Custom home builder turns focus to reclaimed-wood accents

Andrew Moore, The Bulletin, Bend, Ore.

Sep. 30--Bend resident Gary Norman has lived in the High Desert for 30 years and has built homes here for just as long. Six years ago he started his own construction company, Gary Norman Homes Inc., and has since built approximately 20 high-end custom homes, ranging in price from $1 million to $3 million.

Due to feedback he received from a house featured on the 2007 Central Oregon Tour of Homes, Norman decided last year to form a separate company to pursue full-time an innovation he showed off in the award-winning home. Throughout the home, from exterior siding to interior cabinets and trim, Norman used reclaimed wood from old barns.

Barnwood Inc. was born from that effort. Barnwood is run out of the same west-Bend office as Norman's home-building business.

Through leads developed by his staff and other agents, Norman travels around the region to find the old barns, stables, fences and other outbuildings from the Pacific Northwest that have the right amount of weathering and luster. If a building's wood meets Norman's qualifications, he buys the structure and then dispatches a crew to disassemble it.

The rescued material is then run through a metal detector to find and remove old nails and bullets. The wood is then turned over to craftsmen Norman employs who use the wood to build everything from doors to dining sets. For interior applications, the wood is often finished with a water-based stain that gives the wood a rich, warm tone.

"There's nothing that can replicate the look and feel of what we offer," Norman said. "It's forgiving in some aspects but also unforgiving, as it can be real brittle, but it's magnificent." In nearly a year, Norman has amassed nearly 300,000 board feet of barn wood from the Northwest. Norman also sells the wood to developers.

Although his homebuilding business has softened, Norman said he is still building and has several projects under way or planned. At the same time, he's working to build up his Barnwood business.

QUESTION: How's business for Barnwood?

ANSWER: It's good.

Q: Are there enough barns in the country to keep the business model running?

A: It's barns and outbuildings, but yes. I'm sourcing a lot from Montana, the Ronan Valley. We got a whole bunch there that will last us two to three years.

Also the Hamilton Valley in Montana, buildings near Boise [and] Central Oregon has quite a few old buildings.

Q: Do you worry about being taken to task by preservationists for taking down old structures?

A: Most of the barns we tear down are absolutely dangerous -- they are going to fall down. We don't tear down historic buildings. We come in and take them down at the request of ranchers and farmers because they are hazardous.

Q: What are the challenges to your business?

A: I took the leap -- we've made a decision now to sell our wood instead of coveting it, and would sell to a developer, but now we are a full-blown company, and it's [like] any new business that has pitfalls.

We're getting sales, but everything's challenging. It's nothing that's not combated every day.

Q: How has the economic downturn affected Barnwood?

A: It's such a new business, it's difficult for me to say because I don't have anything to base it off of, but I have to say I think with Barnwood my timing is right with the whole baby boom generation retiring. They are going to build houses -- the housing industry has always been cyclical and this is a doozy of one -- but the impetus of Barnwood is to remain green and deliver product that they can't match with anything else -- it's a look-good and feel-good business. I see nothing but a bright horizon.

Q: Do many of the custom homes built by Gary Norman Inc. use barn wood?

A: I use it in some custom homes, but some customers don't like that rustic look, so I don't want to pigeonhole myself, but this type of product really lends itself to developments such as Brasada Ranch and Pronghorn [resorts].

Q: Where do you see Barnwood in five years?

A: I envision in five years -- we'll have 1 million board feet on the ground -- and we'll be selling to the whole Pacific Northwest [instead of only Oregon now].

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