Building A Longer Growing Season

     I got a little misty eyed thinking about it as I glanced out across the front lawn this morning - that has begun to turn into our own garden paradise - and thought about my great grandparents' house.  I was fortunate enough to know my great grandmother, but was never able to meet my great grandfather who passed before I was born, and who had nestled in the back corner of their yard a greenhouse, which had seen better days when I was a child.  This cinder block structure with cracked glass windows, a scattering of pots and tables, and a door that I can't remember ever having been closed - this "dangerous place" that I was never permitted to go anywhere near - was all that I ever knew of the idea of an at-home greenhouse.  So, it should come as no surprise that when we tossed around the idea of adding our own at-home greenhouse, low or high tunnels, or cold frames to the garden, I was a little in-the-dark.  

Pappy, Dad and the Mr. working on constructing the first
wall, which would be a treat with my oh-so-wonderful plans!

     It should also come as no surprise that when I went to design what I thought would be a proper greenhouse after quite a bit of research, it lacked true size and building calculations.  You see, as a child my mother was the person who could wield a hammer and who encouraged me to tear apart VCRs, record players, cash registers, and any broken electronics we could get our hands on. (P.S. - a toaster is pretty boring, but VCRs offer perfect parts and connections to add to Lego sets to help power them.)  However, there were reasons my parents rented, and decided not to own their own home.  Among them was that my father's not much of a fix-it guy, and he will openly agree that he'd rather just pay someone else to do it, then attempt to fix something broken around the house.  So, aside from the things that my husband and very patient father-in-law and grandfather-in-law have taught me over the past couple of years, a handful of electronics, and some home fix-it shows on PBS during Saturdays throughout my childhood was about as far as the words "construction" had taken me in life.  

     As you will notice from my kind-of-scale drawing of what I planned to be our future greenhouse, rounding to 2" in building to make drawing easier was no difficulty for me; however, as I knew when drawing it 2x4s are not really 2x4 (stupid I know) so whoever was about to use my plans to build a greenhouse was going to have a little bit of fun.  That's when yesterday came into play... the day that my husband miraculously had off work during the busiest time of the year at his job, and he managed to convince his father and grandfather to drive almost two hours north to assist in constructing the greenhouse in an open field during a semi-blustery cold day.  (Grammy came too, to help me supervise.  My brother-in-law also came an hour east later that day, after being woken up by his brother twice, when they decided that another set of hands wouldn't be a bad thing, and helped us get it done a lot quicker!)  

Each wall needed to be carried down from their assembly
station (i.e. the driveway) to the garden, individually.

     The goals of the greenhouse were (a) to spend as little money as possible to construct it after our chicken coop costs were not as low as desired, (b) put as much light into it as possible for crops, but not block light from any crops that might surround it, (c) be able to regulate the temperature inside, and (d) build it just under the square footage that would have caused us to pull building permits.  Believe it or not, d was the easiest of the goals to reach, while a-c had added an extra twist in both the design and construction.  

Pappy working on the old screen door the landlord let us
use as the greenhouse's door.  

     We'd been scrounging up parts for some time now thinking maybe we'd get a greenhouse, low or high tunnel, or cold frames done sometime in the coming year once we finished construction of the chicken coop and runs (the coop and main run are at least done), finished laying out and preparing the garden for winter (we're part way there, and since this technically sits in the garden, we can stretch it and call this preparing for winter right?), and the handful of other things on our winter to-do list that made my grandmother-in-law pause at its length (especially because we rent, but have an awesome landlord that allows us to make this house and surrounding land feel like our home).  I would certainly say that everything we gathered for this project, if people, would be considered a motley crew!  It included:

• Two automatic basement vents, which the local rebuilt-it store had sitting in their original packages for a little while, and were not only marked fairly low price-wise, but also became 25% off during one of their sales.  After passing them by the first time, I decided to head back and see if they still had them.  Less than $8 later we had the beginning of temperature control, paired with an outdoor thermometer that we got two Christmas's ago from my husband's aunt and uncle that I hope to hang inside the greenhouse.
• Nine skylights, which we got free off Craigslist, and were presumably ripped out because the tenth one leaked.  So there were nine of the absolutely heaviest windows I had ever handled, with their frames in semi-decent condition.  At least it's double-paned glass and a couple of them can crank open if installed correctly!  
• A pile of broken decking and supports, which was also two pick-up truck loads of free building material off of Craiglist that was once someone's wrap around pool deck they had torn down.  Keep in mind when people tear things down, they don't necessarily consider that someone might be using the wood again so the pieces might not appear too pristine, but it was free pressure treated lumber, so no complaints here.  
• A handful of 2x4s and 2x3s, my husband found in a free pile along the side of the road on his way home from work in the pouring down rain the one day.  There has to be a good reason for him to drive a pick-up truck back and forth to work, right?
• Two louvered shed windows with their screens, which I found in a pile set out for the trash by one of the neighbors up the way.  The screens are torn to bits, and one of the crank handles is broken on the windows, but I scooped them up anyway.  How hard can it be to replace a screen or handle, right?
• Two monstrous windows that I found at the local rebuilt-it shop because eleven windows would only do three sides of the building, not all four.  Unfortunately, these double-paned glass windows would cost us, and did not come framed out, but they were certainly the right size (and 50% off that day), so $20 later, we got two windows that would just squeeze into the one wall.  
• An old screen door, which was from a pile of doors, presumably from the old farmhouse that once sat here, in the barn.  One that had three windows the landlord gave the go-ahead for us to use for free.

For those of you who have been following us for a while,
you may notice this is not the first time a project was being
worked on by a vehicle's headlights.  

This, paired alongside some lumber and plywood we needed to purchase to round out our building materials, would become the base for our new greenhouse.  

      The time frame my husband gave himself to construct it: one day.  Fortunately, I have in-laws who are willing to come at the last minute and work for food, even if it means by the light of a car's headlights, and this morning, after a full day's work (and full night's rest) I glanced out on our new greenhouse...

     ... which still needs a little work including framing out two windows, finishing fixing up and hanging the screen door, leveling the back corner (I told them there was a dip in the lawn there!), figuring out just what we're using for see-through roofing (we have two semi-pricey ideas, but are also open to other suggestions) that can hold up to winter snows and summer suns, and adding siding, gutters and rain barrels.  In the grand spectrum of things that really is just a "little" more work!

      Now, to figure out how I'm going to fill up the inside!