The Front Door Canopy (2009)

A front door canopy, or awning, was never a part of the houses in our neighborhood. Maybe it was just a little too much extra expense. Or maybe it would have messed with the builder's conception of the block (it might have looked cluttered if every house had one of these). In any case, if you stood at our front door in a rain, you'd have gotten really wet. Jill and I got tired of getting wet, so we decide to add a canopy.

We started with a plan, then found an architectual metals supplier who had the various pieces to make the canopy. That's the way it works these days--nobody builds these from scratch. You build them from pre-fabricated pieces of cast iron. Once we had a firm idea of the plan, we visited a local iron works company. Keep in mind that a welder is going to give you a different service than an "ornamental iron" company (which employs a welder to do its work). Nelson Daniel, at C & S Ornamental Iron Company, took a lot of time to review our plan and make sure we could get the pieces we needed. Then his welder put it all together and installed it, welding it to the frame of our security door.