HFGH
"Harbor Freight Greenhouse"
3 Ladies (all breast cancer survivors) and a Guy attempt to put together a HFGH in less than a day,
but thanks to the "Lost in Translation" directions, it was not to happen.
| "In the Beginning" April 6th 2007 and can you believe 60 degrees in the middle of New York State. |
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Eileen,
you hold this stud up and I'll attach it using a long bolt. I know it's
the wrong size but I'm going to use it anyway. Just don't let Joe see
me using it. You know how moody he gets. |
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Judy, you come over
and help Eileen hold up this stud. It looks like it's a bubble off. |
Okay, the sun is
going to be setting in a couple of hours, so we should really get this
stud attached. |
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Look at all the other pieces that
we have use. Man! We're going to be here forever. |
Hey you guys. From up here I can
see that there are a lot of mistakes. |
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See Mary, I told you that we have to attach the left one to the right one and that goes under the top one on the bottom one over there on the back side. What do you think Judy? Hmmmmmmmm.
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Mary, I think that
the arrows have to point in. Just listen to Joe. He's knows everything
and he's never wrong except that one time, but then he realized that
he was mistaken. |
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OHHH, this stool is realy high and
I'm getting dizzy. |
See you guys, Joe said that the arrows
point in. Now we'll have to take it all apart. |
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Hurry up! We have got to change it
before Joe sees that we made another mistake. |
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Come on guys, if we all crowd around
this mistake, he'll never know. |
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| Joe begins
to work on it alone. |
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With all the help gone, Joe uses his "handy man" to help him put the roof together.
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After drilling new holes in the
corner studs, Joe was able to put the roof bracket in the right place.
Now he could attach the gable ends and tack on the roof that he propped
up on Mary's really tall ladder. It sure would have been nice if we
knew about the HFGH forum before we started all of this. |
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Joe could not do it all alone. So
with the help of Eileen standing on Mary's really tall step ladder,
she balanced the roof on her head, and Joe was able to attach it to
the gable ends. |
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After the roof was on, Joe had to take out all the long bolts that were used by someone who will remain annonymous and use them on the roof braces. That only took an extra 1/2 hour. By the way, there is a rumor that that person's initials are EU or was it MW or even JS. It could not have been Joe because he's never wrong.
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| Panels are in and it's time to do the inside work. Week of April 11th, 2007, cool and raining. |
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A view of the back Right corner ready
for shelving. The notch in the brace had to be cut twice as wide to
take the closet shelving that was used. |
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Left side ready for shelves, but
I needed to make the notches wider. |
Shelf supports are in, but the way
they are in will be changed. |
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Here is how I rigged up a short shelf
mounted to back wall studs. |
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Cutting the closet shelves to fit. |
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Back wall framing for the shelves.
Notice the right wall shelf. The right angle support is shown facing
out. I changed that and that is why the notch had to be made twice as
wide in the center of the supports. It works much better and gives better
support where the weight is. |
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| Time to build the "Potting Bench". April 15th, 2007, rain, sleet and snow and I'm building the potting bench with a 20" walk area all around. |
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4x4's for legs, 2x4's for braces
and 5/4 decking for shelves and soil compartment. |
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Well, what do you know? It holds
dirt! |
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Completed potting bench with potting
soil ready to go. |
| Getting ready for the STORM.. The HFGH is assembled and ready for plants. One more item on today's list was to get ready for the storm of the century, April 15th 2007. I put two ropes over the top and tied them off to the 4 x 4 base. Hope this helps to keep it together during the forcasted strong winds and heavy snow. April 16th, 2007 and this is what I woke up to. So far it's holding together. More snow is predicted with strong winds for today and this evening. |
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The HFGH survived it's first trial of snow and wind. Not too shabby. NOTE: I would recommend to anyone who is thinking of buying a HFGH or has one and is ready to assemble it, to go to the iVillage Garden web site and look at Greenhouses and Garden Structures and also the HFGH (Harbor Freight Green House) Forum . There is a wealth of information there that I wish that I was aware of before I started this project. One thing that I ask is that you don't let some of the negative comments dissuade you from your purchase or the assembly of this kit. It is a great kit for the price and I feel that you get more than your mony's worth. I may be wrong, but then "I'm never wrong". |
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The new old looking "Irish Potting Shed that I built for the "LL" (that's HFGH lingo for "Little Lady") in 2006. The shed on April 16th, 2007 with it's fresh covering of snow. |
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Click "Irish Potting Shed" for more views of it during construction.
Keep this page bookmarked. I know that there will be a lot more pictures.