eelgrass
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 31,420
This winter my wife said she was tired of looking at the same old worn out deck, and could she have a new one? Normally I’d be offended but I saw her point and agreed, at least in principle.
We started discussing options. I narrowed it down to natural wood, either redwood or cedar, or something like trex decking. She immediately ruled out trex decking. She looked at one of her girlfriend’s artificial deck and said it looked nice but seemed cold and impersonal. She said it functioned great though. She just couldn’t connect with it emotionally. She wants a real deck. So I dug around at the lumber yard and found some old growth Red Cedar for about 2/3 the price of second or third growth redwood. Really good looking cedar, nice and tight grained.
Next was size. She said not too big but not too small. She said big decks look nice but are exhausting with all that maintenance. She said the size of the one she has is fine with her. She said size took a back seat to a good strong firm deck. She said nobody likes a limp deck. I promised her the new deck would be good and stiff and so I added more pier blocks. She also said she wants it straight. No kinks in her deck. That was easy.
Last on the list was color. She said she was kind of tired of the natural look and asked if I would paint it dark brown? I hated to hide that beautiful cedar but even if she said she wants a black deck, who am I to argue? I built it to her specifications. It's not a fancy deck but should service her for years to come.
We started discussing options. I narrowed it down to natural wood, either redwood or cedar, or something like trex decking. She immediately ruled out trex decking. She looked at one of her girlfriend’s artificial deck and said it looked nice but seemed cold and impersonal. She said it functioned great though. She just couldn’t connect with it emotionally. She wants a real deck. So I dug around at the lumber yard and found some old growth Red Cedar for about 2/3 the price of second or third growth redwood. Really good looking cedar, nice and tight grained.
Next was size. She said not too big but not too small. She said big decks look nice but are exhausting with all that maintenance. She said the size of the one she has is fine with her. She said size took a back seat to a good strong firm deck. She said nobody likes a limp deck. I promised her the new deck would be good and stiff and so I added more pier blocks. She also said she wants it straight. No kinks in her deck. That was easy.
Last on the list was color. She said she was kind of tired of the natural look and asked if I would paint it dark brown? I hated to hide that beautiful cedar but even if she said she wants a black deck, who am I to argue? I built it to her specifications. It's not a fancy deck but should service her for years to come.
