The previous life, death, and rebirth of a tattered old awning:
Below is the house as we bought it three and a half years ago.
The sad, beige, paint-splattered aluminum awning did it’s job well, but otherwise sat there with no joy.
Some of the hardware was removed to drop it out of the way when we painted the exterior the second summer we were in the house. The hardware was shortly forgotten. Months later, a windstorm hoisted the awning from the back of our house and landed it essentially in the backyard, missing power and cable lines on its way.
Into the basement it went for almost two years. Not quite as forgotten as that removed hardware, but tucked conveniently too far away for mind.
This summer, I brought it back out, popped off the upper slats and washed down the entire thing.
The assembly with the lower slats, as well as the underside of the upper slats, got a crisp coat of white.
The top side of the upper slats got a rich, deep coat of red. As it turns out, Rustoleum red is a near exact match to the paint color we used for our entry doors (although the back kitchen door has yet to be painted).
Along the way of painting our house periwinkle, it dawn on my that a candy-striped awning would be a perfect fit to our little cottage.
The re-assembly was delayed due to high heat. Not all the upper slats were painted at once and I waited for a break in the heat to finish them.
Today, the awning went back up on the house. It was a horrible experience. Clearly, the wind had an easier time removing it than I had putting it back, my arms are still weak from hoisting it up into place. But it is back, and it is glorious.
And it is a perfect fit.
It is still dented and dinged, like us, but it has a flashy new coat to show off. And we are a bit more protected as we move through the current summer of our wabi-sabi life.
our cattywampus cottage 