nervous. I could always put multiple short pieces on a row, but it would look odd on such a small wall. Suddenly, behind some pine siding he found a whole stack of 12-footers. Very nice. We grabbed 3 off the front of the stack, and I grabbed one of the 10-footers, and we headed out to ring it up.

The price was a little less than I was quoted over the phone. It came to $3.21 a foot, and while that’s not cheap, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than getting it milled. When I got home and started priming it, I found some writing in chalk on one of the 12-footers we pulled off the hidden stack.

Oops! Sorry DCI.