We went to two lumber yards in Albuquerque that supply vigas. (Vigas are the big wooden ceiling beams commonly used in southwestern adobe-style buildings.) We’ll have vigas in the large great room in our main house.

[Interesting sidenote: The one that had a beautiful web site and was the one I thought we’d use turned out not to be the one we liked. The other one was very service oriented, took a copy of our plans, and had a very reasonable quote emailed and faxed to us by the next day.]

It was interesting to see all the kinds of lumber and styles they do.

Vigas have been a budget item that I have worried about, but it turns out that they aren’t that expensive (about $4 or so a foot, depending on the size and style), even with delivery to our remote corner of the world. Now that I know the cost is reasonable, I am planning to use these as the vertical beams for our covered patio and carport as well.

We’re also going to be buying decking from this same source. These are planks of wood that are 1″ thick and 6″ side that form a plank-style ceiling. You can get them with a rough finish on one side and smooth on the other. We’ll get pine and stain them with a variety of effects for different rooms.

We also found out that the plans we have don’t have enough vigas spec’d to keep the decking from sagging. Glad we found that out beforehand. :) I’m actually happier with the look of more vigas anyway, and fortunately, it won’t add too much cost.