My Greenhouse Project!

[AaronC]

This is my greenhouse....Well the start of it.... It is about 90% Reused material. It is 8.5 Feet wide, 12.5 feet long and 13 feet tall. It is insulated under the floor and in the Pony walls. It will be heated for our miserable winters using a Natural Gas Furnace hooked up Via a Temporary Gas Line from the house. I am going with a 1920's feel with a White and Dark blue interior/ Exterior. The siding is old Barn siding from a barn built in 1926. The lumber used to build it was also reclaimed from the Barn and it is Solid Fir. Here are a few pictures of the progress. It has taken about 9 months to build it to date. Due to a limited budget and time. Let me know what you think of it so far!

1) The first Picture is of me standing in the spot I wanted the greenhouse to be located!
2) The piles of Lumber ready to go after being De-nailed. We have so far pulled out about 100Ibs of steel nails from the wood.
3) The base of the greenhouse built. It was insulated with R22 Roxul insulation.
4)The Pony Walls and Top walls got built.
5)The Roof Trusses went up. We decided to go with new lumber other than the main beam running the length to hold the weight of the Tempered Glass panes on the roof. We Supported all the walls by bracing and I began to paint.
6)Shaun (My boyfriend) is Caulking the windows on the roof to keep the water out. Those panes were VERY heavy for him and I to lift to the 13 feet balancing no handed on a ladder.
7)We Started to put plywood down over the entire structure.
8)Finishing has began on the outside with the nice moulding around the windows. Tar paper covers the entire outside of the greenhouse to wick moisture away from the wood and to allow the wood to breath.
9)We began installing the lower windows. The blue windows are the colour all of the windows will be and the siding will be. Mixed with White accents and an entire white inside for maximum light reflection.
10)The opposite side showing the detailing we are doing and you can see the inside of the greenhouse somewhat.


That is where the project stands while we battle through the last couple months of winter here. We hope to be entirely done by June 2013! Shoot me a message if you have any tips for me as this is my first greenhouse and not going to be the last!

[silken]

Wow! what a project! It looks great! How far is it from the house? It looks like you will finish it this summer. Keep us posted.

[AaronC]

Originally Posted by silken

Wow! what a project! It looks great! How far is it from the house? It looks like you will finish it this summer. Keep us posted.

It is a project indeed! Being recycled material it is much harder to work with and takes alot of time to prep and position. It is roughly 25 feet from the house. A challenge I am going to face is water during the winter. I will be putting 3 rain barrels into the greenhouse (55 Gallons each) One of them will be Stocked with a warm water fish. I am unsure of what kind still but I am looking to use fish for the nutrients that they put into the water for all plants as well as a food source for Shaun and Myself. All the barrels will be connected and I will be doing my watering out of them for my Orchids and other plants. I will have to run a hose from the house to the greenhouse every week or so to fill up the barrels until my greenhouse is in a permanent location when we move to an acreage (hopefully by the end of summer). I just wanted to throw this in. My greenhouse is locked using a Skeleton Key and very old Nickel door knob/lock. One of my Favourite features!

Aaron

[31drew31]

Nice project Aaron, it looks great!

[AaronC]

Originally Posted by 31drew31

Nice project Aaron, it looks great!

Thank you I can't wait for it to be completed!

[Vanda lover]

It looks wonderful! I have a small 6 ft by 3 ft greenhouse and I found that one very useful thing to get is an automatic vent opener. There is a type of wax inside, that when heated by the sun, will cause it to open the vent. It closes when the temperature drops. I kept forgetting to open the vent before that, so I love it.

[AaronC]

Originally Posted by Vanda lover

It looks wonderful! I have a small 6 ft by 3 ft greenhouse and I found that one very useful thing to get is an automatic vent opener. There is a type of wax inside, that when heated by the sun, will cause it to open the vent. It closes when the temperature drops. I kept forgetting to open the vent before that, so I love it.

I would love to get a vent opener but I am going to have to do it manually until I can find a different system from what you have mentioned. My vents open like a door swinging open, not like a hatch opening up and down. The top 3 windows in the Gables open Like doors, I have 2 fans One exhaust and one intake. The Intake fan sits on the inside of one of the Gable windows. While the Exhaust fan has its own area since it will be running more frequently during the winter to allow for new non stale air. Do you know of a system that will open possibly Hydraulically that doesn't require the force of gravity to open and close?

[Vanda lover]

Sorry, no I don't. I have often wondered if there are other systems available.

[FairyInTheFlowers]

Wow, its amazing to see fellow orchid growers that are not only Canadian, but young, AND addicted enough to build a greenhouse! I hope all goes well with you, especially the winter heating.

[AaronC]

Originally Posted by TheBlazingAugust

Wow, its amazing to see fellow orchid growers that are not only Canadian, but young, AND addicted enough to build a greenhouse! I hope all goes well with you, especially the winter heating.

Thank you! I know I am VERY addicted to orchids. Shaun (My boyfriend) isn't into them like I am. He just builds what I ask him to build! Haha. When it is done I'll post it with everything in it. It will have a Cavendish Banana plant and many other large trees and plants other than my many orchids. In the next couple years I hope to have the Greenhouse FULL of orchids and a brand new greenhouse for everything else.