The four fabricated windows, waiting to be painted :
These will be installed either Wednesday or Thursday, weather looks like it will be good and the four will be the last windows to be fitted.
Today we filled some holes in the greenhouse walls, installed more "nail strips" on the installed windows and painted the above, a few hours of work and we are both a bit tired after it. It will be interesting tomorrow to see if we can gather the enthusiasm together to get out there again.
The end gable windows are still clamped and curing, We checked our test piece today and the glue works, but we will leave them for another 24 hours before painting and then hopefully fitted by the weekend.
Today it was quite busy. On marketplace a local was giving away some wood, so we arranged to pick up this morning, after that it was a little cool so we decided to wait until the afternoon before starting some essential preparation work.
All the other windows are installed now, except for that polycarbonate one in the middle, which will be retained tomorrow with some wood strips, the amazing thing was that a single 2' x 4' piece of polycarbonate was good for two end gable windows and the remaining piece fits the gap exactly, another one of those sizing coincidences on this job.
Some of the wood we picked up this morning is perfect for the top retainers for the patio door windows, so they were cut to size and painted today, along with other essential pieces to be installed before the "final four" windows. In addition, an assortment of pressure treated 2x4 for free was very welcome for filling in some of the holes, when they are all done we know that we will be starting with the door.
"Put wood int' 'ole"
In addition, the greenhouse has some residents now, the peppers are now squatting which would never have happened if we had fitted a door.
After making a cardboard template of the gable end and test fitting on all four, we cut some polycarbonate with the measured angle and created frames on both sides, the wood being attached to the plastic using exterior carpet glue, very sticky stuff, bought from a marketplace vendor for two whole dollars.
They will be clamped while the glue cures, we may add a couple of screws later.
We noticed that they look like old fashioned tennis raquet heads in the straightening frame.
A couple of days when a lot has been done but nothing feels like it has changed.
Although yesterday we agreed that we are getting there and that is very evident by the dwindling amount of materials we have left, we originally bought a box of 900 screws, 3" long, and we have perhaps 40 left, we estimate there are over 1100 screws in the structure so far, and not finished yet.
The trim work on the left hand side is done and painted with half of the exterior stain that remains, we probably have an inch or so left in the tin, it will all be used. As you can see, there are short lengths of trim to be added on the bottom windows, they're not really needed, but we will add them, same is true around the big "patio door" windows, lots of little jobs and everything needs a lick of paint.
Added yesterday were the window ledges inside.
The definition of "good stuff" is oil based stain that smells unhealthy and cannot be cleaned up with soap and water, nowadays the stuff they call paint thinner does not work either, we think there is an inch of that stain left in the tin and it will be used so that we only take empty containers to the disposal yard.
In the last 24 hours my mind has been tormented by a thousand thoughts from every possible angle imaginable, but the overall theme of those thoughts has been happiness.
It was way back in time, perhaps 1969 or more probably, 1970. I came down the stairs on the morning of my birthday and my mum and dad had managed in the previous weeks to hoodwink me into the belief that the object I saw before me was unobtainable.
Apparently it wasn't.
Yet, this story is not about that, it is about this :
It is my birthday on Wednesday and yesterday I was looking on marketplace and by odd chance (because I was not searching for it) found a later example of the same object.
I suppose I should reveal what I'm going on about :
The bike that mum and dad bought me over half a century ago was a Raleigh Chopper, the MK1 version, nicknamed by Raleigh at the time as "The Hot One" and over the years they released the MK2 and this of many variants that they called the MK3 which would have been on sale between 2004 and 2012, with some old stock being available up to 2018.
There is a however, the above article which does not have the correct seat arrangement for a MK3, and it is either from a MK1 or MK2 or possibly a third party reproduction seat, regardless, there are no complaints here and my ongoing mission will be to improve this old bike as well as I can.
I will be repeating what I did all those years ago, polishing my chopper once again!
There was a reluctance to go outdoors this morning, it had rained overnight and the sky was overcast and perhaps threatening another shower or two, we looked at each other and agreed we should try it for half an hour.
It was a bit chilly, but extra layers and moving around helped and in a short period of time, probably 45 minutes, we installed both the sliding windows in the upper half of the left side, as has been typical of the entire greenhouse build, dimensions worked with us and it was as though we had planned it.
There we have it, the view from indoors which is now mostly sheltered from the elements. There are holes to fill of course, but we left it at this today, the windows slide as they should, the frames installed easily and we were pleased with the job and happy to go indoors for a hot chocolate.
Another photo from outside :
There are many small jobs available for the next few days, trim work, installing the rest of the "nailing strips" which are actually screwed in, fitting some wood around the periphery of the sliding windows, creating polycarbonate triangular frames for the gable ends, fixing a few leaks and also some painting.
All of that to be done before we fit the door.
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.
