Greenhouse

A greenhouse!! I've wanted one of these for a long time. Shortly after my birthday this year, Elliott gleefully informed me that one would be arriving by post very soon. He had ordered it off the Internet, and it came all the way from Washington State. It arrived prefabricated but unassembled, all very neatly packaged and labeled. We carefully unwrapped many dozens of pieces: wooden frames, plastic parts, several sizes of screws, bolts, washers, and other fasteners and hardware. Elliott laid all these out on the barn floor and we realized it was going to take hours, if not days, to construct the thing.

In a brief moment of madness, I offered to help build it with him. Mostly because I knew he'd try to do it himself, and having already caught him at the top of a ladder, dangling over 12 feet of empty space while installing a light fixture by himself last week, I figured it'd be better if I were there at least to lend moral support and try to break his fall if he teetered off the top rung. Little did I know that I would be learning how to use a band saw, a radial saw, a table saw, and two kinds of drills. At one point, mom came over to check on our progress and take Lusso for a walk. Instead, she helped us put up the back panel - which was 3/4" plywood - no small feat!!

My hands are so sore I can hardly type, but I suspect I'll just have the pleasant memory of building this little greenhouse each time I feel the aching in my joints. So no laundry, grocery shopping or house cleaning got done this weekend. But we did build a greenhouse! Let the pictures tell the story.