I have decided that I will make the 10x12 work for me; I will reinforce the heck out of it. I am going to be growing trees, I will need the height. ACK, I went by my Local HF Store today, "Just to Check", I should have my Money by Tuesday... They have the 6x8 in stock $399!, but have never had the 10x12 in stock, Granted when I gave the part number to a stock clerk, and told him that it is listed on Harborfreightusa.com, he said that it is a new item and should be stocking it soon... SOON, how soon, my 20% off coupon, expires on the 18th (Does that mean I can use it on the 18th, or that the last day I can use it, is the 17th) Sigh. I am only about 130 Miles from there Camarillo Warehouse, I wonder if I can do a will-call, and use my 20% off retail store coupon... Leme see, 260 miles round trip call it 9 gallons of gas, at 2.60 a gallon, call it $24 bucks for gas, and 3.5 hours of Driving, one hour for The hassle at will call. Oh, I can not forget the Stop at Canters Deli for lunch for me and my helper, so add another hour, and another $40. Oh wait, I cannot use my car (3 door Saturn, I do not think the big metal framed box will fit in it, so I have to take my wifes truck, Yeah my wife has the truck, what can I say, she is a Red Neck Woman, I think Gretchen wrote that song for her, but my wife is better looking.) Ok where was I, oh yeah Driving the Truck, well I can still average 75 MPH, but the mileage is gonna suck, so that would be $40 bucks in gas SO $40 for Gas, $40 for Lunch, and 4 and a half, ok call it 5 hours of my time... Hmm, well there are about 9 HF Stores, (other than my local store), that are 30-75 miles away, I guess I am gonna have to break down and do that old fashioned thing and let my fingers do the walking. I hope they have it for the same price as the Mail order site. Yeah, I found out on this site somewhere that the www.harborfreight.com site is for mail order/web order prices only, and the www.harborfreightusa.com sight is for retail stores, but it only shows stock items (Not what is in stock, but what they can stock), and they do not show the prices. So does anyone live out here in Southern California, and want a free meal at Canters, and Corned beef and cabbage (my wife makes a Wicked corned beef, she slow cooks it all day), oh yeah and lots of Guinness. (Most of the Guinness will be after it is built. I will be taking lots of Pictures, and using the extra reinforcing mentioned elsewhere on this site. I will also be sinking the Frame (But on wooden supports. I will be sealing the open edges of the Panels with 100 Mile an hour tape (Also know as aluminum tape I think), and then running thin weather-stripping along the inside edges of the panels. I will buy a couple packages of Extra Spring Clips from Charlies, and probably screw in the panels on the roof, since they will not be easy to remove for the summer months. I will probably add extra Triangle corner reinforcing, Guy wires with those funny twisty things and some nice big anchors into the ground. I have a 220 GFI for my Hot Tub near where I will be building it, but I probably should not tap into that for the greenhouse. I do have a couple of Blank spots in my fuse box (Why do they still call them fuse boxes... oh yeah I think they are called breaker boxes now), it was easy for the Guys to run the Power to the Hot Tub (About 15 minutes), but then thats what these guys do for a Living. I probably will not need power to the greenhouse, till Fall anyhow, I will be removing panels and using shade cloth for cooling in the summer. One corner of the greenhouse will be just past one of my Spare Sprinkler heads, so I can tap into that for water, and if I install timers inside the greenhouse, I can have different watering schedules for the watering and the Misting... I assume that is what I should do. One other thing I will be doing is running an extension from the clothes dryer vent to the greenhouse to have the clothes dryer exhaust into the greenhouse... Free Heat and moisture. (Most of our clothes washing happens late at night anyhow. I figure I will till up the ground where the greenhouse is going (Should make leveling it easier), and then I will be flooring it will all the shingles that blew off my roof over new years weekend. Ok, what I am I missing, ahh yes, orientation, if I remember correctly this greenhouse is 10 feet wide, and 12 feet deep. The greenhouse will be about 8 feet south of my garage (I already can see that gap is gonna become a place where you toss all the crap for the back yard, but it would make a good place to park my Garden Tractor). The winds here come out of the South, Southwest, I was thinking of Orienting the Greenhouse so that the door is facing west, I figure that would be better than south, and having the door on the east or north side would be awkward. Does this orientation sound ok? Or should I really put the door on the North side? Now a question for those who have built a 10x12,It is hard to tell from the Instructions, but it looks that the secondary brace for the vents is a separate piece of metal, so would it be possible for me to put all for vents on one side (In this case the North Side), of the roof? I do not think that having those vents facing south and opening up into a 40 MPH wind would be too healthy for the vents or the greenhouse (I am imagining a balloon being rapidly inflated), plus the wind blowing across the vents on the North Side would provide a Nice Low Pressure area, increasing the effectiveness of vents on that side. Am I missing anything (other than the greenhouse kit?) any suggestions, corrections, or Ideas. Sorry about writing books, hopefully most of you find it entertaining, rather than annoying

I have a HFGH 10-12, and put all four vents on one side, as I was concerned about wind tearing the vents out on one side. I have two Bayliss MK7's and the other two are the original manual ones. I have had the GH running for almost a year now, and never use the two manual ones. The MK7's open and close like clockwork daily. Other additions I have made are adding an exhaust fan (over door) and motorized shutter (on opposite wall), Aluminet shade cloth (50%), various fans running nonstop and a humidifier which I have coming on when the humidity gets too low for my plants' preferences. I am in southern cal., where it can be quite dry. Without the shadecloth everything inside would fry, even with all the other mods. You might consider alternatives to a second vent, but if you still think it's necessary, one option would be to install a round marine vent, which is passive. You would just install it in one of the poly panels. They are rain proof and you could install it somewhere other than in the roof, which might improve the interior draft. Not sure what you would do about it when you are winterizing, however, but I think some of them come with an option to close manually. Another idea is to modify a large panel by cutting it horizontally, line the cut edges with aluminum channel (or even aluminum tape)installing a piano hinge to re-join the cut edges, cut a bit off the bottom to compensate for the hinge, shave a hair off either side to clear the channels in the framework, and fashion a handle like the one which came with your gh. Doing this on a side panel would be better than another roof vent, since adding another roof vent just offers a partial airflow pattern. Unfortunately this would involve removing the caulking you applied. Lastly, assuming you want to make something out of the non-caulked panel (in the roof, presumably), you could still try to use a piano or other hinge, perhaps attaching it to the crown frame. If you would be using it daily, you would need to add some framework for stability. Ann

I ALWAYS play nice (well, at least MOST of the time!!!) Okay, pictures have been taken - but not DL'd to computer yet (I'm surfing @ poolside via WiFi... Oh the SACRIFICES I have to make! ;-) I think I've been inspired to post an addendum to my "Garden Page" (you can get there from my webpage, linked below). I haven't done it yet, but I'll try to post my GH erection efforts "Step-By-Step." They won't be as good as conifers'/Dax's pictorial, but I'll do my best (Gotta "Give Back to the Community," right?!!) I think the wood-cutting is still a "hair" off, but the 'errors' will be put on the back-side (next to a fence, where no one will ever walk / have an opportunity to bend the aluminum base). Or maybe I'll add some skinny/lath/shim kinda material for the Too hot to dig up veggies right now, so I'll postpone that 'til early evening (or early tomorrow morning). I'll probably move my "boring observations" to the webpage (When I start it!). I'll just make note, on here, when I post updates - so I won't bore everyone with my long-winded commentary!!! Of course, I'm *sure* I'll have more questions as I go through this - and I *will* post those questions here! And I just thought of another Q: Should I paint the RW base before I assemble it? If so, white (for reflective qualities)? Or black (for heat-sinking)??? Or should I just hold off on that altogether (bearing in mind that it'll be easier to paint BEFORE I assemble it)??? Any thoughts...??? Thanks - AGAIN - for all the support, insight and advice! And thanks - in advance - for enduring my upcoming questions!!! You guys ROCK!!! -Nancy Here is a link that might be useful: IMQTPI's Garden Page (I'll update it soon!!!)

Great pictures! Fortunately, the tree in our way died about a year before we put up our greenhouse (still had to cut it down, though!) We had a furry OSHA inspector too (all extra paws and hands were greatly appreciated.) I love my 10x12 HFGH, enjoying it for my third year. It's totally stuffed with plants, year round. "- We will add more clips to prevent the panels from flying off in the wind - a major concern." Sounds like you've read the archived threads here about the recurring problem of lost HFGH panels. In addition to extra clips (we did that too) it's pretty easy to add self-tapping screws to the panels, as even more protection against panel loss. The 10x12 is pretty tall and makes an even worse target for wind damage, but there are some scary threads archived here about wind-damaged 6x8 HFGHs as well. Here are some photos showing how we screwed the panels into the aluminum frame (thanks to previous GardenWeb forum members who suggested this improvement.) Part Six, Adding the Panels "- Depending on the temperatures, may add a blind on the western end to prevent sunburn and excessive late afternoon heat." I definately need shadecloth on the roof, west end, and south side (my succulents and cacti cook in there without it.) I also believe that adding shadecloth has helped to increase the lifespan of my HFGH panels in our sunny climate. (I used Aluminet shadecloth.) Some GardenWeb HFGH owners have reported problems with the HFGH panels deteriorating after exposure to sun, but others don't seem to have this problem. My panels have yellowed, but I see no other signs of deterioration (fingers crossed.) "In winter, may add water jugs as heat sinks in cooler weather." In theory it seems like this would help, but the general consensus seems to be that you'd need very large containers of water to retain enough heat to truly benefit you into the wee hours of a cold morning. Most small greenhouses can't afford to give up the high percentage of space required to make this work, but there's lots of good reading on this topic in this forum (posted by folks who are much smarter than I am.) "- Wish list: shelves, solar fan, temperature activated window control" Just a warning, the HFGH solar fan is not powerful enough to adequately cool your greenhouse (sounds good, but doesn't quite work.) If you do a search in this forum for HFGH solar fan, there's a thread with a knowledgeable poster sharing his calculations that a 6x8 HFGH would need three of the HFGH solar fans to exchange enough air to drop the temps (if my memory is right.) There are also some posts from folks saying the HFGH vent openers don't last long at all, and it's best to research and purchase other brands that have a better track record. Good job, congratulations, and happy greenhousing! Sheri