Building_My_Greenhouse

              Building My Greenhouse
   I got a greenhouse for my birthday from Jama (that's my grandma - we live together) but I had no idea how much work it would be. I spent months dreaming, planning, and designing the greenhouse of my dreams. In May 2002 I bought some books on greenhouses to give me some more ideas. I decided we would build an attached lean-to greenhouse. I planned were the benches, door, swamp cooler, fan, rafters, electrical outlets, where my little pond would be placed, and even where I would keep specific plants. I could not wait to get started! I began to pester the rest of my family relentlessly to build the greenhouse.
   We will put the greenhouse on a hill on the south side of our house. The first thing we had to do was level the ground and dig for the foundation. We measured a little over 8feet out from the house and a little over 12feet long. Our Dad, we call him Pa said, "If you want this you dig the hole your self ". Levi and I dug for what seemed like forever but it was only a few weeks. I recruited any one I could like when friends came over I said, "Would you like to help dig for my greenhouse?" Most helped for a little while, but did not really want to. We hit sandstone and could not dig any deeper. We rented a jackhammer and Pa blasted most of the rock out. Then I took a little air chisel and dug out the rest.We dug for a drain for a sink and a drain on the floor, that will keep it from flooding if the pipes ever broke.
   Now the fun part, we made a long list and went to Home Depot. We shopped and shopped, for 5 hours. We thought that would be our main trip to Home Depot. I bet we made at least 15 more trips.We borrowed Uncle Burt's truck and trailer, it's the one he uses for a lawn mowing business, a Cut Above the Rest. I have worked for him the past three summers. We took a big load home, the whole family helped unload and carry the supplies to the garage.
   The next day Home Depot delivered the bricks and cinder blocks for the foundation. Again the whole family lugged all the bricks and cinder blocks to the location of the greenhouse. I was getting excited now!
   We had a guy come and cut a big hole in the foundation of our house. This would enable us to climb in and out of the house, to the greenhouse with out having to go outside. Right after he left we realized he forgot to cut around the edges of the window that was already there. So he will have to come back and cut it again. When he comes out again we will have him drill a hole for the heating and cooling pipes.The pipes from the house will go through the hole then they will be outside after they   will go in the greenhouse. When the pipes are outside they will be three and a half feet under ground, so they will not freeze.
   Now for the foundation. We built wooden frames out of scrap lumber. We had to carry up all the sand and concrete by hand in 5 gallon buckets. Believe it or not we used an old plastic Fisher Price toddler wagon to help us move the buckets. We mixed sand, concrete, and water in a wheel barrel. Then we poured the concrete in the footer which is about 12 inches wide. While the concrete was still wet we stuck pieces of re bar in the footer and large screws to connect the 2" by 8"s. Our footer is also our foundation. That was a lot of work too.
   Then we ordered the double wall polycarbonate and the U-channel from Wane Fisher the owner of Good Earth. He was really helpful and gave us a good deal on the supplies. Next we built the walls out of cinder blocks. We only built the wall on the sides of the greenhouse that will be underground. After that was done we put concrete in the holes of each block that will help them be strong, there is also the re bar in each hole. Then we put a black tar on the outside of the cinder blocks to keep them waterproof.
Pa and I started to build the frame out of redwood. We used a nail gun to nail the wood together. So that went pretty fast. That same day we finished the framing. It looked like the most progress in one day. I could hardly wait to put plants in. I was even dreaming about what is was going to be like to have my own greenhouse. Now it's starting to look like a greenhouse since all the wood is nailed together, you could even see where the door would be.
To protect the pretty wood, Levi, Katrina and I put varnish on the redwood. We used marine quality varnish (Spar Varnish) it will seal the wood because the humidity will be very high. I plan to grow carnivorous plants that need 80% to 90% humidity to thrive.
   The greenhouse will be heated by a boiler. The boiler is in Katrina's closet. A boiler pushes hot water though 3/4in copper pipe and when it comes though a radiator it takes the heat from the water and puts it in the air. It is called hot water heat. We have to get water to the greenhouse. It comes from same spot as the heat so we did it at the same time. That was pretty challenging because we have to get it from Katrina's closet to the greenhouse.Katrina was asked if she wanted new wallpaper now she is excited. First we had to take down the old wallpaper. Then we cut the a path through the dry wall so we could bring the heat and water through the pipes. Pa and I soldered the pipes together. It was like building a maze out of pipe to the greenhouse. But we did not get it to the greenhouse yet, we had to stop at the concrete wall right before going outside. Then, that same guy came and finished the window and drilled the hole for the pipes. He had to drill a hole with only 1/2in to spare on either side. If it was not exact, then we would have a hole in either my room or Katrina's room. We prayed before he started drilling and it was perfect. We thanked the Lord. Now the hole that pipes come out of is not in the greenhouse it's underground about 3 1/2feet and about 1foot from the outside wall. We soldered the pipes through the hole and it's inside the greenhouse. Next, we soldered the radiator to the pipes. The radiator is located on the outside wall of the greenhouse. We did the water at the same time. Now I can hook the reverse osmosis system to the water, it is the best water for carnivorous plants.
   A greenhouse needs electricity. We had been working on electricity for a while now. He had to put in a new breaker in the main breaker box. So we had to start all the way at the other side of the house. There is an attic right above the breaker. Pa had to go up in the attic and go to the nearest light and feed it through the conduit to Katrina's room and out to the greenhouse.
   Nitty gritty inside work is next. Levi and I dug a long hole on one side of the greenhouse for a raised bed to grow vegetables in. Mom and I laid a brick floor. At first we could not decided on a pattern. But finally Levi had an idea. We decided to do one brick the long way and two bricks the short way (it is kind of hard to explain with out showing you) and the same pattern until we got to the other side of the floor. We had to put something between each brick. I did not want to use cement because plants would not grow in the cement, if you use cement the water will not seep in the floor it will just run out the drain, so the humidity will not be as high. We used dirt between the bricks.          Pa and I did not like the look of uncovered cinder blocks so we decided to stucco them. We used a color called "desert rose" it's the same color that is on our house's foundation. It is a really pretty color. It's the color of the red rocks in the Garden of the Gods. We live right next to the Garden of the Gods. To stucco you will need to put up chicken wire then you need to put on a base coat, it is like a watery cement. After that dries you put on the smooth coat, it's the stucco. Let that dry and put on the textured coat, let that dry and you're done with stucco.
   We are getting close to being able to put the polycarbonate on. Double wall polycarbonate is a heavy plastic material with a dead air space for insulation. The reason we have not put is on yet is it's 90F outside and it could be as hot as 120F in the greenhouse, since we do not have a cooling system. All we have to do is put in the swamp cooler we got at Lowes then we will be able to put on the polycarbonate. The swamp cooler is pretty big for the size of greenhouse, but that is good since it will cool it quickly. We will also put a fan on the opposite side, so we will get nice air flow. We will order the fan from Grangers. Wane, at Good Earth will order it for us because you have to be a business owner to order from them.
    It will soon look like a professional greenhouse. We put the swamp cooler in and started to put on the polycarbonate. We begin with the roof. I got the tools and put sillicon on the screws. Pa was laying on the roof. I thought that the polycarbonate must be pretty strong to hold his weight. Right after we got the roof on it started raining, what timing! It hadn't rained in months. Now the tools are protected under the roof. So we will not have to bring them in every night. The next day we put the polycarbonate on the wall that has the swamp cooler. It is much harder then you would think, you have to cut the polycarbonate and frame it with the U-channel, and if you are 1/4in off you will have to cut it again. It was like putting a complicated puzzle together. This step took much longer then we had planned. We got the fan from Granger's so we built a frame around it and installed the fan. We put up about one side of polycarbonate a day.                                              When all the polycarbonate was on we made the benches that most of my plants will sit on. We made them out of redwood and stained. Mom insisted we put a sink in the greenhouse, so we used a green countertop we got at Home Depot. We got the sink at ABC Plumbing it's oval shaped and stainless steel. We plan to use glass on the top of all the other main redwood benches so light will get to the raised beds. We are replacing all of our house's windows with double pane glass so it will be more energy efficient (another project for Pa). We will use the old glass for the benches.
   After we built the benches, we finished up the electricity by adding the outlets. They needed to be GFCI so they will stop the electric current if it shorts from moisture. We also had to get wire to the fan on the other side of the greenhouse, since we wanted the fan to come on at the same time as the swamp cooler, and the swamp cooler is controlled by a thermostat. We had to run another wire from the swamp cooler to the fan to make it work. All of our wire is aluminum armored cable. There are also grow lights over the rased beds incase the glass does not let enough light get to the plants.
   The greenhouse is looking almost done. All we need is the glass for the benches and to make a window from our room to the greenhouse. We looked every where for window the size we needed but it would have to be custom built and that would be $400 to $500, we did not want to spend that much on a silly window. So we bought a router and we made our own frame with the router. That was the easy part now we had to try and cut the glass. We bought one of those little glass cutters. We thought we could just cut it. We tried going over the glass about 5 times with the cutter but when we tried to break it, all it did was crack in the wrong places. We tried this a few times and wasted a lot of the glass. Finally we took it to City Glass. We watch in amazement. He broke it right where we wanted it, almost without even trying. He used the same tool we were using, but he did one thing different. He only went over the same spot once.
   We had to make the door. We made it out of polycarbonate and used the router to make the groves on the wood where the polycarbonate will rest. It's a small door, under 6 feet tall, so that would have been custom built also. The door fits nicely, we put a lock and a spring on it.
   Pa and I took the glass to City Glass to get cut for the bench tops. We did not want to waste anymore glass. Pa made another trip to Home Depot to get hardware to hang a pipe on the ceiling, so I can hang some plants. I also ordered a 40% shade cloth for half of my greenhouse where my Nepenthes will go. After we get that up we will be done for now. The date is October 2002, it has been six months of hard work. My Christmas list will be easy this year like a house a greenhouse can always use more things. Pa ask me if it was worth it I did not even have to think about it I just said "yes".