Home improvement quarantine project #3

After project number two, things stalled. I kept getting updates that went like this:

Tom: "So and so is finishing up another project, and then he will be with us."

One of the projects that doesn't require someone working for us is the patio project. We had a patio put in some time ago, and the plan was to shade it with a sunshade sail, but nothing came of that. Now that my furniture has been redone and put out there, it is time to finish that project. Mainly because the cooler weather has lured me to the patio, and by 9:30 in the morning, I must come inside because the sun is too hot. But if I had a sunshade sail...

While writing in that area, I shopped for some small tables to hold my coffee and discovered umbrella tables. Since Tom had the week off for the holiday, I had him come outside, and I broached that idea. Why not just get two umbrellas? He contemplated the idea. It is definitely cheaper and less work, but he went back to his sail plan after measuring and discussing the concept. We decided to do a square sail instead of a triangle, and after some gentle prodding by me, he went to Home Depot and looked around. 

Then, since Oleg was here too, I kept up my poking and commenting until finally, they got on the job. 

With three poles in three areas, the last had to go against the house. Instead of a PVC pipe pole, Tom went with a contraption he built with Oleg's help. Then they attached it to the aluminum frame of our pool screen. My job was to find a sail. I spent considerable time (from my writing job) searching for something that fit his dimensions, and then, of course, he spent time doing it himself, choosing the one I selected, fyi.

The sail arrived after Oleg had returned to school, so I helped put it up. Tom made the mistake of unscrewing the clip on the first side to attach it to the rope on the sail instead of just attaching the rope to the clip. To screw it back in again, we stared directly into the sun, which proved to be a problem, especially when we discovered (much later) that the clip screwed in the opposite direction. He did not do this with the other three and then later returned to the hardware store to purchase clips to clip into one another in case of wind, bad weather, etc. This way, I would not have to untie the sail. 

A discussion was had on which sides to remove during bad weather, and it was agreed we would remove the two on the backside so the sail would fall against the house. 

A few days later, we had a rainstorm, followed by tons of wind. I went outside to return the chair cushions and discovered that the side where Tom had unscrewed the clip had came undone and was flapping in the wind. Worried the clip would break the glass on my table, I got a step ladder and attempted to remove the other side like we had discussed. I say attempted because gusts of wind kept blowing through, lifting the sail. I was holding on to the sail, and the wind was so strong I was concerned I'd end up flying over the fence into the neighbor's yard, ala Mary Poppins. 

Or maybe that was wishful thinking that I've lost some weight.

Either way, I managed to unclip the side. Later, Tom unclipped all of them since the wind lasted another twenty-four hours. By the time I remembered it hadn't been put back up, Oleg was ago for the next holiday, and he and I got the sail back up and shading. 

Project number four is currently in progress. Stay tuned!