He thought it would be bigger

Over a year ago, the Big-Cat went in a panic to Home Depot to buy the last awning they had in stock so that he could put it over the back door to enable him to barbeque in the winter time without getting wet.

The Big-Cat was concerned that if the awning wasn't put up correctly, it would fall down on someone's (his) head.

He asked his friend Dave how he put up his own awning. Dave explained that he used lag bolts to bolt a 2-by-6 to the frame of the house...then bolting the awning to th 2-by-6....but that the lag bolts needed to go into the wall studs, so you needed to somehow look under the siding to find the studs....so the awning sat in the Big-Cat's garage for the next year.

Fast-forward to BC day, 2008 and the Big-Cat decided that since it is the "Summer of Chris" (that's the Big-Cat's human name) it would be time to throw caution to the wind and put up the awning.

Well, for the better part of two days, the Big-Cat has been very busy with his awning project.

Yesterday he had the awning up (in a different location) only to discover that he was missing the four screws that attach the arms to the awning; but that didn't really matter since he had put the awning up in a place where one of the arms would have been attached to the house in the middle of the glass pane of the sliding patio door. Let's just say I heard some human words that I don't often hear (I'm still looking up one of the words in the dictionary). And with that (after saying goodbye to his friend Kingie who he had been talking with via IM), he left the house to go to the Turner's house (nice people, they have two cats) for dinner

So this morning, the Big-Cat decided to take down everything he had done yesterday and move the 2-by-6 over to the left and about 6 feet higher; but he was faced with a dilema...how to put up the 2-by-6 and the awning (which weighs about 50 pounds) that high up on the house.

Well after a trip to the hardward store, the Big-Cat set up a rope system using the Big Cat's bed as a pully and then he threw the two ends of the looped rope out of the window...then tied one end to the 2-by-6 and then pulled the other end of the rope to raise the 2-by-6 up to the required height. Then using a ladder under the other end of the 2-by-6 he climbed up and bolted that end to the wall...then moved the ladder and bolted the rope-end of the 2-by-6 to the wall (and then added several other lag bolts in the middle). The 2-by-6 was now firmly attached to the house...and in the correct spot.

Then the big-cats' friends Laura and Colleen (from Molly Maids) arrived and the Big-Cat told them that they couldn't go in the Master Bedroom for about 20 minutes while he used his pully-system to haul the awning up like he had done with the 2-by-6. They looked surprised but agreed to stay out of his way.

The awning eventually was put in place and then the Big-Cat discovered that he didn't have the right screws to attach the arms to the wall, so he went back to the hardware store (during the time he was gone, Colleen and Laura chased me around with the vaccuum and tried to pull my whiskers...I hissed at them a couple times and hid under the bed until the Big Cat arrived back home).

He then bolted the arms to the wall and unrolled the awning only to be less than awed with the size of it.

It will only just cover the barbeque...I think he wishes the arms were longer.
PK

PS And to think this all would have been unneccessary if the big-cats just ate Fancy Feast in the winter ( like I plan to) instead of barbequing.