Created using reclaimed red and white oak barn siding, this elegant floor was provided by Longwood Antique Woods and designed by architect and green builder Craig Rushing of RC3. Meticulously salvaged by a team of craftsmen, reclaimed wood provides homeowners with a “green” flooring option that is also replete with character and style.

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Talk of the South, By Garden and Gun

If you’re looking for an original piece of Kentucky Thoroughbred history, chances are George Gatewood of Longwood Antique Woods has it. Based in Lexington, Gatewood specializes in reclaiming horse barns slated for demolition or no longer in use. But these aren’t just any old horse barns. Gatewood’s collection includes such finds as original stall doors from Faraway Farm, the birthplace of Triple Crown winner War Admiral, and hoof-worn paving bricks from Hamburg Place, the stomping grounds of multiple Kentucky Derby winners since its founding in 1898.

Gatewood’s mission began when he watched a bulldozer barrel through his family’s 200-year-old farmhouse in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, to make room for an industrial park. “It was just awful to watch,” he says. Since then, his team has meticulously pulled some two million nails from 500 structures, preserving wood and other materials that otherwise would have been lost to history.

For do-it-yourselfers, Gatewood will ship the materials directly to you, or his team can also install antique flooring, beams, and mantels, or even create one-of-a-kind furniture. “These barns are not being used,” he says. “They will expire and fall back into the earth. It’s nice to know you can sacrifice those buildings and someone will honor them for a long time to come.”

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by ALLYN CALTON

A gentle breeze billows over rolling hills, teasing the tall grass before darting playfully through the branches of native junipers and ash trees. In the background, well-tended hayfields stretch neatly as far as the eye can see, and the muted sound of bellowing cattle carries softly across the landscape.

A working cattle ranch, Bittersweet Station can be found just outside of Lexington, Kentucky, on 700 acres spread across Bourbon and Fayette counties. The owner, John, named the property for the wild bittersweet vines that his mother discovered on a remote corner of the family’s first farm. “My family has a long history of working the land,” John says in a timbered voice softened by a Southern drawl. “In the past we raised tobacco; these days it’s hay, cattle, and feed corn.”

For many years the family ran a Black Angus genetic breeding business. As John traveled throughout the South and West trading genetics and buying and selling cattle to develop a more productive stock, he became increasingly enamored with the Old West. “I was captivated by the ideal nature of cowboys‚ the Western lifestyle and authentic, Old West furnishings,” John says. Before long he had amassed a collection of art and antiques reminiscent of the American West, and he decided to build a Western-style guesthouse on his property to house them. So he called on veteran log home builders Bill and Beth Clark, who had worked with him before when they built a log home for the farm manager.

John was very specific about what he wanted,” remembers Bill. “He loves the American West and wanted a place to showcase his extensive collection of Western memorabilia. We started with a modified loft plan and incorporated heavy timbers, natural rock, and reclaimed materials, along with special design details throughout to replicate that style.” From the outside, the cabin is both rustic and inviting. Massive, hand-hewn logs 40 feet in length frame the home inside and out. “The squared logs and sand-colored chinking bring symmetry to the wall surface,” Bill says.

A large, sheltered porch supported by six vertical log posts spans the entire front of the home. “Typically porch posts are square,” Bill points out, “but John wanted natural cedar posts which look more authentic.” So Bill used cedar trees from his own farm, debarking, sanding, and staining the trunks before setting them in place. “See that small bit of tree root along the bottom? It’s one of those small design details that make a big difference,” Bill says.

Stepping through the arched entryway is like walking into the 19th-century American West. “There’s no drywall, no typical building materials, no modern d√©cor used anywhere,” John says proudly. Inside the entry, the great room opens magnificently to the tall, vaulted ceiling and loft above. On the far wall, a massive dry-stacked natural stone fireplace stretches floor-to-ceiling. The mantel was fashioned out of a floor joist taken from the famous Brown Hotel in Lexington during a renovation project. At the base of the fireplace, a single stone bridges the hearth creating a cavity underneath for storing firewood. “I got that idea from a cabin in Lewistown, Montana,” John says. Above the mantel hangs a bison mount from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and to the right an authentic Cheyenne war bonnet dating back to the 1890s. “It may be one of the last surviving handmade war bonnets of that time,” he says.