Brrrr! I can just imagine the amount of snow that you must get. Your greenhouse is beautiful. I'd love a room like that instead of a regular GH. Is it just a gravel floor or do you have a subfloor under that?

Wow, that is beautiful! I'd have me a lounge chair and sleep in there. :)
Those benches are great, too! Is the gravel hard to keep clean? Do you have to vacuum leaves out or do you pick 'em up or rake? Are those all slider doors? Do you have to heat the pond? Sorry, but inquiring minds want to know. LOL

OMG..gorgeous!! love it!! who gives a rat's @$$ about snow when you have that!! Is it attached to the house??

TJ

Awesome view!! I'd be in Heaven sitting in that room! Brugs in EVERY window!! And to think - you have a tour coming up!! All of us from GW may have to pay you a visit during that tour in 2009! :))

Mike

That greenhouse really is beautiful. Is it part of your house? In South Florida, we garden all year. Our growing season is over now, so everything slows down a lot, until March. It still requires upkeep, and the summer weeds are being replaced by the winter weeds. That never ends!

Bob

TJ, your GH is gorgeous!!! Your plants are all nice and neat on those shelves. You'll have to post more pix regularly on here. We need our flower fixes for the winter!LOL

Theresa

Fantastic GH! You have been busy bringing in your plants, and your fish!

Karyn, it is a gravel floor which I've insulated on the outside of the four foot cement footings with foamboard. It seems to hold the heat in very well. The temps were at a low of 8 and my one little electric heater kept the temps at 40. I've not run my second heater yet. Karyn I did not think I could get by with heating a regular gh all winter so I really put a lot of thought into building this one. I used all 2X6's and some really good insulation in hopes of really being able to efficiently heat that beast. I've got a lot of body parts crossed that the heating bill will not kill me.

Moonie, the gravel floor is a bit hard to keep clean. I have been hand picking up all the leaves, but I'm thinking this spring when I take out all my plants I will rake anything that I missed. Yes, those are all sliding glass doors that I got at garage sales or from friends that were replacing there doors. I'm not heating the pond, but it seems to heat up when the sun is out and heating up the greenhouse. I wish I knew how to efficiently heat the pond as my water lettuce is not growing because the water is too cold.

Daniella, it is not attached to the house and is about 350 feet away from the house. So, I will have to trudge through snow as I run out to the greenhouse daily. I wish I would have built something onto the house instead of having a free standing greenhouse. Oh well. It's done and I'm thankful all that stress of building it is over. I NEVER want to go through that again.

Since it is so far away from my house I've run into a problem finding a wireless thermometer that will be able to read the gh temp while I'm in the house. I wish I could find one that would work at that distance and not break the bank in purchasing it. ha ha

I'm very thankful that I put in water and a sink...pic attached as well as electricity. I painted the chalkboard and then framed it with wood trim so that I could keep track of seeds, cuttings, etc. But instead I've used notebooks to keep permanent records. ha ha

{{gwi:582776}}

It all looks wounderful! I'm still doing a little gardening not much. We have frost warnings tonight. Took me off guard. Had to go out and move things out of the open. Looks like I need finish up so I don't have to worry about it.
Dorothy

I could definitely move in! I'll just bring my woodburning stove to keep warm!LOL.... Theresa

Oh wow, that is a dream greenhouse. That is so cool. I wish I had a room like that on the back of the house. Someday I will, lol. Thanks so much for the pics! I can't imagine trecking that far in the snow. Cold is bad enough, lol. Those sliding doors are a good idea for someday when I get my porch roof enlarged to the size of the slab I could close in the walls like that. Gotta finish my greenhouse but after that I will start collecting sliding glass doors, lol. The ground is way uneven at the greenhouse or I would have used some on it.

TJ, in lieu of a wireless thermometer, seeing a light on at night at least lets you know the power is on. I do not run lights in mine ( they are there, I just do not need them) so I hang a photosensitive children's 'night light' on the power supply so I can see at a glance out my kitchen window in the evening (and the bathroom window at night) that there is power on down in mine. I am lucky mine is 100 feet from the house so the wireless thermometers I use reach just fine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tempminder Thermometers

That is gorgeous! I could just live in that greenhouse! I wish you a great winter gardening season. Linda

I am still gardening here, we won't have a frost until sometime just before christmas. I am planting cacti and brugs, and hoping to start wintersowing soon. I just need to get up and get my gh cleaned out.
Linda

That's a great idea Ruth Ann. It's too bad that the farm is 3 miles from my house : ( We had a generator malfunction twice in the past 10 years and not knowing about it I lost a huge number of plants both times. My backyard GH's aren't a problem. One opens into the dining room and the other is on the side yard, about 50 ft away from a back door.

TJ.. you lucky duck!!! That is just georgous!!!! I would kill to have that!!!But you can keep the snow...

I sold my heated GH this weekend..lmao.. the one in the box in the garage that is where the dryer vent is...
Kylie

TJ. What a beautiful greenhouse!!!
That would be awesome to add it to your house!

Karen

Wow TJ You got a lot done since last year. Well how does it feel? It is operating now. Yippe

Sorry to hear about the snow..Wi so far is having a good winter. Last year at this time we had snow on the ground.

I love how it turned out especially the pond.....Sending you all the best this winter with all your babies....Barb

WOW I LOVE it. The rustic cabninets, Oh How beautiful...

I am so envious of you. My DH is talking about building a GH for me - hope it moves beyond the talk stage. As for keeping the water warm economically, have you thought about one of the set-ups that keep water troughs for stock from freezing in the winter? I used them when we had our sheep farm and it kept the water drinkable for them even in long hard freezes. I would imagine inside it would heat the water nicely.

Wow, what a beautiful green house! I have always wanted one just like that. Maybe when I get a better paying job one day. Thanks for sharing :)

Thank you all so much for the beautiful comments. This project was a very LONG, painful one. First, I collected building materials for ten solid years. Second, I worked a second job stashing all that money away for 5 years to purchase all the needed materials. Third, I could not afford to have someone build it so I had an older gentleman help me build the frame and I finished the rest off myself. It was a LONG, TEDIOUS and incredibly stressful process. All I can say is thank goodness for google. Whenever I ran into a problem I googled and read for weeks until I figured out how to complete that next step. This all from a prissy, pencil pusher that has built nothing but a tiny, little, insignificant birdhouse. ha ha. Trust me, I could have filled that pond ten times over with my tears throughout this project.

Now that it is over, I am so thankful for working so hard to get exactly what I wanted. It is worth all the sweat, tears and money to put it together.

Because I live in a very cold climate, I had to really put extra thought into the insulation. So far, it seems to be going well. (I'm knocking HARD on wood.)

I'm really nervous to get our first months electric bill. That will make or break this fine hobby. ha ha. Thank you all again for the wonderful comments. Our gardening season is so incredibly short up here that I'm hoping this will help the winter time blues. ha ha.

Rosepedal, I've started quite a few different seeds already in hopes I will get some fairly mature plants to place into my gardens this spring. :) It has come a long way yes. It's a relief to have it finally completed to a point that it is useable. Have you started any of your seeds yet? I've saved most of my annuals and taken many cuttings from them as well. Hopefully, I won't have to spend money on annuals for my outdoor pots next year. That will allow me to spend it in another arena. ha ha

~Tj~

TJ I can't believe you built that yourself. That blows me away! Google or not I'd never be able to do that. Are you using an electric heater? If so that's the most expensive heating method. My backyard GH is much smaller and the 19,000 BTU electric heater added about $300 a month to our electric bill. I was also keeping the GH very warm at night, 65-70 F, which I won't do again. Give it a few months to see what your average bill is and decide from that what you want to do, if anything. Propane or natural gas are probably the most cost effective ways to heat.

Did I mention that I want one of those?
Are you looking for a vacationing spot? lol

It is absolutely gorgeous.

I come back here a LOT just to say AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Lucy