Greenhouses out of old windows!

all I can say is WOW! your home and yard are beautiful.

thanks very much, would you believe hubby has talked a couple of times about selling and moving us to condo's? Small yard, can't have anything above the fence and front is desert, and I could do a better job landscaping. I just can't go there. I love my green, my sactuary from all the stresses of life. Besides only a few more years and this is paid for.

Well here is a computer generated drawing of what we are doing, except the door will be half window and bottom solid Dutch door we will make. Sorry, guess it wasn't in the right format.

This message was edited Sep 9, 2009 1:16 AM

Love your pic., Linda, your work is wonderful.
I must finish painting my rain barrels and post a pic.

Like the idea of a dutch door, it will really look nice.

Guess what, so far I got a door with a window I can make a dutch door from a friend and she might give me a pair of french doors. Picked up some shelves and shutters for free. Some spindles that were room dividers and almost 300 used mexican brick. A neighbor a block away had that in his yard and gave it to me. Great for paths. So I loaded all of that up very carefully in my new van and drove home carefully and unloaded and stacked it. I love old used brick, so I am excited. I could even build a patio in front of my greehouse. By the way, I emptied a paint bucket and washed it out, you know they are plastic now, black after you take the label off. Looks like a trash to treasure project or grow plants and hang them from the handle in the greenhouse.

I find lots of uses for paint buckets, Linda.
I got to thinking about your idea of a dutch door, so I decided to build me one for the GH.
I am building a full door and will have a 'window' open out from the top of the door.
I now have an light weight aluminum door which is OK but everyone needs a change.
This is what it looks like now. I have the wood frame built and should complete it tomorrow, (well later today) ^_^
This is the entrance into the old, original GH. New addition to the left.

This message was edited Sep 11, 2009 4:47 AM

used bricks, i'm lusting here..

Make sure you send me a picture of the dutch door. I also got this today for $30, spotted it on Labor Day in someones carport. I am removing the top and making a plant table, mosaic I think or potting bench with shelves above. I might need a 3rd one. I am selling to top part to a local antiques dealer for $10. He has another piece I am interested in restoring to shabby chic look for $25 , I think I will have to buy it. I will take my camera tomorrow and take a picture of it.

I was standing up in the far corner of my yard today watering my pine trees and could view my yard from a different angle. I will send pics and you can see where the greenhouse is now going better. Where the two garden tools up against the fence is about where it will be. I will send a pic too from up the corner of my yard on a hill.

This message was edited Sep 11, 2009 11:50 PM

My view from far corner on hill, looking back at my yard. I think I have to put a hammock up here. I have 3 pine trees up at the top back of the yard. Usually I am on the patio looking out. I think the green house and a hammock will give me use of my whole yard.

This message was edited Sep 11, 2009 11:53 PM

Have to include my littel "Cubbie" service dog, he is a teddybear and a Chihuahua at that. He posed for me.

Cute dog Linda, I have my new (made from old materials) Green House Door 'Hung'
A modified Dutch Door. I still need to install , attach the handles and latches and a little touch paint but I like it.

I absolutely love your dutch door! What an improvement over the other. I have a question for the forum, does it matter in zone 9 , high desert, but do get some freezing temps if I make the roof out of colored fiberglass instead of clear? I thought this might be better for summer potting house because of shade. They have it in terracotta and almost looks like tile.
But I am discouraged. Even with the windows and all the lumber needed to finish this up it might be better to buy a greenhouse. So It seems like a fantasy dreamhouse right now. We were pricing everything today at Home Depot. If it is over $300 I am not sure we should do it. You can get a nice kit for $500 and put together faster.

I guess 'colored fiberglass' may cut down on sun rays, light, which is needed in the winter, maybe not.
Can HD tell you the % of light from clear to colored ?
Harbor Fright has a nice GH kit, many have discussed them in past post.

I know , the friend who gave me the windows got the harbor freight one, I could always use the windows for other projects and sell , since I love shabby chic and hand paint glass. I need more patience. What do you think it cost to build your greehouse? I think with a 9 by 9 house if it gets built , i will have 3 sides of 9 feet in full sun and the north side solid for cold winter winds. But our winters are milder than back east. I am in Arizona, two hours from Flagstaff.

My 8x12' addition cost a little over $450, I had most of the wood, 4x4 post were set in concrete, had to buy more fiberglass panels for the roof, paint, nails and lots of Beer. ^_^

LOL, sounds like you did great, I need a job right now. Money is tight, so that is the issue. But maybe we can get some things paid off soon. If we can do it for $300 I think it will be worth it, but we may have to do it in stages. I remembered we have a large tarp that is used for making signs and we could put it on for a roof this winter. Honestly though I think my hubby doesn't like doing projects any more and would like to give up on the idea, but yet when I said forget it and got discouraged he said he hadn't added all the costs up yet, so it might be possible and would look nicer than the ones you buy. So we will see.

I hope you can do it, I love growing things in the fall, winter and spring.

Linda, you may find this site interesting.
http://www.gardenandgreenhouse.net/cms/content/view/601/18/

Thanks I found the most awesome book yesterday, issued 2008 on greenhouses and sheds at the library, it has lots of pics.

wonderful, share the name of the book?

Here is an inside shot of one I built about 20 years ago using old aluminum framed windows. I had 16 of them so I designed the greenhouse around them. I used it for a year before I sold it to a carpenter that wanted it for his mother. It had gas heat, electric, water and telephone. I plan on building another one and hopefully will have it before winter of next year. Still unsure as to the style of what I will be building. I have to check with a friend who is always buying tons of old aluminum framed windows for use in his nightclubs to see what he has in his warehouse. I have already drawn up a couple of designs using clear corrugated roofing. I am thinking along the lines of an A Frame as we get heavy snow loads here. But due to city building codes it must be 200 square feet or less to be considered a yard building and under 12 feet tall. I have to jump through hoops in order to make it fit within the parameters to keep building inspections out of my greenhouse.

Curves -- slightly off topic, but would you mind sharing with me what your patio is made of? Is it stamped and stained concrete? I love the look.

God, I miss living in Arizona! :(

franknjim, nice GH, love the paddle fan, L may paint mine.
I installed two old ones in my GH and they have run all summer, well Sunday I saw one of them was not running, looked closer and saw one of the blades broke off, so being in a hurry I took of two blades and left two on. I ran fine.
I looked 2 days later and it was laying on the floor, ripped from the mounting. I'm happy I was not in there when it happen. ^_^
Anyway I have another one installed, a little smaller but we are in the 60s at night so I can get along.
I found this on the side of GH while working. A Good Guy.

Well, here it is part way finished, cheapest way we could go.
Linda

How pretty! It is nice enough to be a room addition, I love it!

Very nice looking.........will you have to use shade cloth in the summer?

LOVE IT! It's exactly what I envisioned when I thought of doing the same thing. Great job!

How/with what did you attach each window to? Are there vertical supports/beams (e.g., 4x4s?) inside?

We bought some wood and made supports inside. But we are putting more up on the outside, it didn't feel as stable as I would have liked. It looks nicer too. I have some old swinging door shutters we cut the curve off of and will put on the front on each side of the windows by the door. I am thinking maybe I should paint the whole thing white and then sage green on the shutters, some crackle medium and white on top. Thinking of putting some chicken wire on some of the insides of the windows to add fun stuff like seed packets pictures with clothespins. Hubby is making trusses now for it. I got to use my own tools for the first time an use a saw, now he's got me going. I am afraid it will get hot, so we have to think of venting , although there are some leaks I am sure. I was thinking I have a nice jasmine evergreen vine growing nearby. I could plant another one to go up the end, it doesn't grown real fast or invasive. It still lets in light. I could put chicken wire on the outside of the windows for it to climb if I need some shade. We will probably use corrogated roofing or just some sign material we have for right now that we can staple to it. It is very heavy plastic canvas. We also have pond liner to staple to the floor. Then make a dutch door.
So far hubby says we have $50 in it. We had to do it cheap or it wasn't happening. As most of you know the windows were donated. I still have 3 windows left that I can change out cracked window panes, they are double paned, but not sure if we should do that or it might cause more problems.

Linda, you and your DH are doing a great job. Love those windows. But be careful with your tools, you should see my right thumb, what's left of it. Got it on the wrong side of the wood while cutting. DUMB
And Remember You WILL need ventilation, the more the better the way I see it.
In the summer time, with all my windows and vents open, the fans run until 9 PM some nights trying to keep the temp around 80.
The shutters will look nice and add stile.
With the large window area I would say you could paint any color you like, I know it will look nice.
BTW...something I learned...DON'T STORE YOUR SEEDS IN THE GH...I am having a hard time getting anything to sprout....But live and learn. I knew they should be stored in a cool place, ref.
I see the GH it on a concrete floor. You can keep it clean, mine is crushed rock and widely spaced patio stones. Hard to keep the floor picked up and clean. Leaved falling, grass growing in from outside...
So keep up the good work

Actually the GH is on a sub wood floor. We had built the base for a large shed and hubby backed out. We bought a rubbermaid and put it up and had this area left. We got the roof on today, but not picture yet. We pitched it the opposite of the shed and then used heavy plastic canvas like sign material that was given us years ago to make a sail for sun cover. Well now it is getting used. It is going to make a great roof and we will leave a space and put it inside too. That sure helped with the sun, it was hot in there already. I am buying a thermometer tomorrow. Since I am in AZ and don't get many days of freeze, and that is at night I think we are going to screen the ends of the eves for ventilation and then if it is too cold make a piece to fit in there. I am really more afraid of it being too hot than cold. We do have some air leaks already, but I am not in a hurry to caulk them yet. I am going to put the same material as the roof I think on the floor to protect from water spills. We have so much of it.
I painted the shutters blue today, had some paint already and our trim is blue on our house. I still want to put a crackle finish on it though and white on top. I will stick with white for the greenhouse color. Thanks for the tips on storing seed. Just picked some marigold seed to save today, but put it in the shed.

Here's some more pics.

Another one, painting it white. The shutters are green with crackle white on top. Not sure yet about painting the inside and whether to put the pond liner down. I'm afraid too much water on the wood will make it swell, and then that will be a mess, any better ideas?

Close up of shutters

My carpenter husband built me a greenhouse when we lived in western NE years ago. CAn't remember the exact measurement but think it was approximately 16 x 24ft. All fiberglass half way up, including the roof. The lower 3 ft was a solid wall which was in line with the benches. .

I designed it with information gained from lots of research. The biggest mistake gardeners often make is just thinking of all the sun and space for plants that will be available, not to mention 4 seasons of growth. Extreme heat during the summer is the biggest concern. Even in zone 4, a greenhouse will heat up to above 100 degrees without something to cool it. The smaller the greenhouse, the hotter it will become, and quicker. It can be too much of a good thing. I lived in AZ for 2 years and know how hot summers become there.

One way to avoid some of it is to build the longest lenght of the greenhouse to point north to south . That will prevent hotspots as sun moves over the greenhouse from east to west. In other words, the shortest width should face north and south. This will also provide shady areas for those plants that require it. If the longest side faces south, it will produce too much heat for too many hours. One long side can be solid. If you have a choice, the best exposure for a 3 sided greenhouse is the long side facing east or southeast.

Whatever the size or shape of the greenhouse, it has to be cooled somehow. I had 2, 24" fans in mine, plus one blew air through water, similar to a water cooler. A fiberglass roof is a must if there is any change of hail where you live. Better safe than sorry.

Just my 2 cents worth from my own experience.

Very good points, blomma , thanks for the input.
I also problems with heat in the summer and my GH is North to south and was looking into the cooling with water, I think it works best in a dry place like AZ. I'm toying with an idea of building a (aprox) 2 foot square tank around the base of mu GH, lining with plastic and growing fish. I've read the water is good for plants, fish for food and the water tank would be a heat sink for temp control.
My latest little project is building 'bottom waters', just a 1" deep tray, lined with plastic to hold the water.

Tomatoes anyone ?......this is a cutting taken from the garden. The lantana plant is trying to get in the pic (on the left) ^_^

This message was edited Nov 14, 2009 8:03 AM

Or how bout some carrots , well in a month or so.

Some flowers ?

Well, you quickly find out 6 by 9 isn't very big, you have to make the best use of space. So we went out and bought closet shelving to wrap around it and put bigger pots under it. All the plants are in except my palms, when they go in it will be like a jungle. It's hard to get a good pic because it is so small, but maybe you can get the idea. Someone gave me the brackets and I spent about $80 on shelving, more than the rest of the greenhouse. We still have to make a door. But we have about $150 in it, not counting floor, it was already there. I came up with the idea of putting roof sealer on it, since it is wood. There will still be some finishing touches but they will happen a little at a time. I did get another set of shutters just like the ones on it. So I may put them on another side or put them below the other shutters to mimic my original inspiration picture, then add a window box in between. It sure is nice out there in the morning, but will hardly be room for a chair! Now I see why you all keep getting bigger and bigger greenhouses! Great flowers and tomatoes Rentman. I was given some Coleus cuttings and can't wait to start those. Well my greenhouse is North to South, The house protects it on North and of course Full Sun on South on the longest side. But no changing that now. I pretty much figure I won't be using it in the summer, just to overwinter plants. Here is the problem. The more plants you start, the more room you need in your greenhouse the next year, unless they survive in the ground. I probably will have to plant and then take cuttings before frost sets in.