For 10 months of the year, we are cool. For the other two months, we are cool until 4-6PM when the sun slips below the overhang but has not slipped behind the sycamore. For two years, we have managed by hitting the pool in the early evening or saving any errands for the time when light gushes into the living room and creates a furnace of the bedroom.

In Rome last week, we rode bikes up to see MAXXI, Saha Hadid’s arts center and were impressed by the shade structure in the pavillion (Rome is also hot in summer):

Could we do something similar on our terrace? It requires imagination to interpret our prototypes. The first is with butcher paper, which shredded in the breeze before we finished:

When those failed, we switched to string, which we can see better than you probably can:
We left them up for 24 hours, and it seems it will cut about half of the sun during the 4-6PM swelter, and it may look graceful as it complements the curve of the roofline and will sway in the breeze. In the evening and the morning, though, we may wish for our unimpeded view. Even now, at 2 in the afternoon, it’s cool on the terrace under the overhang and cooler in the house.
We got a bid to add a clear glass film for the bedroom windows called “Panorama Window Films Hilite 70,” which claims to block 99% of UV light, 72% of VLT (violet?), and block the heat by 55% (SER). There are dark tinted films that block 79% of the heat, but we don’t want to sacrifice the clear view or alter the outside appearance. It will be $1500 for three windows (1 plate glass and two sliders). Any feedback?