Antique Arbor began simply enough: with Mike Ross traveling from Manhattan to help his mother sell her Kentucky home. Yet it was a home so far from any downtown that deadlines were commanded, not by the market, bosses, or time-clocks, but by the earth itself: Farmland. This change in scenery sparked a similar change in perspective.

To help prepare his mother’s house for sale, Mike planned on building a small deck to add to the home’s natural rustic charm. But clearly, freshly cut wood from a lumberyard could never match the farmhouse’s aesthetic needs.

Mike pondered the problem in his mind while heading to the local store. Along the way he spotted an old weathered tobacco barn, and in that instant Mike knew he had found the type of wood for his deck.

Mike’s epiphany soon introduced him to a host of complications associated with reclaiming wood. Although he eventually found the material that suited his taste, the process of finding and purchasing quality wood proved to be filled with ambiguity, and bereft of standards. So while slowly molding his purchase into a deck, Mike asked himself the question: why couldn’t there be a better way?

He realized that the industry was in dire need of a benchmark: one company willing to seek out wood of superior quality and devoted to providing a pleasurable buying experience for its customers.

Mike decided the only way to truly accomplish this was to bring the wood to the buyer. He created a showroom that enables the buyer to view every side of every beam and board; creating a convenient environment that eliminates the ambiguity that he personally came across when building his own deck – thus, providing the buyer the security to make purchases with confidence.

This was the birth of Antique Arbor: a company founded on the belief that a handshake is still worth something.