Curtain Door Patio

As you walk through the patio and into the observatory of my house, you will notice a three seater metal bench placed just at a tiny corner of the covered patio. Coated in green, how can such a lifeless-looking cold metal structure be providing me with immense satisfaction and joy almost daily?

I remembered its humble origins. I never had this metal bench all the while. It was on a very dark day to begin with that my best friend Peter Duss brought it in to the house. Peter said it was a gift to me, and he carried it onto the patio with his wife during that slightly breezy evening.

That day was one of the darkest days of my life. It was so because I had just returned from the hospital, with news of the results of the blood tests for my son who was diagnosed with almost complete bone marrow failure. There would need to be an international search for a bone marrow donor, as this auto immune disease would quickly wreck his health. I was crying.

Peter told me the metal bench placed on the patio would allow me time to sit there to spend with my son when he would be discharged from the hospital. It would be a great place to bond with my son again, and to enjoy the ambience of the evenings together on the patio, to watch whatever was happening around together and to enjoy the breeze, and the sounds of the night together with my son.

This was exactly what we did.

The metal bench was to be the focus place where father and son would be together for many nights, just being together to face the difficulties ahead.

In the end, after numerous sessions of chemotherapy, and treatment, my son was blessed with a recovery, and the green metal patio bench remained in its place.

It is now 4 years past this episode, and the patio chair is still providing that opportunity to bond with anyone in the family and with friends.

If ever you wish to give a gift to someone dear, to someone you love, consider that a patio chair can give immense meaning and provide opportunities for family bonding.

I know... this green metal patio bench did exactly that, and both the gift and the giver have a special place in my heart.

An Awning Can Be Used Many Places

An awning is a secondary covering attached to the outside wall of your home, coffee shop or store. Awnings are typically made of some sort of canvas or acrylic fabric that is stretched tightly over a light structure of aluminium, or some other metal that will serve the purpose of framework.

The location of an awning on a building is usually above a window, a door, or above the area along a sidewalk. Traditionally we are used to awnings being a utility for the storeowner, but recently the use of awnings has expanded to also be used by homeowners. We all recognise an awning when we see one, the typically picture we all have of an awning is the picture of the awning above the entryway of a fancy hotel or something similar. But awnings are not only there to be pretty. Awnings often are used to keep the sun outside or even to keep rain of a grocer’s vegetable if they are standing outside the store.

With the addition of columns an awning is able to extend enough from a building to line an entryway, as in the case of an entrance to the Oscars or the academy awards. Awnings in the combination with the red carpet can be quite impressing, and will also allow actors( or other guests) standing under the awning to be interviewed without becoming wet from the rain.

Restaurants often use awnings broad enough to cover substantial outdoor area for outdoor dining, parties, or reception. You can also for an additional fee get your company name, logo and even address onto your awning. If you are a restaurant this will make it possible for your customers to see whom the outdoor serving area belong to.

Do not confuse awnings with marquees. The marquee is a tent or an easily dismountable tent-like building, in which for example on people celebrations and similar meetings a restaurant with maintenance program is accommodated, and/or in which a party takes place. In some European languages marquee (or similar words) will actually mean awning. So some Europeans will easily confuse those two words. This is of course only in British English; in American English a marquee is the rotating text above a movie theatre.

If you are planning a wedding in your own garden a awning is what you want. You attach one side of the awning to your house and the other side to pillars in the garden. Allowing the audience to sit under it. It is not advisable to have the actual dinner under a awning, here it would be preferable to use a larger tent or something which you can also rent from the same people as you got your awning from.