June 18, 2021 by Maggie McNeill
Last Saturday we finally got that eyesore of an awning off the back of my house! The thing was so badly built, several of the cross-supports just fell down as soon as we pulled out the nails holding them to the sheet-metal roofing; in other words, the roofing was holding up the beams rather than vice-versa. Honestly, it's a wonder it hadn't collapsed before, given that it seems to have been built in the late '70s or early '80s. I can't even imagine doing things as sloppily as the previous owners did; we joked that if they'd had a coat of arms, it would be the image of a man shrugging with the Latin for "Eh, good enough." After we cleared it away and I took this picture, we braced up the electrical cables you can see at left and constructed a temporary cover to keep anyone from contacting live connections, and to keep rain out (the permanent cover will need to wait for the roof to be finished). I then cleaned that line of mildew visible under the eaves, which is where the back of the awning lay almost against the house (trapping moisture and making the area impossible to clean before). We still have a long way to go, but at least we need no longer bend over to climb the ramp. And before too much longer, we'll be able to soak in the hot tub at the end of a day of construction.
