Sunday, May 04, 2014

Life of a Toldo


These things are great and have 100 different shade reasons to use them.   I ran into this one in the Chapala Walmart and it was surprisingly well built.   I bought it with the intention of using it here in Melaque. I put in 3 cement anchors on the left so it didn't fly away.   Before it came down it was construction shade, shade for the car, shade for a few parties and rain protection for cement and mortar.  I eventually built a large carport and laundry room behind that foto so it was starting to be in the way.

Then comes a community fund raiser at the weekly futbol games and women selling snacks and drink needed shade to sit in.  Of course I loaned it to them for that.  Somewhere in the 6-8 months of fundraising it was also shade for 2 church functions, a plaza fiesta, one school function and a birthday.   

Hint: If you want these things to last a long time, make it yours and be in charge.  With 15-20 people in charge the cover was in taters in less than a year.   Hugo more or less patched it together for a large pig-roast party yesterday ..... and today a neighbor came by asking if he could use it for a wake.   A friend had died and they like to put up shade in front of the house. All I could say is ask Hugo.  It's his now??

3 comments:

John Calypso said...

You can buy replacement tarp covers - although they cost nearly as much as the whole kit from Costco or Sam's. Like you I installed my 'legs' in cement - but it doesn't take much wind to stress the thing out. Loaning anything out in Mexico will likely to be a challenge getting it back ;-0

sparks said...

My tie downs were in cement but not the legs or I couldn't move/loan it. I didn't have much use or space for it so getting it back was not a concern. They could have taken better care of it

John Calypso said...

I assumed that. I cemented in the posts not having any plans to loan it out ;-) At least they are equal opportunity stuff abusers - they do not take of their own things either.

The construction of the house finished in April 2011 and I'm pretty much settled in. As of March 2014 I'm in preparation for rain mode for this coming summer. That includes sealing and painting things and dealing with drainage issues from last year.

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