Chapter 82 - The Awnings to the Right Side Second Floor Porch

July 9th - 16th 2014

The first thing I had to do with the awnings was create some shingles.  I had some left over from the last porches but now I didn’t have many and I had to start from scratch.  First was to apply double sided tape to the back of the shingle material.  Then I had to paint it with a little color to have different tones when it came time to cut and mount the tiles.  While the material was drying, I could begin work on the underside of the awnings.

Adding some stain to one piece to produce darker color tiles.

First up was to apply the underside decoration.  The instruction had me leaving the end pieces off to be cut to fit later but from my previous experience, this was not easy to do.  So I opted to use the method I used before.  Mounting those pieces then cutting away the excess from where the corner beams would fit.  I just had to measure the angle and cut away the excess.  I then sanded and painted the pieces as well as adding white paint to highlight the underside decoration.  Next up was penciling in some guide lines for lining up the shingles as they get applied.  Now I was ready for more shingle production.

Adding the underside decorations...

...cutting away space for later installment of support beams...

...checking the measurements...

...stained and painted ready for shingle installation.

I measured out appx. 1cm spaces and cut the shingle material into strips.  I then cut the strips into uneven 1cm or less shingles.  There were a few old lighter colored ones that I probably can’t use anymore as I don’t have enough to spread out across the awnings.  But I can paint some over a even darker once they are installed - just to even out the overall shingle shading.  I started cutting the tiles then separated them out by color tone.  In this case just the two tones.  Then next was removing the tape off the back of each one and applying each tile to an awning.  Needless to say, this is not fun. I’ve already done two floors of awnings and this step is one of the most boring.  I ended up skipping a few days and went back to work on the tiles on a Monday and completed tiling by Tuesday. 
Next was to attach the awnings to the porch. I used some sticky wax and glue to attach them.  By having the wax I was able to position and then glue in place with at least some insurance that the awnings would not fall off.  Since the porch wasn’t attached yet, it made the installation easier by laying it on its side.

Measuring the cutting lines for the shingles.

Cutting the shingles.

Applying the shingles to the awnings.

Finished shingles.

Gluing the awnings onto the porch.

The last part was to add some tiles to cover the intersections of the awnings, paint the ends white to the underside support beams and touch up some tiles with dark stain. 

Underside supports glued in and painted white.

Corner shingles added.

Porch in place. Not yet installed tho.

The porch will be installed once I complete the other porch.  That way, I can pull down the whole floor and install them using my table.  But I've got another porch to build!!

View thru the porch into the Buddha room.