the bungalow files: and the awning drops out

BEFORE:

excuse the quality, this picture is taken from the real estate listing...

AFTER:

Doesn't it look SO MUCH better just with the awnings gone? Obviously spring is on my side in these photos, with the greener grass and the blooming Dogwood.  But even so, the awnings being taken off made a much bigger difference than I ever could have imagined.  It was a lot of work (thanks to Dan, his dad, and his brother-in-law!!) and involved some serious sawing of metal, since most of the bolts had rusted into place over the years. 

Before and after from a different view point:

Look at all of that light! I don't feel so cut off from the world anymore.  What are we doing with the screens? You're not the first one to ask.  We're leaving them up.  For now anyway.  Bugs in Kansas Missouri really like me.  While the mosquitoes in Maine never paid me a second glance, the bugs here seem to want to eat me alive.  

The awnings were lighter than I expected them to be, which has turned out to be both a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because they were easy to move to the backyard and hide, a curse because when the 40 mph gusts blow through during the storm that was supposed to ravage the Midwest and the awning blows around, keeping me up ALL NIGHT LONG.  And no, not because it was particularly loud. But because I'm a stressed out mess and in my delirious insomnia I kept envisioning the awning blowing into our neighbor's homes and wreaking havoc.  This would have been almost physically impossible. And yet, I still made Dan go outside with me sometime after midnight to lay bricks down on the awning in an attempt to prevent it from blowing away.  Sigh.  Needless to say, work wasn't any fun the next day.

Anyway, getting awnings off the front of our house was a big step. Getting them out of our yard will make it even better.  The next large item trash pick-up is only 3 weeks away.  Want to join me in the countdown?