All right.

I think we're good now.  Finally.  Whew.

If you remember, I had purchased one of those "modern" awnings over on the Amazons a bit ago.  Turns out the entire thing was tacky rickety plastic, it fell apart not only as I was attempting to install it thus requiring assistance, but it disintegrated in less than a year.  Holy frustrating.

Somehow we muddled through winter snow and spring deluges with a cobbled together piece of crap but something needed to be done ASAP, like yesterday, last week....it was terrible.  So bad.

I don't know if you realize how embarrassing it is to show you this.  Wow.And it was plaguing me.  Not only because it was so horrifyingly bad but because it was...atrocious.
Aaarrrggg!!  What to do what to do what to do.  Hair pull, hair pull, as if pulling would yank an idea out of my brain.

Then!  The other day I happened to be over on Hometalk and came across this a/c unit surround that a person named Chas in Florida had built.

Huh.

And the light bulbs popped.

Thank you, Chas!

Before running off to Menards (I swear, they're not paying me to mention them but they'd be smart to), did a lil' research on their website.  Turns out they had 1x2 pressure treated lumber.  All right!

See, 'cuz my idea was to use the same brackets I had built, why reinvent the wheel, the holes are already in the house.

For some reason I can't remember I was stuck at home, couldn't ...