Why my parents rock: Part 1

So, my lovely husband spends every Memorial Day weekend with a bunch of dudes in the back of a Ryder truck. All his college buddies make this pilgrimage to Indy 500 each year, keg wagon, Kaboom and Ryder truck in tow. I keep waiting for them to realize their bodies are too old to sleep on the floor of a moving truck, but so far the tradition continues...

So, HDog and I are left to fend for ourselves. We have visited my sister & her fam, my parents in Indiana, but this year, we convinced my parents to visit us.

My father, being an engineer and the son of a carpenter, is quite handy. And enjoys a project/challenge. Despite my best efforts to talk him out of it, he insisted not only in tearing down this monstrosity, but rebuilding a suitable replacement. So...here's the before (pardon the white lines, they are measurements I sent to Dad before he arrived):

The cheapos who flipped our house from a 3 flat to a SFH thought it a good plan to build the basic structure with good treated wood and then just put regular old painted lumber up top, along with the plastic lattice work. So basically the entire top layer was rotten. As in, it took my Dad less that 2 hours to tear the whole top off. It was a huge relief to get it down, as I feared falling in on us during a peaceful dinner some night!

After much discussion, we decided to just build a framework inside the existing structure. And so, in less than 72 hours with just a tiny bit of lifting help from me, my fabulous father took us from the scary thing pictured above, to this: Now, I know it doesn't look like much, but there was much measuring, cutting and hanging that went on to get us to this point (and a couple trips to the store and a rented truck to haul lumber!). Please imagine it sanded, painted and with beautiful drapes of fabric running through it! Seriously though, I've ordered this Waverly Yacht Club sunfabric:

It will run up and down in five lovely strips of fabric and then across the front, with a bit hanging down in front so we have shade as the sun sets in the west each evening. Also on it's way - this outdoor chandelier so we can enjoy dinners/parties on our patio. I might even put in a dimmer switch if I think we need it...

The light is a bit fussy for my taste, but turns out, it's kind of hard to find an outdoor light that isn't too simple, too ugly or TOO EXPENSIVE. So this is gonna have to work. Promise to post photos when it is all done!

In summary, my Dad rocks. He always does such cool things for us. I can only hope that I can be a fraction of the great parent to Henry that he has been to me.

Soon to follow, Part 2...my Mom!