Andy's Orchids and Sunset Valley Orchids are both good choices, I have never been to Lico's but they are very nice people. The San Diego County Orchid Society meets the first Tuesday of every month at Balboa Park - sdorchids.com This orchid society has one of the largest memberships in the US and is very much worth your time if you are there during that time. A trip up to beautiful Santa Barbara is much better for a large orchid nursery experience but is a 4 hour drive one way. Santa Barbara Orchid Estate, Cal Orchid, Westerlay Orchids and Gallup & Stribling are all great destinations. The following is a website geared towards orchids in this area. I only recommend the growers I listed as the others are open by appointment and not worth your time. http://www.californiaorchidtrail.com/orchidgrowers.htm I lived in southern California for nearly 40 years until 2009 when I moved to New Hampshire. I even worked at Santa Barbara Orchid Estate for over a year. If you have any further questions I'd be happy to answer them. Matt Swift

I bought a 1700 sq ft from Stuppy. It is a very good setup and very strong. We don't have heavy snow loads, maybe 4 lbs per sq ft max. But that's still 1000s of pounds. Two feet of snow is about what 16 lbs per sq ft, ~16,000 lbs on your size. So it better be strong or shed really well. Mine has 12,000 lbs concrete on each side, ~5 yds/side. That's in case the wind hits 80 mph which is possible here. The plans called for piers 16 inch by 60 inch deep for each column. I couldn't dig a hole anywhere near that size so dug a trench and set the columns in a foundation about 15 inches by 20 inches deep with plenty of rebar. And I ordered extra strong concrete and poured it thick and dry for extra strength. It's a better foundation than many houses around here. On a windy day I don't regret a penny spent there. Any structure is only as good as it's foundation. Even built like mine the foundation was only about 5% of total cost, $1200 in 2005. I'd buy from someone like Stuppy that will engineer a structure to meet your climatic and growing requirements. That will get you a 50 year structure, maybe longer. Cheaper by the year than cutting corners. The northern starter package with 30 lb snow load rating would be a starting point. I think that's 30 lbs per sq ft. Here is a link that might be useful: northern starter package

A couple of things to consider before you set a price: 1. age and condition 2. are they "complete" greenhouses with heaters, shutters, fans, tables, etc 3. are you willing to take them apart 4. are you willing to sell them one at a time or all at once I sure would NOT sell them for 500-800 bucks; I think they'd be worth much more than that even if it is just the frames, assuming they're in good condition. The place we have bought that type of greenhouse before has a price listed of $2588 for a 28' x 100' [the largest they sell] which is just the frame kit and they are the cheapest place we've found. Here are a couple of links that have some prices although I did not look to see exactly what all they had: http://www.h2othouse.com/html/used_greenhouses.html http://www.greenhouse-bbs.com/bbs/clasequi.htm Here is where we buy: http://www.growerssolution.com/page/GS/PROD/Quonset/2FGF194 Good luck. I wish you were close and we needed more greenhouses! Regards, Tom

I put in a hoop house this Spring and am using it just for season extension. Some things that cost me more than I was expecting or had left completely off the list- Anchors for hoops, ended up using 3'U-posts that slid into each hoop nicely..but 36 of them was spendy. More anchors- with your continuous breeze you may need this too. Put 3' long ground anchors on all 4 corners with air craft cable attached to hoops. Survived all the bid wind storms this Spring. Ground leveling- luckily we have a farm and tractor but leveling a spot 30x96 by hand is probably not an option. End walls- use more lumber than you think Hinges, handles and fasteners for windows and doors in endwall. Seemed like endless $80 trips to Home Depot the whole time I was building. But, I have beautiful tomatoes about 3 weeks before any are available at market and 10' tall trellised cucumbers producing up a storm. Best of luck!