Brendan Had damage from Wilma so last year I "loosened "it up rather than tightened.lol Took everything off the roof except 4 inch vinyl lattice. Going to use vines for shade come summer. The first time I used Zebra finches ,second time orange cheek waxbills.. These didn't work at all for several reasons besides being killed by rats lol The runaway best has been Honeycreepers. No mess of seed eaters and since I water every third day liquid droppings are no problem. They are voracious insect eaters main problem with keeping them in cages.. One small problem they ate EVERY insect so had to supply pinhead crickets. Again no problem as I keep Anoles ,geckoes and two skinks. They ate all the lady bugs as well as the mantis which is why if I try it again thought I'd go up to those tropical GIANTS lol. It's kind of fun to try to get it balanced out but I fear impossible in susch a small area. Warning for those thinking of using Anoles.lol Given good conditions your pair will turn into hundreds lol. Besides what happens when you run out of bugs?? They will starve. I let them come and go as they choose as they are quite common here in florida so if they run out of food they just go outside. Now that the roof is open again I'm attracting wild birds. Which solves some problems creates others. lol Of couse this means I can't keep domestic birds I'm going to try the honeycreepers again not so much for the bug eating but because two clutches would pay for the entire remake of the shadehouse And also they are my favorite bird. Nothing more beautiful than a male in full color. Wilma almost wiped out my bird collection and was thinking of giving them up. except in the dedicated aviary. There are soooooo many problems with keeping birds and I'm getting old lol I added some California and button quail to the aviary as a method of weed control. Too soon for results but they are delightful to watch and they do clean up the floor. Rats and snakes are just minor problems in aviculture unfortuneately . If your thinking of using finches for bug control I could make some suggestions or at leat tell you which ones to avoid lol gary

Where will your exhaust fan be located. It needs to be opposite of the intake vent or louvre. Some opinions say not to have the roof vents open with the exhaust fan running. But I do both without a problem. Maybe because my exhaust fans are large enough to handle all the openings. By the time you add shade cloth you should be fine without adding anymore vents. Later in the summer if it is still too hot you could open the door or replace the panel in the door with screen.

updated my blog with new Rion Greenhouse Here is a link that might be useful: Gardening by the seat of my pants

Hi All, Thanks for your response. Cactusfreak - where did you purchase your pool cover? I have been planning on getting one of those eventually. When I bought the greenhouse I thought it was much more insulated and a lot of people (including the distributor), told me it would be more than warm enough with two oil radiators. It sounded like I would need more heat than that, but I thought it would work out. I think what I will do for this winter is insulate the greenhouse like crazy, get a good heating system and hope for the best. I'll have to look up Pittsburgh's weather records as well for the winter. If it doesn't work I'll just use it as a cold frame. I will be growing a bunch of orchids in the greenhouse and a handful of 'annuals' including Fushia, hibiscus, mandavilla and more. Some of the orchids are probably the most sensitive to the cold.