back porch greenhouse - Orchid Board

dounoharm · #1 08-01-2016, 09:16 PM

so, I moved from the thinking stage to the doing stage....fortunately I have my fearless sidekick paul to help....mind you, I have never built anything, but I watched my dad restore a Victorian when I was little...so I got my header up, reframed, waterproofed, reset window, and put new siding up on the house wall...truth, whenever you open up a wall, you will find trouble!...after a frantic call to brother, I found out how to do the above work....now, I have 4 corner posts up and a header....I looked and looked at that header...what would pop do next? suddenly it came to me! DRAW A LINE POP SAID! I placed my rafter wood up to the header at the angle I wanted the roof to have, and put my fist with pencil against the header and drew a line down the rafter! and it fit perfect!! woohoo!

but then, how do you figure the low end? shoot, I don't have time to mess with that! I cut the corner posts off where I thought they should be, and put a 2x6 rafter from one corner to the other and laid that rafter right on top! drew a line and cut! presto! I had a finished rafter! made some more and I had a roof framed, lol.... back porch greenhouse-gh7-jpg

dounoharm · #2 08-01-2016, 09:22 PM

well now, its coming together nicely! paul, thinks I am nuts but he is willing to follow me over the cliff, and he is a good cut man....fortunately, the porch was evenly 10 feet long...and 6 feet wide....so, I placed upright framing every 2 feet on a bottom 2x4 'plate'.....until I had all worked out....I found a small exhaust fan on discount, and framed that in....and made a door....
back porch greenhouse-gh4-jpg

dounoharm · #3 08-01-2016, 09:28 PM

when I had concocted this scheme, I went ahead and ordered some discounted polycarbonate, 8mm....which was 4' x 7'...I am sucker for a sale, like most women, lol...they also sold me a bunch of aluminum stuff with which to hang it....bad move, it all leaked and I had to take it off and just use 1x4 cedar to finish it properly.....the floor was ordinary deck boards with a space between boards. I bought a big rubber mat, used in livestock feeding, and covered that over with astro turf...or indoor outdoor carpet.... back porch greenhouse-gh6-jpg

dounoharm · #4 08-01-2016, 09:43 PM

there was a faucet by the back door of the house, so I intended to use that for water.....it promptly killed half the plants I had out there! AAAKKKK!! installed a small RO system just for the orchids...I had to use electric heat this past winter, which did get expensive...so this coming winter, I hope we have the big gh finished and we will use this porch one for garden seeds....as it is small, it does get hot, even with 2 big fans and the exhaust fan running....but the cats like heat! I hung some copper pipe on the rafters and they work nice for hanging....I have a jaybird aquafog 700 for humidity, and it runs quite a bit....but all is ironed out and working well now...see how easy it is to build an attached greenhouse?

fishmom · #5 08-01-2016, 10:13 PM

WOW! Just WOW! I am so impressed with your courage, to say nothing of the results you have achieved. It must be a real satisfaction to go out there and hang out.

Cute kitty, too

!

dounoharm · #6 08-01-2016, 10:38 PM

QUOTE=fishmom;811720]WOW! Just WOW! I am so impressed with your courage, to say nothing of the results you have achieved. It must be a real satisfaction to go out there and hang out.

Cute kitty, too

![/QUOTE]

thanks! it was hard to get started, but after attempting to hire it done and no one would touch it, I just did it myself! I really enjoyed the puzzle skills used, lol....and, we got so emboldened, we enclosed the front porch too as a sunroom! all was great, it took the 2 of us 2 1/2 days to get it enclosed! I actually hung a bay of 3 windows plus 2 doors! painted it all green, heck almost the whole house green (a pun, greenhouse greenhouse, lol) before I destroyed my knee hopping from ladder to ladder with a paint can....had to get a total knee replacement last fall....we hired out the interior finishes...but next project is a LAUNDRY ROOM! geriatric builders at your service...

dounoharm · #7 08-01-2016, 11:10 PM

I have a real problem with getting pics to post straight up!! must be age.....

No-Pro-mwa · #8 08-04-2016, 04:04 PM

Wow, you are good. What a project.

Leafmite · #9 08-04-2016, 10:07 PM

That is really wonderful! I wish I was as brave (and had the talent you do!).

dounoharm · #10 08-05-2016, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leafmite

That is really wonderful! I wish I was as brave (and had the talent you do!).

not brave, crazy! our next gh will be much larger, for my cattleyas, at the house next door, our main dwelling...soon as the weather cools off a bit....the old cogs just get me in trouble all the time, lol....

now if i could only remember how to straighten these pics out! step in anyone and give me hints!