Stay tuned for what happens to this blank canvas. I am taking on the demo and reno of this 90's era restaurant space out in Sidney, BC. The carpet and tired flooring are already gone and that ski-lodge fire place, that I am sure was featured in Hot Tub Time Machine, is missing all the faux river rock. More details on the name, clients and menu when we get further along, and we are ready to start spreading the news. It's going to be great space.  We plan to add twenty-seven feet of salvaged Douglas-fir on the bar, and to build some of the tables from the same material. The fantastic view, that I will feature in a future blog, is of the marina. You will be able to see the Gulf Islands and a bit of Mount Baker from the patio. Kinda nice to help design a space that you would love to have a beer in after work, eh? Oh and there's plans for 8 draft taps . . .

So we built our first table. The we is myself and Rick Silva. You can see more about that collaboration on our Facebook page: D-Men design/build. It's D-men because Rick and I have played defence together for our old-timer hockey team, the Silver Marmots. The 'Hammer' in Hammer and Tidy is actually my hockey nickname, referencing the Philly Flyer / Broad Street Bully Dave 'The Hammer' Schultz. Rick's nickname is Rico. Hockey players don't have much imagination. 

Amongst the other collaborations we have undertaken both on and off the ice, we have gone in together on the tools, space and time to make these kind of tables with three leg options: aluminum, steel and the wood you see here. The wood legs and frame on this one actually is from a pallet that was used to ship the steel. Once we have our own personal dining tables made this month, we will have some more options for clients to have a look at.

The table tops are from Douglas-fir floor joists, 2 inches thick and almost a full 16 inches wide. They used to hold up the floors in the buildings at the corner of Victoria's Pandora Avenue and Fan Tan Alley. We rescued them from the chipper. The demo guys were filling a dumpster when we 'intervened'. I am glad we did. You can get a sense of how big the trees were by imagining how big the circle of growth rings must have been. We sanded these with a belt sander because there's just too much iron hiding in there to think about planing them, and we just love being able to see the marks of the saw that milled them over one hundred years ago. Stay tuned for more details on the leg and top options and how to order.