Sheri, WOW, what an awesome project. And the time and effort to document it the way you did will surely help many folks through a very difficult construction project. OH, so many, many, years ago when I was still in the USN, I had redwood and fiberglass house that was about 8X10 feet. I grew orchids in SC, KS, FL, and VA in that little thing. We lived in a mobile home, so the greenhouse got disassembled and put in the home for transport, and the orchids traveled in a rented U-Haul. A couple of things I learned the hard way (you learned some of them also, I see) was that you need more shade than you ever imagined. I suspended my shade cloth above the plastic greenhouse (about 4 inches) and found that the air space actually increased the shade effect, and noticeably decreased the heat load inside the house. Another thing that would be difficult for you to do since your studs are so shallow, and metal, would be to double insulate the house. Mine had 2X4" supports that were wood, so I stapled painters sheet plastic on the inside, trapping four inches of dead air in the walls. You can't purchase better insulation than that, and it gives you a way to mount your electrical boxes away from the direct spray from watering. Another approach to cooling was to use a "Swamp Cooler"....to you westerners, an evaporative cooler. Mount the cooler on the ground outside the house and let it blow the cool moist air into the house. Cool moist air stays low, and the hot dry air is forced out the top vents. the vent opening at the top can be used to regulate the cooling inside the house. Also, I found the positive pressure in the house helped keep bugs outside. I don't know if HF sells different size houses, but I always suggest purchasing the largest house you can afford. The more inside volume of air you have the more economical the house is to heat and cool. Once the air gets to temp, the more of it there is the longer it takes for it to change temp, which means more time off for the heat and cooling. These are a few of the things I learned in my school of hard knocks, and pass them along for information to anyone who is interested. Bill

Hello Everyone, Hi Bo...you could probably see flowers the first year...they thrive in the sun and love to be watered...You will definately by the second year... Hello Joe...Thanks for the nice comments on my palms..they do not move from there present location!! I wish I had a greenhouse too! They have been in the ground for over 16 years...I'm Keeping my fingers crossed during this hard cold blast from the north...When they were first planted and for the next several years, I put heat cables around the hearts of the palms and tucked them in with Burlap..I would plug them in when the temps hit below 25...I am still alittle nervous though...I think all of us plant lovers Palms, Furits, tropical etc...are very nervous at this time of year!! Mango Kush...I have thought about the cold hardy Bananas...but I haven't really checked them out yet...TYhey are really beautiful in the yard and I have also seen them planted in large pots that looked pretty good as well. My neighbors have bananas and one neighbor had some actual bananas gow on his tree...That was pretty cool for our area... Hello Mike...Stay warm Pug...Are you going to protect your mango trees? Please let us know how you are...I'm feeling for you all down south...it's bitterly cold here in VB..Brrrrrrrrrr Take care everyone, Laura in VB

LOL @ Linda Sew and Sew! While we were stationed in California I worked at a large jail facility for seven years. Those are the very "suicide resistant" toilet/sink combinations we had in the cells there. Nasty things. It's really sad that I momentarily considered putting one of these dual-duty plumbing fixtures in the tiny area I'm designating for the half bath. Thankfully good sense kicked in. I don't want to air family laundry, but I have a couple of distant family members that would have used similar fixtures at certain times in their past lives. What if they came for a visit and had a flash-back reaction to the plumbing? LOL

Hope you feel okay to join us on Sunday pcjs! If others are bringing spouses, I will "drag" mine along as well. He would be very happy to talk to someone else NOT about kitchens :). I am going to do a new post to try to get a bit more attention to see if we can get any more confirmations. I posted a new thread- Here is a link that might be useful: Help from Marylanders thread