We managed to accomplish a little more on the greenhouse project this week. We ran into a small roadblock when we botched putting together the roofline and had to take the rafters down to reattach them to the center beam. I was trying to do things in a simple and easy way which turned out to be complicated and difficult, figures! That's been corrected now and things are back on track.
The next few days won't be good work days due to the rainy weather and Saturday is Halloween (I'll be Trick-or-Treating with a Kitty Cat and a Princess) so the greenhouse project will be on hold through the weekend but I'm still happy with the progress we've made so far. I think Thanksgiving is a good target date for completion of this project. I have a tendency to underestimate the amount of time needed for completing projects so I'm trying to be generous!
The next step in building this greenhouse is to add braces. We attached metal brackets to the edges of the framing to aid with getting the roof up but they won't hold the weight they need to for this roof to stay up. Having the roof stay up is very important don't you think? The brackets did help to align the rafters and give us a temporary way to hold the rafters while we attached them to the center beam. The ridge line is held up by a post in the back, in the middle attached to a center beam, and in the front above the door headers. The braces we need to add will attach to 12' beams that come across the structure and will connect the rafters that hold up the roof.
After bracing we'll finally be able to add roofing material which will be very exciting! I need to fit a couple windows on one side of the roof to catch more light and heat. The roof will be mostly covered with normal roofing materials but having a couple windows on the western side will help add more afternoon light in the winter. The peak of the roof would ideally be higher to catch more light but we didn't want too tall of a structure in the backyard.
I'm still trying to figure out the heat extremes that I'll have to deal with this winter. The need for supplemental heat will be determined by the daytime temperature and heat loss overnight. I'll insulate the areas of the greenhouse structure that will be without windows which will help reduce some heat loss. There are all kinds of passive heating methods that will help with heat retention and I may need to use them to keep this greenhouse warm for seed starting in late winter. What are the winter temperatures in your greenhouse and what do you use to keep your greenhouse warm on a cold and dark winter eve?
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Labels: garden structures, Gardening Projects, greenhouse
We managed to accomplish a little more on the greenhouse project this week. We ran into a small roadblock when we botched putting together the roofline and had to take the rafters down to reattach them to the center beam. I was trying to do things in a simple and easy way which turned out to be complicated and difficult, figures! That's been corrected now and things are back on track. 
