Our Dream Greenhouse Build

Hi Friends!

How are you? It's been a while since I have popped on here. We have been busy with an exciting project and I want to share it with you.

The front yard on the north side was so ugly and the grass was non existent. As soon as we closed on the house, I began to brainstorm about giving it some curb appeal. Below is a before picture of the North West corner of the yard. The only thing in the photo is the little well house. Anything else visible through the trees is at the neighbor's house. 

 Early in the spring of our first year, Bill built four raised beds. This area gets the best sun on the property. 

Additionally, we had a deer blind left in the back yard. It got a white shabby makeover and we dragged it around the the front yard and placed it in a corner. It reminded me of the Mr. McGregor's garden shed in Peter Rabbit. Bill would be happy if it disappeared, but I love it and I thought it added an anchor to the yard.

The well house got another new coat of paint. 

I just knew a pretty greenhouse would finish off this part of the yard. Two years ago, we had so much going on with our addition to the main house that the greenhouse took a backseat to everything else. 

In late February, we staked out a 16 x 10 foundation. 

Bill dug the footings, laid the rebar and in March we poured the foundation.  

   I had hoped to help with every step of this process and I did help with the rebar and concrete but it wasn't fun. I must have complained too much because by the time it came to set the haydite blocks, I'd been fired. 

                We hired a wonderful young man from church to help us. My role in all of this was providing lunch and treats. 

Bill followed the Fibonacci Sequence and the golden rule of building as he created this plan. It was a step by step process rather than a master plan at the onset. We did a lot of design consultations along the way. The partial wall and the pitch of the roof were two of these design consultations. 

Once the rafters were installed it was easy to envision the finished product. We were about a month into the build at this point. 

Painting each piece before it was installed was so much easier than doing it afterward. 

I was the primary painter.

He began sheathing the lower portion of the walls. 

We intended to use some antique windows that we bought a few years ago. They were in the way when we worked on the main house so I set them by the curb. A lady snatched them up within an hour. She had some windows on her greenhouse that needed to be replaced. Perfect! 

Rather than antique, Bill wanted to build the windows so that they would be uniform and easier to install. I love that they mirror what is on the main house and they should be maintenance free for years to come. 

There are ten windows that open for ventilation. The rest of the openings and the roof are ribbed polycarbonate sheets. We were a little over two months into the build at this point. 

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It took some special primer to stop the bleed through on the wall panels. 

The floor is brick look concrete pavers and rocks. 

It was time to work on the gable ends. We found a darling stained glass window for the east gable end that faces the house. I wanted to be able to see it from the house rather than from the street. 

The street end got a window of seeded glass. Unfortunately, we couldn't find two matching stained glass windows. 

Bill created the gable vents. 

We found a baker's rack on Facebook marketplace for $40.00. Once the west gable end was finished, we were able to put it in the greenhouse. Initially, when we went to see it in person, it looked huge but it's actually a perfect size for the proportions of the greenhouse. 

The sidelights and door were the final step in the build. 

This is beyond my anything my dreams could have imagined. It adds the focal point to the front yard that this house needed. 

This will be a working greenhouse but it's too hot for anything right now. I don't over winter a ton of plants but there will plenty of room for those that make the cut. We do need to plan heating before winter gets here.

 I'll also start a few seedlings early for next spring. 

Here are some interior photos and a photo dump. 

It took 14 weeks from start to finish. 

I'm so proud Bill. He and our helper did such a great job. 

This is a definite labor of love from my husband and he's added tons of skills to his word working abilities. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I appreciate all the support that I've received over the years. 

I hope to blog again soon. I think it's time to ditch posting to Instagram because no one ever sees it and Pinterest is just filled with Ai images. 

I long for old school photos of real homes. 

That's all for now, 

Katie 

The Cabin Reveal!

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I am so excited to reveal our epic cabin project.

The property we bought in East Texas had a "guest house." 

It was a shed with a country garage attached but it consisted of a living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom and a small bathroom. It didn't look that bad when it was furnished. Emptiness told a different story. We wouldn't have put a guest in it. The sum total of my plan consisted of paint and flooring. Paint fixes a multitude of problems in a lot of cases but Bill felt from the get go that we needed to gut the thing and start over. 

The dwelling consisted of one of those country metal garage coverings and a small metal building. 

The small metal building was in okay shape. That is what they used as a living area. The garage section which housed the kitchen, dining, bedroom and bath was the problem.

I was busy revamping the house and Bill began using it as storage. He began to uncover the extent of the problems and became more convinced that he needed to be gutted. There was a leak in the roof and mold was growing. 

Demo began in April of 2021 and once that was complete, it was time to put it all back together. 

Here is a list of the projects for both the shop and the cabin. 

He built an exterior end wall and doors for the shop because the old wall was sided with indoor paneling.

He tried to fix the leaks but determined that he needed to run the roof of the garage in the other direction. He and his brother reroofed it and that did the trick. They installed windows in the shop and worked on the electrical in the shop and on the north end of the cabin. Bill insulated the ceiling of the shop and covered it with vapor barrier. He built a new wall in between the shop and the cabin. 

It was time to finish out the cabin. 

He ran plumbing, ran pipe to the septic, framed out a new bathroom, built a column to hold up the beam, installed a kitchenette. He hung a door between the cabin and shop. He shiplapped the bathroom walls, sheetrocked the north wall of the cabin, repaired a section of the ceiling with sheetrock and then covered it with beadboard. He hung the toilet, (One of the hardest jobs with this whole deal.) hooked up other plumbing and trimmed out the whole space. We stripped an old wood door and he hung it on a slider. 

Bill was designing the space as these other projects were in progress. 

It was time to paint and decorate. We were at the stage where I could help. 

The walls are Tempe Star by Sherwin Williams.

The other blues we tried were too nautical looking. 

The trim and doors are Shoji by Sherwin Williams. 

 

Our daughter painted the fish. 

The bench is from Cabellas' points. 

The adobe house paintings were also done by our daughter. She did them in two different mediums but gave Bill both because she couldn't decide which she liked better. We couldn't decide either. 

They are perfect in this space. 

We got the lamp with Cabellas' points as well.

The credenza came from the house. 

 

The rug is from Home Depot. 

There was a lot of debate whether to paint the trim. We left it as is. 

Staining the column to match the cedar beam was a process. 

I got as close as I could since it is pine instead of cedar. 

The bathroom door was a pain in the neck. It required a lot of stripping and sanding in 100° heat. 

We will never do that again but it might be my favorite thing. 

Bill designed the light fixtures. 

We found his chair at a consignment shop. 

My wingback is Ikea. It was gray so we used one of their slipcovers otherwise it just blended in with the walls.  

The cocktail ottoman is from our game room. 

The headboard is a cupboard door from the original bedroom. 

We thrifted all the other art. 

It has a very updated Southwest feel.

I love the deer painting. 

Bill's sister took the woodland photo. 

These were our original colors the year we got married which is really fun. 

 He loves this room for morning coffee. It's great to have a cozy glass of wine in here too. 

We closed on the house three years ago. Bill felt bad that it took this long. He only has the weekends to work on it and considering all that he did, he's done really well. The details are impeccable. I'm so proud of him.  I've suggested that he go into tiny house building. 

Here's the full story in these posts: 

The Cabin and Quonset Hut

Demolition Day 

The Quonset Hut Update

I have a whole page of posts about the East Texas house in case you are interested. 

We have some new blinds to hang thanks to our friends at Budget Blinds. We also want a little shelf next to fridge. I'll let you know when those are complete. 

 That is all for now.

See you soon. 

Katie