deck progress 1

A few things.  First, when I went shopping for wood yesterday, I couldn't find the decking material that I wanted.  After looking in a few places I asked the guy at Learned Lumber, who told me that 5/4 wood decking was more of an East Coast thing, that it had fallen out of use on the West Coast, but that he had 5/4 composite decking.  I asked about that.  At ~2.90 per linear foot it was out of my price range.

Now, 5/4 wood decking is what we used for the fort down in Texas, and it would save me a lot of money and back pain, so I thought I'd at least call around instead of just taking his word for it. But indeed, no-one carries it among the 5 or so lumber yards that I called. Weirdness.

Instead I went with 30 12-foot 2x6es*, and this informed my decision to go with cheaper pressure treated wood, rather than redwood, because the cost of materials was getting above where I wanted to be.  I'll paint it, it'll be fine.

This morning

the wood arrived. One piece was missing, a 12' 2x8, which will be used as a joist hanger for the main deck. Since building the main frame is the first step in my mental plan, I can't really start in until that arrives.  Still,

I got it all moved to the backyard, which was a lot of work.

Now, the location where the deck will go, next to the Eucalyptus tree, was a little bit covered with sticks and debris.

A few hours later, it still is, but a little less so. 

So, hopefully I'll get the missing piece tomorrow morning.  If not I may just go buy it from someone else so I can get going.   Exciting!

*about a third of the price of the composite decking they tried to sell me, and I like the woodyness of it better anyway.  But holy crap 2x6 decking!