More work and more rain

We were in Seattle last weekend, visiting Kendall and our friends Jim and Mary and their son Sammy. We had beautiful weather, warmish and no rain at all. Here's what Seattle looked like:


We saw Kendall, who seems to be having a great time in Seattle:

Had some great food and generally enjoyed ourselves at Pikes Market.

In the meantime, work was progressing on the house! The concrete for the foundation and decks was poured, and this week they put in the deck joists so you can see how big the decks will be:

Now we have to pick the deck material...it is spec'ed out for Evergrain -- which is a "green" material, a composite. Maurice dropped off the samples of Evergrain, Treks (Trex?) and Machete (an eco-friendly Brazilian hardwood). When you pick them up, your eye (of course) goes immediately to the wood. When we looked at the Evergrain and the Trex, we didn't really like them. One of the Trex samples, "Brasilia" actually looked ok, but when Maurice priced them out for us, the Trex material cost more than the Machete! Here are the samples (the Machete is the long one in the center):

While the Trex and Evergrain are "green" materials, I am not that certain what happens to them after someone tears out a deck -- do they decompose? Probably not. Anyway, because the decks are big, I am really worried about putting something in that I will eventually hate. Argh.

I am guessing we will go with the wood. I tried and tried to like the Evergrain, mostly because it is half the price, but I just can't see it. Oh well.