Pioneer Millworks has been blessed with a lot of media attention this year. We’ve supplied flooring and other materials for a few projects that you’ll see on television in the coming months.

Spice Up Your Kitchen came to us earlier this year with an ambitious project schedule, and a pretty cool little project. They asked Pioneer Millworks to provide the flooring for a small row-house kitchen re-model in a suburb of Philadelphia, PA. We were more than happy to put together some Character Select Heart Pine for the occasion and get it on its way. A few phone calls later, and they asked Jennifer Young, our Marketing Director, and I to come down to the site as resident flooring experts. A few more phone calls later, and we were asked to help install the floor on camera. Jennifer has a very talented & entertainment-oriented family ( her twin boys star in the upcoming film, “They Came From Upstairs“, hitting theaters in January! ) so she’s used to cameras being around. I had not worked in front of a camera though, save for a couple interviews by local television about 12 years ago!

The pace is quite slow in comparison to a typical flooring installation. Working with host carpenter Jeff Devlin, I ended up installing the floor with him and the homeowner through the course of the day. There was a lot of stop and go, re-takes, and quickly rehearsed lines, but it was a lot of fun. We started by laying a border strip at the edge of the living room, leading into the small kitchen. From there, we worked back into the space, having a heck of a time cutting some special pieces to fit around a curved bottom stair riser. The builder, who remains off camera during the entire process, worked with us as well, cutting material out on the sidewalk to keep the dust down inside. Amazing the things you have to think of when shooting for TV!

This was a great opportunity to work with our flooring right along side other professionals, and see how they reacted to our product. Compliments came throughout the day about the milling, the finishing, and the character of the wood. In fact, Jeff was caught hugging & kissing a plank because it was so beautiful to him. The homeowner was there helping to select some choice planks for the middle of the room where they would be the most visible. Thats the fun part of installing our wood, picking out the coolest looking pieces and placing them where you know you’ll see them forever. But as I told them, you’ll walk down the stairs every day for the res of your life on this floor, and every time, you’ll notice something new. The Heart Pine floors we produce are fluid, almost alive, in the way their grain & character dance.

Salvaged from the McCormick Harvester tractor plant in Rock Island, IL, the wood held up the structure of a factory that chruned out hundreds of thousands of tractors. Chances are, if you eat vegetables, they were farmed by one of these tractors at some point! The factory stood vacant after production ceased a fea years ago, and when it was finally demolished, over 90% of the building was recycled. Bricks, steel, glass, timber, and all! The historical character of the wood will mesh perfectly with the new kitchen. You can see the episode October 28th at 8:30pm on HGTV.

Check out Pioneer Millworks and see the flooring we used on the Philadelphia project – we’ve got some great pricing available on this classic Heart Pine. Thanks for checking out the blog, and stop back again soon – something’s always cookin.

– Jered