Down with the awnings

The Ugly Duckling came ... ahem, adorned with two metal awnings: one above the entry hall window on the right side of the house and another one above the kitchen window in the back. There is a lot to be said about the rules and regulations concerning what you can and cannot do to your house in a historic district but - Hallelujah! - metal awnings are considered a bad fashion faux pas and will no longer be approved unless they pertain to the style of your house (that'd be a Mediterranean or Italianate style house) . Our awnings were grandfathered in since they'd been added before Historic Springfield officially became a historic district, but they were ugly all the same and simply HAD.TO.GO.

I discovered fairly quickly that I couldn't reach them using my trusted stepladder and due to the fact that I'm a wuss when it comes to heights, I had to wait until husband had time to indulge me.

Last Saturday he did. He scaled the ladder and after liberal use of paint thinner, rust eater and a variety of hand tools he managed to remove the awnings. First, the one on the front right of the Ugly Duckling

Here he is, scaling the ladder. The equally ugly satellite dishes are also slated for removal. (We just need to bring the taller ladder over).

One down - one more to go! All screws were painted over and some were rusted into place so it took a bit longer and some more messing around with the whole set up than expected but we were determined (and I was cheering from the ground).

Bad ugly awning! Be gone!

Rinse and repeat. The awning above the kitchen window in the back came down a bit more easily.

After - so much better! As a beautiful (and not really unexpected) side effect, the kitchen is now so much brighter.