Hi steve333, good question. I always said I'd never buy HF panels again, but when I was faced with the purchase, I caved! It was a combination of price, and convenience. At the time, I priced 4mm twinwall polycarbonate at a number of greenhouse supply companies. The best price at the time was through FarmTek (cheaper than Charlie's or any other source I tried.) Their product had a ten year warranty, and was truly UV-protected. However, the cost to purchase enough material (just for the roof) with crating and shipping fees to my address, was $410. The cost to order more Harbor Freight roof panels, with shipping, was $135. That difference was enough to give me pause. Hmmmm. Note, it's possible folks living closer to urban areas with more businesses would have found better deals on shipping, but down here in southern NM, the only things close to us are lizards and cactus. Also, the HF panels arrive sized to fit; if you buy better polycarbonate from a greenhouse supply company, you'll have to cut the material to size yourself for each part. Not difficult, but it does take time, so I factored the convenience in as well. Also, occasionally I consider upgrading to a larger home-built greenhouse, so kicking the can down the road doesn't bother me as much as it would if I was positive I wanted to keep this small greenhouse another ten years. I think an argument could be made for both sides. If rtyu's and my experimentation with the Top Secrets clear epoxy product pans out, though, it will definitely tip the scales towards using the (clearly lower quality) HF panels and protecting them with the coating, especially if folks can apply it to their new greenhouses, and avoid the need for panel replacements. Fingers crossed. I think much of the appeal of the Harbor Freight greenhouses is cost/value. They appeal to folks who want to try greenhousing but don't want to make a major investment. I haven't tallied it up exactly for a while, but scrounging supplies, materials, and labor, I figure we have around $2500 in ours total, including kit, benches, sink, plumbing, electric, heaters, thermostats, shadecloth, pavers, and the new roof panels. Over six years that's roughly $400 a year (not including heating costs, which aren't too bad in my climate.) So I think many folks who are attracted to the HF structures also enjoy keeping costs low. It's just one option in the world of greenhouses, and not the right fit for everyone. Happy New Year!

How tall do you want it to be? I can picture an Enkianthus shrub (not evergreen) but kinda narrow and upright for the spot. Have no idea of toxicity. You would have to research. I have 'Showy Lanterns' which has pretty pink bell flower clusters in spring. You could also try to grow a clematis with it with the shrub acting as a trellis. If you go that route, you have to pair the right clematis with the right shrub carefully for the combo to work. So check on the clematis forum for more info on that. There should be just enough sun for blooms. You could even add the false plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) as a groundcover to the grouping if there's enough room. Over time it all may get crowded but that's what editing is for. Mine's in full sun. Not sure how it would do in that much shade.

Sorry, it’s been a long day. A lot of people here today, the designer and a team from the contractor and my head is spinning. As it turns out, you were all right. The designer arrived with 10ft of floor space instead of 7ft, needed by the staircase, which I was pretty frustrated about. Rebunky, I forgot to ask about the fire code but there’s no concern there, because the stairway and entry will be completely walled off from the garage. I don’t want an open stairway in the garage to the apartment. The garage will have an opener with a remote, so there should be no problem walking into the garage to access their storage. At this point, Sena, I’m feeling a little lack of trust in the figures and I’m going to have to have him confirm every measurement I’m using. I haven’t sat down to think about the layout again today. We had a lot to go over today and that was just one of many. As soon as I can, I’ll look it over again and see what I am willing to do to accommodate that. I am not going to go for part of the stairway on a second wall. I’d still like to see if I could keep the stairway in the middle and out of the bedroom and living room. Which would probably mean starting the stairway back on the North wall all the way in the corner, but I need a 5ft landing on the garage level, then 10ft of stairway and a landing at the top. So if I add 4ft so a total of 33ft in length, maybe that would get the stairway in the middle? That’s it for me tonight. Thanks for checking in with me.

So I know diagrams that show something like an overhang blocking all the sun's light are useful and help a lot of people. However, they aren't really correct and that might be confusing to some. We can easily calculate the size the overhang needs to be for any set of windows to completely shade them at any time by measuring from the bottom of the eave to the bottom of the window and using the sun's zenith (or cos of zenith which is easier to find). So in Indianapolis the Zenith is 20° south on the summer solstice. Assume a one story house with window bottoms 80" from the bottom of the eave and you will need an eave that is 29" deep to completely block the sun. That all sounds fine and good but the sun is only at the summer solstice one time a year. At the Vernal and Autumnal equinox the zenith is almost 41° south in Indianapolis. So the same house will need eaves 68" to catch all the heating times. Realistically you would need eaves capable of full shade at the summer cross quarter days, which means eaves of 48". Large but doable, I guess. But what happens when you put a second story on your house? No worries your eave only needs to get to 10' to provide shading for Indianapolis (and 12' for Seattle). ---------- There is truth to the diagram, because even partial shading windows lowers insolation, however the reality is without any overhang whatsoever southern facing windows will still have much lower insolation in the summer than either east or west facing windows. Don't give up south facing windows just because your overhangs aren't going to shade your windows completely. ETA: I do hope everyone is capable of recognizing satire. I was pointing out the problem with overly simple graphics. No one is suggesting a 10' overhang is acceptable, I am just pointing out the absurdity of a drawing that has the sun too low and the overhang too wide, used to demonstrate the key to orientation is an overhang.