Part 2 of I ordered my greenhouse!!! Putting it together!

I thought I would start another thread since there will be lots of pictures in this thread!!!

So............................

Today in the rain, wind, and cold, we started to put it up!!!
We started at 2 pm.
As in this picture, my son started to put together the front panelsand the pretty dutch door into the base, which we had already put together last week before realizing that we were missing panels. The panels on the right sides of the front and back of the greenhouse were the ones missing from the first shipment of the greenhouse.

We had a few problems thruoughout the afternoon. Guess my area wasn't flat enough so the pad wasn't level. The greenhouse ended up not being squared. This wasn't the best but my son made it work.

On to more pics........................
Carol

Here is the front with the top panel above the door.
As you can see in the sky, the clouds were nasty black.

Ok, got both ends/doors panels in.
Now onto the side bars on both sides.

Ran into a problem with the white fence being to close to me, LOL
I had about 15" on the house side of space so I could walk thru to get to the other side. I will take a picture tomorrow to show the true space left.

Well, that darn fence had the posts that stuck out a bit more. So we had to move the greenhouse over and now there isn't much room to walk thru by the house. More or less, I have to turn sideways to walk there.
Oh well, guess that space is just for the cats to get thru in case something is chasing them, LOL

Here is my son putting the side piece together.

The other side piece by the fence.

Now we put up the roof ridge.
I couldn't figure out how the metal pieces were to go so had to watch the video several times plus my son finally figured it out. Smart kid!

Could only take pics every so often. Was hard to have my digital camera in my pocket of my sweatshirt, hoping it wouldn't fall out.
We got the side panels up now. He had a doozy of a time getting inbetween the house and the greenhouse since he is bigger than me.

But doesn't it look nice so far??? I sure think so.

A closer picture of the panels.
Note how nice the redwood looks. I love it.
Am so glad I stained it. Now just need to keep it stained in the years to come......................

Other side panels.
Learned another lesson too.
Take off the blue tape before you put the panels up high and can't get to them later. Plus the rain seemed to make that darn tape stick too well and was hard to take off with cold, stiff fingers.

Boy, by now, my hands were freezing. My son said he was fine but..................

Here he is putting in extra screws on the bottom since we couldn't get to the bottom on the side of the fence. No room there. Will take a pic of that tomorrow too.
He just screwed the side panels to the base and it seems to work well and is very study now.

Now the roof panels.
As you can see on the poly., the rains were coming down good. Lots of rain drops on the poly.

Couldn't take pics of the progress of the roof panels. I was needed alot to hold the panels up there while he screwed them in.

Here is a shot from the front from outside of the greenhouse progress.

Rain, Rain, go away and come again another day, I was saying.........................

Here is my poor wet son on that wet, slippery vinyl fence. I was so worried that he would fall but he survived.

If you will notice, on the top at the peak of the roof, there will be another piece of wood along with some metal flashing that will sit inside that groove of the two roof panels on each side. So it is pretty good at keep the rain out at that peak. Will show a pic later.

It is getting darker and darker now.

Ok, it sure seemed that it took so long to put up those roof panels. The rest seem to go together in reasonable time but that dang roof. It was hard to get squared. We had problems with it not meeting with each other panels so needed to do some figuring and redoing of the panels at times. I didn't want to be rained on later so we had to use more screws to tighten up the roof panels to each other.
Plus the panels didn't end up right at the end of the outside either. So my son had to do some refiguring on how to do it. He did okay. We didn't have much choice but it will be fine.

In this picture, on the right hand side on the upper back, you will see a hole (the left side doesn't have the roof panel on yet). That hole is for the vent.

This is the last picture of the progress of this Sunshine Gardenhouse. We ran out of light and our hands were frozen by 6 pm. So we had been working constantly for 4 hours. In the rain, wind, and cold. Tho actually, for the first 1 1/2 hrs, it wasn't too bad.

We did get the other last roof panel on. I didn't want it to blow out if it got too windy.
So what is left is to do the vent, roof piece in that groove, flashing, and some cross beams inside. Then the door stops so the doors will not try to swing inward and come off the hinges.

The last picture for the nite. Isn't the best and couldn't set my camera on nite setting in the rain so............

This is the front door with the new latches. I had my son put them on so I could lock it up so the wind won't go thru and ruin it.

Looks good, huh???

So I am so glad we started it and more or less am almost done.
Tho we still need to do the benches inside but that can be done on a rainy day any old day, LOL

So on to more later........................am not sure when since my son goes to college during the day and also works until dark so.................we shall see.
Later, Carol

Your GH is beautiful! The stained wood is gorgeous. This is one of the prettiest greenhouses ever!

I bet you and your son were glad to quit for the day. What miserable weather you had. At least you'll be sheltered now when you finish up the inside.

Congratulations!!!

Thanks, Missy.
As I said before, my greenhouse will be worth more than my house, LOL

Yep, can't wait to work inside, LOL
I woke up early this morning, dreaming that we forgot an important part, LOL
So had to get up and look at the instructions. That part is to go with the vent and we haven't gotten there yet, LOL
Boy, that scared me, LOL

Amazing Daisy! Hats off to you and your son for getting all that work done in the rain no less!

MollyD

So now that it is up mostly how would you rate the greenhouse and the company that manufactured it? Just for future reference sake? :*) I read the issues you had but does it seem to be of sufficient quality?

Andrew

Yay Carol!!!!

I am totally impressed with your sons abilities and the amount of work you got done in that time period. Why did it take my DH and I three days to do my small little GH? lol

At least now you can look at it and start dreaming of how to arrange things inside with the amount of space your going to have. I wished we lived closer and could share our experiences with our new toy. We could also include missy99912, cause she is new to gh's also.

Thanks for posting all these great pictures of your progress. It's been fun and very interesting to watch.
Good luck with it.
Donna

Here it is this morning. In the real daylight, LOL

Molly, thanks. Yes, that darn rain was a pain in the neck but we only had 2 heavy showers and while they were downpouring, we went into the garage to watch the video again. The rest of the rainy time wasn't too bad.

Andrew, I will write more tonight about it all when I have time to think and write. Will be glad to tell you the true scoop.

Oh Donna. This one reason why I spent the money on pre-fab panels. I didn't want to spend hours putting little pieces together. I figured I would get it wrong and then have to take it apart to redo it and over and over.......................
Besides that I really wanted the wood frame.
When my son and I get to do a project, we just do it totally. We don't stop. We just go otherwise we would never get it done, LOL
The reason being is my son isn't the most patient (he has a temper and at times, he will just jam things in without realizing the end results if it is done wrong, he has learned this the hard way)person to work with so I wanted something that we could do together in reasonable time.

Oh it would be so much fun to have friends like you guys to dream, work, and play with, LOL
We can still learn the ins and outs of growing things in a greenhouse now together tho.

Well, maybe we can trade plants later then. That will give us something to look forward too.

Carol

Here is the greenhouse with the door open.

Oh! Carol! It's beautiful! Praise the Lord! Looks so good there too! And now that you have no walkway between who cares? You have two doors to go thru so you did good! Lovely.

Thanks, maiden..., nothing will beat your new greenhouse. You did that totally by hand. I am more impressed with yours. But I do love mine, LOL
As for the walkway, yes, I have the 2 doors and I know that. I just like my space, LOL

you don't have to walk sideways beside the GH... walk THROUGH it! *giggle

*giggle*
Yeah, you sure are right!
I just like to be able to walk thru it tho. But guess I am spoiled, LOL

Now just have to test the wheelbarrow to see if it will make it thru the door. I had measured it by hand but you know, the real test is doing it the real way, LOL

Thanks Carol. I have insufficient funds for one like yours. A little at a time doesn't hurt so bad so that's why I had to do it the way I did.

So does the wheel barrow fit? My wagon goes in mine but not without just a little finagling and wiggling because I have to turn the corner to get it in the main part and there are steps there too. It's brand new so I don't want to leave it outside. It fits right under the bench. I had it out a little bit ago to dig up some bulbs that were behind it. They were already there (chopped off) in the ground when I put up the greenhouse so I needed to move them. It sure would have been easier to do that before the benches went up. LOL I had to dig by hand and these were HUGE bulbs. Been there for years. I wanted to catch them before they started growing but they already had ! When I moved the wagon to get to them they were up a couple feet already! Must have been enough light way back under there for them.

Oh, I never would have ever gotten this if it wasn't for my mom!
I don't do anything for myself all my life. Between kids, ex-hus., work, etc., I always have done for others. Since my 2nd son has his college funds saved up by me, I figured I could spluge for once in my life for something fun for ME!

As for your bulbs, LOL
I can imagine it would have been a pain in the neck to do it now. Yes, you should have done it first, LOL We always think it will be ok, no big deal, but...................then it always is and we are stupid at times but................
What kind of bulbs were they? Daffs?

I didn't try the wheelbarrow yet.
I spent the time today after work putting up the door/wind stops on behind the doors. Then I put up the cross beams myself.
I will try the wheelbarrow maybe tomorrow. I sure hope it goes thru ok. But if not, just will have to wheel things around the other side of the house, LOL

We're trying to figure it out in the Texas forum. They may be crinums. I looked at some pics and I think they might be. The leaves get at least 5 feet long and these bulbs were as big as cantaloupes. Probably 80 years old from when the house was built. I knew they were that big when I dug them up about 8 years ago when a deck was built around the pool where they were. A couple are on the other side of the fence (new fence) since I scooted in a foot to build it due to a tree that was in the way. I'll leave those there unless some more sneak up on my side again. They weren't up at the time I started the greenhouse so I forgot about them until I saw them along the fence where that bench was going starting to show green. I knew it was them but I ignored them with tunnel vision just wanting to get the benches built so I could move plants in before the freeze. See them under there? LOL

Oh dear, LOL
Yep, I sure do see them. Watch your head then, LOL You might want to use a pick to dig them out, LOL
Dig them up and trade them, LOL Make them be useful somehow.
I just love your benches tho. They look great. Can't wait to get my benches up now!

Well, today was a rather disappointing day.
I came home after work and noticed that my neighbor's greenhouse (the one I had given her since I put up my nice new one) wasn't in its normal spot. Went over to her house and found the greenhouse all in pieces and the plastic cover on her deck.
We had nasty weather yesterday and today. We had wind up to 30 mph. That greenhouse was there this morning just fine. But apparently this afternoon it blew over and broke in many pieces.
So.........................the bad news is.........................

She was to babysit my newly wintersowed seeds along with some of my other potted up plants like trades from people here on DG, geraniums, fushias, hydrageas, etc.............
So................................most all them are gone!!! Dumped onto the ground totally!!!

I was totally blown (literally!) away by this. She had set it up just like I have had it for 2 years and the wind never bothered it. But she had it in a more open area than me so...........................

So instead of working on my new beautiful greenhouse, I spent the rest of the evening picking up the mess. It was so sad to see or not find my baby seedlings. Most of them had started to germ.

So the lesson for the day is to tie down your greenhouse, no matter what.

Andrew, I need to answer your questions now.
I am pretty impressed with the greenhouse overall. I do not like the written instructions at all. Had to rely on the video totally (had to keep my laptop running so we could view each step and that worked out ok, if I didn't have a laptop, am not sure what I would have done. I wouldn't want to keep running into the house for the desktop all the time tho).

It seems to be very sturdy. Even my son thinks it is sturdy and coming from a 19 year old, that must mean something.

I do like the wood frame.

The panels seems to be put together for the most part very well. There are a few places where I think they screwed in the screws too much and wood is trying to crack. But I have a good warranty. It is 5 years for material and workmanship, 5 years for the poly. and after 5 years, it is prorated.

It was pretty easy to put up. But you do need 2 people to do it for sure.

I am glad I got the bigger one. I was going to just get the 6' x 8' but am glad I got the 6' x 12'.

It does need a level site to put it on tho. So the wood frame to match up. But I guess this can go for any type of frame, metal, alum., and wood.

The price seems high but for getting pre-fab panels and the size, I would have paid like only $600 less for one that size made of metal from other places of good quality. So I think for the money, it is good.

I am glad I stained it. It wasn't too bad to do it. Just tape the poly. and go with the brush. It was pretty easy to do.
Now I just have to redo it like every 3-5 years, LOL

The company did work with me very well on getting it shipped from the beginning and then very fast, from the point of needing more parts that were missing. The people there seem to know what they are doing so....

Yes, I would recommend it as of now for sure.

Maiden...., I had the wheelbarrow out tonight hauling those poor plants but didn't get a chance to try it thru the doors. I was running out of daylight so will hopefully try later.

Onto hopefully finishing it once it every dries out. Need it to be dry to put the vent up on top of the roof. I am to put foam tape there so it needs to be dry to install. But the forecast is for rain and snow so.............we shall see.

Okey, dokey.
Today was a very nice day. The sun came out later also. Not much wind either.
So I put up the apex (the very top ridge on the roof) and the metal flashing over this apex. It was very very difficult since I don't really have any room on either sides. So I was climbing on the fence a bit to reach the screw holes in the middle of the greenhouse. Kind of scary but got it!
Then I put up the weatherstripping tape where the vent will be resting on. Then put up the vent.
In this picture, you will see the roof totally covered finally.

My older son came home from college last nite as a surprise so I used him to help me put up this automatic vent. It has wax (paraffin) inside that black cylinder. Were to put it in the refrig. to get it cold so it will contract. Was a doozy to put up. We didn't do it right the first time. Had a heck of a time getting a screw out of the cylinder to redo it right. We got it to work but I still have an inch or so of it not closing. Will need to work with it.

It is to open up around 65 deg. Is kind of cool as it does work with heat. It does open and close as it warms up and cools off.

Here you see the vent in the open position. Nice blue sky behind it, LOL

Here is the whole picture with the vent up on top. Looks kind of cool, I think.

Then once I more or less got the vent done, I started to work on the benches today.
Was excited to get them up so I could maybe start some more seeds.
Well, ran into a few problems or shall I say, not problems, just some delays.

As you can see, this is one side of the greenhouse. On the back wall, you will see 2 silver metal pieces. They are to hold a 2 x 4 lengthwise. This side of the greenhouse has only a 8' bench and the greenhouse is 12' long. The other side has a 12' bench.

I forgot that I have to build a support leg for the 6' bench since it didn't come with it. It is to really attach to a 8' long greenhouse on the other end like you see those 2 metal pieces.
So I put together the supports for the 12' long bench for the other side. But couldn't put it totally together because I had to take a couple pieces to HD to use them for showing the clerks on what I need.

Got some parts so will have to make a leg and sideways (crosswise) 2 x 4 support out of some treated wood from my scrap pile tomorrow or shall I really say today later, LOL Right where you see those 2 x 4 leaning up against the wall on the left is where the cross beam will go and it will be 22" wide with 2 of those metal pieces to hold the other end of the support 2 x 4's.

Will show in some pics tomorrow nite, I hope.

Just another picture of the full greenhouse.
Later with some benches, I hope.
Carol

Excellent Carol ! It looks sooooo good!! I even see a ladder storage area... ;)

Anxious to see those benches up so you can get started!! Hope all went well at the lumber yard and you get those pieces you need.

I have been following the continuing story of your greenhouse. Congratualtions on getting it all put together. You are going to have so much fun!

Carol, you did such a great job! It's so nice and tall - you have all that room for trees and hanging plants! it's beautiful!