Yesterday was the day to FINALLY open my awning for the very first time. It has been rolled up tight for at least five years. I don’t know when was the last time the previous owners opened it.

(This post gets interrupted with a knock on the door by someone bearing toast and a Thermos of hot coffee to fortify me for the transcription day ahead.)

Lots of people over the past few years have promised to help me open the awning but chickened out.

Between L’s experience with his own awning and Dometic’s instructions, we got the sucker open!

I am not convinced this is something I will do often as it is very heavy and unwieldy, plus I am concerned that I wouldn’t be able to close it quickly enough.

It is in surprisingly good shape. There is a pinprick hole where the door got opened into it and also some discolouration from mould and mildew. It smelled terrible.

I washed the underside with a strong vinegar solution and then L lowered the awning (with me doing one side to understand how it works) and got started on the top for me. You can see how the very dark streak at the top faded quite nicely.

I had seen a previous owners’ pictures of the awning where I would have sworn up and down that it was inexplicably black and red striped. This purple and pink would have matched the decals when I had them.

Sitting under L’s awning this week made me really appreciate it as you can sit outside even if it’s raining lightly. Heck, I could move my drying laundry under there if I had to.

I just don’t like having to worry about a gust catching it and ripping off half the side of my home!

While I worked yesterday, L also dealt with some of my weeds and fixed a weak spot in the fuel line to the genset. We went out for canasta in the evening. I’m not sure what he’s got planned for today as I have a lot of work to do, but there was a mention of salmon for lunch and we are going to a music festival with C&C and Laura in the evening. I guess those retired engineers know how to keep themselves busy. 🙂