Because the Mountain House is a weekend/summer house a garage seemed unnecessary. But after seven years of weekends and summers, the pine tree sap and sun was starting to do some damage to the paint on our cars. I had been tossing a lot of ideas around, for years, about how to cover our cars in a stylish way. This is the project that worked the best. They go up every June and I bring them down in late October because it does snow at the Mountain House and these would probably tear from the weight. I made them in 2009 and they are still like new and have survived heavy rain and wind storms. If you can sew a pillow you can do this.
Shade Sails
I am lucky to have the trees to attach the sails to. I was going to use eye bolts and carabiners to attach the sails to the trees, but I worried about how that may damage or stress the trees. So they are hanging on wire looped around the tree trunk.
Here you can see that the fabric is really more of a plastic screen. Rain and wind go right through.
Sewing a hem
I bought two rolls in Home Depot's garden section along with the grommets for the corners.
Grommets are labeled for easy install every spring.
Here you can make out some of the wires holding the sails to the trees
