Jeanz Greenhouse Progress Report

Hello, all my wonderful Gather friends!

Well... Progress on the greenhouse I'm building has been slow but steady over the last week or so...

After:

1)  Culling out 8 of the galvanized "U-shaped" pipes that I salvaged many years ago from an old wholesale nursery where I worked before they tore it down that were used in years past as frames to hold up the black cloths that were once used to force-bloom chrysanthemums (Note: In order to force-bloom mums, among other things, they must be subjected to exactly 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness to simulate the light conditions of mid-summer) that used one time before to build my first greenhouse at the little house where Hubby and I lived for 14 years in Sebastopol, California. (Photo below:)

2) Cutting the small diameter "telephone poles" that I bought with one of my Gather Home Depot gift cards in half to serve as the center poles of the greenhouse and drilling 2 roughly 1/2-3/4" holes in the top of each one to receive one end of the U-shaped pipes that will serve as the "rafters" of the top of the greenhouse (Photo collage below shows drilled holes in tops of large center poles:)

3) Cutting and then nailing together eight 2x4s into roughly 2-foot high 4x4 short poles (I didn't have any 4x4s or I would've used those...), cutting remainder of large poles into approx. 2' tall pieces to serve as corner "short poles" and drilling one roughly 1/2-3/4" hole in the top of each one to serve as the end poles (outside walls) to receive the other end of the U-shaped pipe-rafters

4) Cutting out and nailing plywood (that I also bought with another Home Depot card that I earned here on Gather) "platforms" to the bottoms of all the poles (2' x 2' square for the large center poles and 1' x 1' square for the 4x4 short poles) (Photo below shows large poles with plywood "platforms":)

and

5) Setting them all up temporarily to "rough out" the outside dimensions in order to get an idea of the total length of 2x4s that would be needed to surround the entire outside dimension of the greenhouse (Photo below shows building stage with all of the short and long poles in place:)

I discovered that the "slope" of the patch of ground where I'm erecting the greenhouse was far from level... Also, the back end of the spot butts up against a small run-off that, in the winter, has a small amount of water that drains off of the crest of the hill above us.

This caused me to have to take shovel and rake in hand and, after building a "retaining wall" of sorts along the near-side of the run off with broken concrete chunks from a pile nearby that the landlord had dumped there and "backfilling" it with soil from the run-off itself in order to make it more or less "level". The following photo shows part of that "retaining wall" and the backfill:

The following photo collage shows the difference in levelness of the site before the "backfill" (insert) and afterwards (photo) -- the "yesterday" and "today" referenced on the photo actually took 2 and half days' worth of work:

The present stage of construction entailed removing a TON of old nails from some 7' 2x4s that I salvaged from an old shed that the landlord tore down that used to sit on the site and then laying most of them out around the bottom perimeter of the greenhouse. There are small "gaps" that I will have to cut additional 2x4 lengths out to fill and that is the next step in construction:

After that, the next work-intensive stage will be to create framing for a door and another opening at the other end for a ventilation grate (which I already have...).

Sometime after that, I will be purchasing and applying the plastic sheeting cover over the top, attaching it with a staple gun along the bottom 2x4s and then purchasing and attaching thin, plastic "bird netting" (of the type that they cover fruit trees with to keep birds from eating the fruit) over the entire thing. I have found that this extra step helps prolong the life of the clear plastic sheeting by about 2 years on the average.

Since Gather has seen fit to offer us this 3 for 1 deal this week, I think it will probably be in my best interest (and the interest of the greenhouse) to take a small break at this point because the plastic sheeting will cost quite a bit and, hopefully, any points I might make during this time will offset that cost considerably!

So.... See ya around Gather!

luv,

jean