One Half

Another day, and as predicted, the mirror image pair of windows went in a lot smoother than our previous effort, oddly though, time drifted away in exactly the same manner.

The upper windows are similar but are double the width and each one features a sliding window which will be great for temperature control. We decided to leave them for another day and finished off by starting to fill in the upper frame with two of our 5x4 pieces, rain is forecast overnight so we are not sure if we will complete this tomorrow.

One Quarter

The remaining windowless space is obtaining windows.

We have lost track of the terminology, I think at one point we were calling this the back side but it makes more sense to call it the left side. This was an example today of how it takes time to learn a method, in theory tomorrow, on the mirror image, we should take less time, especially as we have already cut some of the wood for what we will call the lower left side of the left side. 

This is what the lower right side of the left side looks like now :

Fatigue is a strange thing, at one point a job that should have taken a minute or so took almost fifteen, I would say it was a simple job, but most of the individual elements are simple jobs, there was a moment where too much time was spent and we both knew it.

However, after that annoying moment, the two windows went in very quickly.

New Post, like the old one

The "centre" post has been added with the two 4x4 pieces for the lower window frames, I use quotes there because all our tolerances have stacked up and if we measure the centre at top and bottom, the post does not look true to the greenhouse frame, and the visual is everything.

As with all the construction on this project, there is always a compromise and somewhere along the way the base dimension on this side has not quite matched the top measurement, so the visual lines of the other side of the greenhouse have been used and "relatively" it is square.

Hey, it's a $427.91 greenhouse!

The Final Wall - planning stage

The last two patio windows were installed today, so that leaves a hole to put a door in and the final wall windows, as with the first wall of windows, planning is required :

The hole measures approximately 140" x 73.25" after we add the last length of 4x4 tomorrow which will, in effect, be the lower window sill for the bottom row.

The vertical stack up for the fixed windows on the bottom row will be 33.25" + 4" which means that we have 73.25 - 37.25 = 36" gap. The upper sliding windows will mount on a 34.5" width with approx 1.5" flange all around, nice and easy to mount. This means that we have 1.50" to fill along the top of the window, a very convenient number for a 2x4.

We live in hope.

Painted and then around the bend.

We painted the frames yesterday and removed the masking tape this morning, then we installed the middle window that we had obtained from a local chap called Sunny on marketplace, it was a heavy window but we wrangled it into our frame quite easily and screwed it in, there will be some trim work to be done on the outside and inside. 

In addition another large sheet of 34" x 76" patio door glass was moved over from the work area using our strap system and safely installed even though we are running out of places to use clamps.

The layout of the windows for the back wall has been mapped out and it looks like we will have enough wood in stock to complete the greenhouse. It may be desired to buy a couple of correct sized pieces for various trim work, however, we will attempt to resist as we know money can always be better used by buying beers.

Front Side windows all in.

Today the reasonable weather continued and we soldiered on and completed the first side windows, at the end of the process we acted like a well organised and tolerant team, that is the way most things have improved during the course of the build.

The next stage involves lots of masking tape and brown paint, more good weather on the wish list and the forecast indicates that we will be in luck. The following is an "artists impression" of what it should look like after we have finished painting, although even the AI program missed a spot here and there.

The 2x4 wood supply is dwindling although we still have a good stock of 1x2 and 4x4 material, we may need to be creative on the back side of the greenhouse, however, we still have budget left, plus from one day to the next you never know what will pop up on marketplace.

Wednesday : New Additions

We mounted our first large piece of glass this morning, then fitted two more side windows.

The large pane went in very easily, we used a couple of sturdy straps to carry it over from the work area and initially clamped it into place while installing a few of the strips that will run all around the perimeter, once it was installed and safe, we moved on and removed the temporary column and constructed the frame for the two other single pane windows.

The plan for the side will be quite symmetrical with ten windows in total, the next two windows, in the centre of the greenhouse, are smaller in height, so there will be space at the top for a vent or a "feature" which has not been decided yet, we will wait to see how big the gap is before doing anything, we have options.

It looks like we have some good weather coming up.

In other news, after we finished the roof, we decided to sell some of the remaining polycarbonate on marketplace to offset costs, it sold immediately for $55 and when that was applied to the tracking spreadsheet, the new total is now sitting at $427.91 which means we may be coming in below budget on this major infrastructure project, although paint is needed.

We should run for government....

...NOT!