|
|
||
Trees around old homeplace in Stafford are gone but not forgotten Date published: 1/2/2004 By RUSTY DENNEN Rick Berry had a special place in his heart for the big hardwood trees around his grandmother's house. At age 11, he stood under a black walnut, smiling in a family photo. As he grew up, the sturdy red and white oaks in the yard off U.S. 17 in southern Stafford County, provided shade and the backdrop for reams of memories. So when it came time to sell the place he bought nine years ago after his grandmother passed away, he wanted to take some of the trees with him. Uprooting them was not an option, so he settled on the next best thing: Saw them up and use the oak for custom flooring and the poplar for trim for a house he's building at Fawn Lake in Spotsylvania County. Lumber from the walnut tree will make a hope chest for his 16-month-old daughter, Addie. "I'm married, with a family of five, now," Berry, 46, said in a recent interview. "Watching those big trees made me think of making them into something for my new home. I always knew I was going to do something with [them]." That was easier said than done. He'd need a furniture maker and a custom-milling shop to make it happen. That's where Curtis Fitzgerald and William Jewell entered the picture. Berry called Fitzgerald, owner of J.C. Forest Products in Massaponax, which specializes in custom molding, flooring and trim. Fitzgerald called Jewell, a furniture maker and woodworker with his own portable sawmill, and the three worked out a deal to translate Berry's nostalgia into reality. Jewell, owner of American Logworks, cut the trees and sawed them into boards. Fitzgerald is having the wood dried at a lumber company in Culpeper. When it's ready in nine to 12 months, he'll run it through his shop to create the custom woodwork. Filling a nicheJewell saw Berry's request as an opportunity to fill a niche in the furniture business here.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
|
|
|||||||||||||
