Here in the northeast alot of my restoration work is done on 150+ year old farmhouses and the wood used in the built up moldings and tight grained heart pine floors is to die for. Anything salvageable I remove with care and store it at one of my shops for use on other restoration projects - saves lots of money by having the inventory of old wood to put back into an old house restoration. I should just open a storefront for these great timbers and flooring I save from the local landfill and sell it to other contractors but I love this wood too much to part with it unless I can see it's new home.
I removed painted cedar plank siding off a 105 yr old house here on Shelter Island last month and even after running it through the planer to true up the outside face and get through the years of paint, it still had a 15/16ths thickness x 13 1/2 " width - some of the lengths were over 17 feet long! Unheard of at today's lumber yards.
s.
Wood is my muse. - Sean H.