Craigslist Score...

[Spookwriter]

My wife has been making noise about closing in the covered back porch,
building a new deck. More of a sunroom effect. (porch is 16x16)

Just bought 6 36x48 aluminum framed single pane windows and a sliding
glass patio door for $85.00

I felt that was a good deal, and a goal for the coming spring. I will this about
owning my own home : I am never done puttering with it. One of my greatest
pleasures. Seems like I'm always doing something.

Spook

 

[fuzziebutt]

Congrats!!! Hubbo bought a tractor when we bought our house, and he just moves the dirt in the yard. For 13 years. Sometimes, he moves it back where it was, then he moves it again. But we did build on a bedroom, and are talking about closing in our porch for a den.

 

[Glenmar]

My projects never end too.

 

[Linn Bee]

Quote:
We just used our 6 patio doors/windows. Five to build my garden shed where I have 16 feet of glass facing due south for winter gardening and spring seed starting and one for the coop door. Still have another 6 to figure out how to use. Got them for $3-$5 each from the damaged section of a home improvement center.

Confucius (or was it Charlie Chan?) says: 'When man finishes his house he dies'. There's always something else to work on when you own your home so you can expect to live a long and industrious life.

And tell your wife, a sun room is a great addition! I love mine.

 

[Spookwriter]

Linn Bee...I know I'm going to regret this.

But can you tell me more about your garden shed? 16 foot glass wall
sounds easy enough. How about the roof? Size? Vented? Heat system?
Floor?

You don't know how very sad a Spook can be in the winter...nothing grows
in my garden. All I have is house plants.

I like to play with dirt.

Spook

 

[Spookwriter]

Kubot tractor here, Fuzziebutt.

Love playing with it. Playing in the snow with it just yesterday.
Next tractor I get...I want a cab with heat and air. You can't go
back and order a factory cab from Kubota.

Also a neat tool rental place nearby...I can get some really cool
toys for a week at a time. Bobcat, little dozer, hoe...

 

[spacecowgirl]

Dern. Wish I were craftier.

I'm always tempted by the stuff on Craigslist but I know that if I buy it I won't know what to do with it.

 

[Linn Bee]

Quote:
Chickens may be my hobby, but gardening is my avocation. I like to play in the dirt as well so, yes, I do know how very sad a Spook can be in the winter. . . much like a very sad Bee.

The garden shed is stick frame on cement posts dug 4 ft. down for frost. The walls and roof are standard metal shed material with one access door and a one-car garage door. An old patio door/window faces north. The peak has a vent cap the full length. . . no insulation. Size is 16 X 24. The windows sit on a 7" beam to make the windows reach the 1 foot overhang, and we have a 12" beam over the wall of windows with a stud between each window for fastening the windows. (yes, overkill) One of the 'windows' is hinged for summer cross ventilation. We used standard studs for the 16" on center walls and 24" for the rafters.

Right now, I'm growing only cold weather crops -- lettuces, carrots, cole plants, etc. right in the floor of the shed where I can cover them with a floating row cover each night. I am hoping to get a small wood stove before next winter. Right now it will freeze at night, but on a sunny day the temp can get well above 40 degrees when it is 0 degrees outside. So far it hasn't been cold enough to really test the building -- we just got it finished this fall and our winter has been unusually mild. About half the shed is storage for my garden stuff. DH insisted I move the garden tools into the garden shed -- drats!

The rest of the time you can find me playing with my 'tenders' in the sun room. That's where I over-winter all the tender (zone 7-9) plants that get dug up each fall although the chickens have been taking quite a bit of my winter time here in gardening zone 4-5.

 

[Spookwriter]

Craigslister over near Dayton Ohio has ten (10) sheets of
4x8 pexiglass...1/8 thick.

Maybe not the best ideal thing. But I won't say I'm not tempted
to go get me some. Just don't know how long it would last?

 

[bluesub]

Is 1/8 inch thick enough? It seems awfully thin to survive an Ohio winter. Could you support it some way?