DIY Projects

This past weekend we went to the RC car races. A friend of ours was racing and we took our carport canopy to set up for him. Since the temperature had skyrocketed this past week, we thought it would be nice to sit in the shade, and have room for all the equipment too.

The canopy is large enough that all 5 of us could sit comfortably and have room for the tables, cars, and the generator. It was easy to set up and provided plenty of shade. When our friend was done racing, it took us about 15 extra minutes to take down the canopy, and then we were on our way.

I always looked up to my grandfather, a self-made man who only spent a year or so in college but had somehow managed to learn four languages. While he enjoyed the finer things in life – French wines, sailing on Lake Huron, etc. – he was also one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met. Long after he retired as the president of a paper company, he continued puttering around the house doing home improvement tasks and working on little projects in the garage.

To be more precise, the garage was really more of a workshop. He had built separate carports years ago and reserved the garage for his wood working. Wood working tools could be seen strewn all about the place on shelves and lining the walls on hangers. Whether he was fixing an old dining room chair or building a table to give away as a wedding present, grandpa always managed to stay busy.

Last week my nephew and I did a complete remodel of a 1950′s bathroom. It had pink fixtures and pink and black tile.  Really dated and unsightly. We did a complete tear out all the way to the studs and rebuilt from scratch.

The first thing we did was to set up a portable carport so that we could park the truck and trailer underneath it because the weather was windy, rainly and cold. There was a lot of debris and it helped to carry it out to the trailer and dump it in while it was underneath the carport, that way we stayed dry and did not track a lot of water and dirt back into the house.

You have an investment in your vehicle, boat, or motorhome, and you know the value of sheltering it from the elements. But if your regular garage is short of space, consider that a portable car canopy usually can take as little as 10-12 feet of width.

It is a versatile low-cost alternative to a fully enclosed garage or as an extension to your existing garage.

Also called an instant garage or portable shelter, a car canopy is an effective way of protecting your investment from fading paint (caused by burning UV rays), tree sap, bird droppings, debris, ice and snow, and leaves.

And how about keeping that ugly yellow film of spring-time pollen away? Spring is coming and so is the pollen. Get a canopy now and be ready to protect your investment from the elements.

When I moved to a new apartment complex, one of my first priorities was to find a more secure spot to park my car. My old place only offered parking on the street as it was located downtown, and I had several problems with local vandals and hooligans. Once I woke up to go to work and found the entire passenger side had been scratched with a key or some other sharp object. Another time someone had egged the windshield and the yolks had already dried in the sun.

The new apartment featured a back parking lot complete with a row of carports, and I signed a lease immediately. Everything went fine through the fall, but when winter came the roof of my port began to leak, allowing snow and other debris to fall on my vehicle. That’s when I set about repairing the carport canopy myself with a sheet of high-quality tarp. Sometimes you’ve just got to take the initiative.