Making shade.

Frame up, it was a 3 person job,

 so we enlisted the help of an neighbour. 

All finished, this area whilst really sunny can also be a wind tunnel, so have a huge sun shade here is always going to be a problem, we have been looking for a while, not wanting a wooden structure, metal gives us thinner legs and bars, which does not block our view of the garden. 

When it's just the 2 of us, we keep our much bigger table close to the fence, with the bench tucked in, allowing a huge clear space in the middle of the decking, which is outside our patio door. We are both pleased with the size, as it is almost a big as our decking, so the legs are not in awkward positions.  

Now when we have family over we can move the table and all sit in the shade, it has become necessary, baby George likes to be outside and we need to keep the sun off him, and the rest of us.  

In the winter we will remove the sail, to keep it dry and allow the light into our sitting room, which can be dark in winter. When closed we can see the bottom of the folds when sat down, we did not have the full height for this structure and had to cut a few inches off the legs, but it's still tall, hubby who is 6'2" has plenty of head room. 

It took most of Thursday to build, it was a hot day and we took many breaks, but we were not in any hurry to get it done, the kit had everything we required, but not one part was marked and with so many things looking similar it was hard to identify what was what. 

Unfortunately our Mad neigbour took a dislike to us building this, did not ask what it was going to look like and started screaming abuse, racist remarks against my husbands Welsh heritage, and accusing us of drug taking !! I did capture most of it on video, so I had to call the police yet again. We had a visit from our local council department after a complaint from next door, to check on our structure, the lady did not tell us to stop building, and left us with the feeling they are not taking any further action. Husband check the legal sizes, ect before purchasing the Pergola, just in-case there were problems, our neighbour is protesting we are blocking her light. This structure is away from her house the sun would only cast a small shadow into her garden in the later afternoon and evening and it would not fall on her house at all, we checked this online and we are not breaching any rules. The police are again visiting next door, we have strongly made our views known, her actions are wasting police time, we are encouraged to report her abusive behaviour, but they do need to put a stop to it. We have looked into the cost of taking legal action, but the amounts are huge, without any promise of results, the most likely outcome is she would ignore any rulings, she is clever enough to stop just inside the law.