We cannot avoid the shipping expense. It's a cost that is real to us, when we ship a heavy and bulky item. Sorry that we missed a sale, and I appreciate your feedback. However, we have several competitors and we review our pricing on a weekly basis. We are within few dollars (plus or minus) of our competitors, so all of my peers have a similar cost position.

We use a rustic sustainable solid pine wood from a special wood mill out of East Texas. We don't use Home Depot wood. We hand rub two coats of low VOC stain on the wood, and please don't forget that we triple coat our pipe brackets to eliminate oxidization. That process can't be reproduced by a Home Depot spray product.

Good luck on your DIY project.