Well first I will have to figure out how to post pictures on this site. I just bought a new digital camera so I will take some pictures of the construction. If I don't put them here I can post them on the same site where I have pictures of my Corvette show car. I know how to upload pictures to that site. I was going to order two of them and put them end to end like several have done with the 6x8 but I just ordered one if it is not big enough I can order another one. My wife is the one that is into flowers I just do the grunt work for her. Between building the greenhouse and getting my car ready for the shows in the spring is going to keep me busy. All the wife will do with this is grow flowers from seed. I built her a water garden and it has flowers all around the ponds and it is pretty in the summer. Last few years I spent about $1000.00 a year at the local nursery for annuals to plant in the water garden plus all the perennials. The greenhouse will save enough to pay for itself besides the wife loves to grow them.

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

Well... Ambient temps have been hitting triple-digits here this week (FINALLY! We've got minimal humidity [Plus a swimming pool] so *I* love it!). I've eliminated the self-opener on the roof vent and put 60% shade-cloth on the entire roof; entire south-side; and 3/4 of the front (East, blasting-morning-sunshine) side of the GH. I've also drilled a series of (so far, 6) 3" round vent-holes (covers are appx $2-3 @ from Home Depot) along the bottom back-side of the GH. I drilled the wooden base with a hole-saw and I'm keeping the "plugs" so I can remove the vents and replace 'em with the plugs in wintertime. I was hoping to generate some cross-ventilation: Cool bottom backside air sucking in, and blowing out the hot front-side top. Nice theory but... After doing all of that, the GH *still* seems to want to stay 20* above ambient (today it was 122* in there! Ouch!!!). So I definitely agree with CR's assessment that 251 CFM is insufficient! To be honest, when I had no "lower, passive vents" and was relying solely on the roof vents, fan, and open door (and Bugs Galore!) - I got the same result (+20*). Adding a second solar fan is not an option. The panels only put out about 1.5 amps (max), and the fan seems to draw 1.2 amps. I don't have room for more panels (and I'm hesitant to cut holes in any panels, anyway). I'm still 'tweaking around' with it at this point. And this *probably* isn't the best time of year for this kind of "experimentation." I really don't plan to use the GH in summer ayway, but I still want to get a sense for "When I do this, That happens..." I'm sure any knowledge gleaned will come in handy for when I *do* have plants in it. My big challenge will be the "Tween" Seasons. Late Fall and Spring. Too cold at night to leave the plants out, but still sunny + warm (hot?) during the day (I'd hate to roast 'em! But I'm also too lazy to be dragging plants in-and-out every day!!!). It's definitely still a Work-In-Progress! And I'll keep you guys apprised of my progress (or lack thereof! ;-) Oh, Good News: My Freeservers Site is fixed, so the GH/Solar Fan Page has been moved back to where it belongs (new link below, and I'm still updating it) Thanks - AGAIN - for all the feedback! -Nancy Here is a link that might be useful: 2007 Greenhouse Solar Fan

Good for you, that's what I paid for mine last fall as well! (Then I had to let it "age" in the box for a while.) Our is up now and still in progress...hopefully ready for my plants in late October. It's a shame the manual is so awful, but I still think the quality of the kit is very good for the price. Zuba, you might check the contents of your kit against the parts list, just to be sure it's all there. Ours was complete, but there have been a few posts here from people who were missing parts, and if you discovered it early, you might be able to just swap kits at your local HF store. When you take the panels out, be sure to leave them out of the hot sun so the plastic covering doesn't fuse to the polycarbonate. Funnylady, three greenhouses is an inspiration! My mother looked at our HF 10x12 and said, "well, if you fill this one up, I think you'd just better stop buying plants." I wish she could see your set up! ;-) Sheri Building our Harbor Freight 10x12