Category Archives: Arlington

Za Photos, Coming and Going

Here is another post about the photos adorning the walls of Za. All photos were taken by me, all of which were taken by whatever Android phone I had at the time. I am an avid photo taker; if I see something that I think would be a good image, I take it. Because of sheer volume, I have ended up with some great photos, most of which provide me with some fantastic memories.

The photo for this post is actually 2 photos, taken about 10 minutes apart.

I was sailing- no surprise there; we were en route from Massachusetts to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and we needed to make a fuel stop in Charleston, South Carolina. As we left Charleston Harbor I noticed this shrimp boat, “Stormy Seas,” heading into port, presumably with a full load of Carolina White Shrimp iced down in its hold.

The scene was picturesque: sunshine, blue skies, flat seas, outriggers extended, nets hanging, seagulls swarming. It was a clear photo opportunity, and I took it. As “Stormy Seas” passed, I saw another opportunity: a photo of her stern. I thought it would be really cool if the photos came out well enough that I could enlarge them and hang them next to each other. It worked out well, they look great hanging next to each other on Za’s men’s room wall.

New Awnings

This winter was tough on our old worn out awnings.

Worn and torn.

In 2004, the year we opened for business, we had the original awnings installed, in 2006 a truck backed into the awning on Milton Street, requiring us to replace that awning and to place a planter on the sidewalk to prevent future truck mishaps.

An older photo showing the original awnings

The awning on Milton Street, gets the most sun and wind and had the most damage done to it this winter. It was completely torn apart. The other awnings had various amounts of wear and tear happening, none of them seemed like they would be able to withstand another rough winter, so we decided it was time to replace them all.

After a few unanswered calls and emails to the company that originally manufactured and installed the awnings, I figured the awnings lasted 20 plus years, the company did a good job and deserved my long awaited repeat business. However, their lack of follow up led me to the internet in search of a highly reputed awning company. A very quick search led me to the Google 5 star rated local company Lafuente Sign and Awning. I emailed them and Andrew, the owner called, me back within an hour. He came by later the same day did some measurements and sent me a quote the next day.

We were quickly put on their schedule, his crew came by and removed the old awnings and took them to their shop where they would clean, seal and paint the frames before adding the new fabric and graphics.

Pre-painting.

I took advantage of the awnings being down by painting the exterior walls behind where the awnings would hang, I also rewired and repositioned our outdoor speakers, which hadn’t worked in a couple of years.

Post-painting.

All and all it was a quick seamless process with good communication from Andrew and his crew. A couple of weeks after the awnings were removed the new ones were put in place and are looking better than ever.

The new awnings.

The old girl got a facelift.