Behold the shade structure:
Here is a pic before, without the shade:
The idea was to create some shade for the west facing windows of the Arizona room (Sun room, whatever) that is effectively, our "dog room". Due to a catastrophic failure (on my part and its) I had removed the titanic swamp cooler at the end of last summer and we tried running a small window a/c unit we had but it didn't even make a bit of difference.
I installed a much larger unit (12,000 BTU with heating capability) but knew that once summer hit, it was still going to have a hard time keeping up. The room is just under 300 square feet, almost entirely windows and has no insulation in the roof. So, the first thing I wanted to do is screen the majority of the windows and I really didn't want to put a roll-up fabric shade on the outside of the house. I was trying to think up all kinds of louvers or slats or whatever and then I went to Happy Hour with Mike at a place called The Main Ingredient on a Friday night. We had to sit outside and it was hot. Mike mentioned a prototype roll-around greenscreen/planter idea he had and when I woke up Saturday morning, the idea was cemented.
Like a very liquid cement, though, because as we talked about it, it evolved and moved away from the windows and ultimately not only provided shade for the windows but now provides the only horizontally shaded area in the yard. Very important for the dogs when the weather gets nicer and we can leave them out.
So, here are some more pics:
A dramatic shot before the vines went in:
Mike in his welding gettup...leather jacket, gloves and helmet in +90 degree weather:
Checkout Mike Pearce's work at http://www.carbon-vudu.us/
The structure is made from 3x1.5 steel tube, 1.5x1.5 steel tube, 4x4 welded wire fabric and galvanized hat channels.
We planted, from left to right, Snail Vines, Orange Jubilee and Bower Vines. Why 3 different types...just to try them out.
This weekend we made a trip out to Cosanti and picked up some bells. I had designed the spaces between the screens to hold small Soleri bells.
This is one of the two we picked out:
They are small in this pic but you get the idea:
We already had two bells...one small one and one slightly less small. We moved the small existing bell over to the screen and decided to move the other to the back where it would get more breeze.
Each time I go out to Cosanti, I like their ceramic bells more and more so since I moved the other one to the back, I replaced it with this guy, which I think looks like a shrunken head...and that makes me happy:
The hanging planter is also from Cosanti but I forgot to take a good picture of it.
That's about it except for a one hour excursion into the sweat tank that is my work-shed yesterday, to bang out a couple of prototype speaker stands. The GF HATES them but they are just to get the idea of where I want them and what I might do with better materials...when it gets cooler.
They are, I admit, ghetto-fabulous. (Do people still use that term?)
Last note of the day is: HOLY COW! Do they make a difference! The speakers were on those little stands you can see in front of the cabinet in the last pic. They were up off the floor but not by much. Putting them at ear level increased the sound quality by about 80% and I already thought the system was sounding good. So, the GF will have to tolerate them for a bit (please)...until I can fire up the welder and do some real damage...then she might ask for these back.
