Day 4: Finishing Touches

Friday, October 27 was the last day of installation. They'd have gotten it done in a marathon three days but for two panes of glass that were the wrong size. Those had to be shipped by air from South Carolina so they could be installed. The two panes arrived at 11:30 AM via UPS (Yay UPS!)  and work resumed. The team told me that this happens in roughly 3/4 of the jobs they do, so they have to remain flexile and ready to stay another day or two no matter how well things go. Bob said the moment he took those two odd panes out of the box he knew they were the wrong size. Ut-oh. 

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And it was Bob who got to climb up on the roof to install them, in a soaking drizzle that made the panes extremely slippery. He used suction cups as footholds so he wouldn't slip off the roof. It was a bit dizzying to watch, especially from below. Heart in throat! 

This was another  "So you thought you could find a local installer?" moment.

   

Thanks to Chip Ditchendorf, I have a fabulous electrician to wire up the louver motor and install another outlet, and help me string fancy mood lighting.

I'd also have to get the gas line run and a heater installed. My work was just beginning! And that would be a whole story in itself.

But for now it was time for the McCollister brothers to take a victory lap and for Tim, their social media chief, to take some photos for their YouTube channel. The whole time, Tim had a GoPro set up to record the installation on timelapse. I was THRILLED when I saw that camera, and Tim will share a link when it's all edited and up on their channel. Then I'll publish it on the blog. What FUN to see it go up at warp speed!

I needed a shot of this awesome crew with their hardworking and hard-begging Snoopervisor.

From left, Tim, Curtis, Brian and Bob McCollister.

Curtis and I were sad to see them leave, but also thrilled and relieved that the installation had gone so smoothly. 

At last, I could go inside and not be in the way. It was mine now.

Thursday night, before the last two panes were installed, I finally entered the structure from my bedroom for the first time. I love the absolute wonder in my voice as it sinks in on me that I've added another space onto the house--something I had never understood viscerally until this moment.

  

Friday afternoon, when it was finally roofed and I was alone, I made a table with one of the wrong-sized panels and did some writing.

I sent the photo to Bob and got this sweet text back.

Before they left, I asked Tim to take some photos of me with the finished structure, since Liam, my resident personal photographer and videographer, has moved to Columbus, and attempts to teach Curtis to take photos have failed.

                               How good of the Japanese maple to be in full blazing color for this shoot! 

The greenhouse itself was finished,  and all it needed now was wiring for the louver motor (not time sensitive) and, um, HEAT (highly time sensitive). That would be a race against a coming deluge and cold front, to get a heater installed in time to get some plants inside. I was thrilled and relieved the structure was up and so beautiful. But my work was not yet done, and there were curveballs yet to come. One big fat curveball, and I'm still dealing with it, pulling in knowledgeable friends right, left and center.

End of Day Three: Glam Shots

I started my day with a Curtis walk around the property, as we always do, rain or shine. The blackberries are just--chef's kiss, so fabulous. All I want to do is paint little birds in blackberry foliage in October. But I don't, because there's this thing going on at my house right now. I cannot tell you how all-consuming it is to have this going on around me. It keeps me here and dealing with all the change.

I have considerable fear of missing out on the fall foliage display here in my favorite places in Ohio--I yearn to drive through Amish country right now! But my bonsais do their best to placate me. This one is on fire in three colors. Wow, what a beauty!

By the end of the third day, the doors went on. Oh are they wonderful. They're full-size professional looking doors, self-closing with hydraulics. You could get a garden cart through them. I'm already wishing they had a screen option on the top half. I'm worried that if I leave them propped open to ventilate in spring and summer, the squirrels and rabbits will just walk in and destroy my plants, as they did in the Groanhouse. What a shock to walk into your greenhouse and find your geraniums and hibiscus in rubble on the floor. I'm going to have to figure out something for that--maybe a sturdy screened insert for one. No idea how to pull it off, but I'll be thinking about what I can do.

Yes, I intend to grow in here year round, if I can, and if it doesn't get too hot. 

To that end, there are three panes at the apex of the ceiling that are connected to an electric motor.

That motor will hook up to a thermostat, and it will automatically raise the three louvers about 6" when the heat builds to a certain temperature. I'm sure that, coupled with the fan in the rafters, that will cool it down quickly. 

I've found an electrician who will come and wire this in for me, and put another outlet or two in for the inevitable twinkle lights, laptops, sound system...whatever. I'm in total womancave space here. He just left after assessing the project and it sounds like he can suspend the light cords from magnetic anchors (because there is absolutely nothing that can be attached to on this frame). Then he can wire my little lights so I can flip a switch and turn them on! 

Below is the suspended fan, and a nice interior shot. There are crank out windows on either side, but they only open about 6". Wish they cranked all the way out! Maybe I won't have to worry too much about it getting too hot in here. The solarium is on the west side of the house, and it is shielded from direct sun by the tower above until pretty late in the afternoon (say 2:00 on). There are also birch clumps to shade it. I knew if I put a greenhouse on the east or south side, it would cook everything, louvers or no, because that's unobstructed full blasting sun from dawn until 1 or 2 pm. So the west side was the obvious choice. The things I grow don't need that much sun!

I got to see what Curtis was up to on lunch break...begging shamelessly, and scoring, too. That dog. 

 

The McCollisters discovered that two of the louver panes were the wrong size, so they were becalmed until two that were the right size could be airlifted from Florian Glass in South Carolina. They got a chance to clean up the yard and haul all the trash into the garage (burnables) or out to the road for pickup. 

While they did that, I cooked a meal of gratitude: homemade chicken pot pie and a custard pie with graham cracker crust, topped with persimmons I'd foraged on Tuesday from my favorite trees in Marietta. I picked up 10 lb. which worked out to 5 1/2 lb of pulp.  If I say so myself, it was delicious. Even if persimmons were a hard sell for this particular crowd. From the moment I met this crew, I knew I wanted to make them a nice meal. So that kept me busy all afternoon, and out of their hair. 

Then it was time for some victory laps!

and a glamour shot! So good of that Japanese maple to be deep maroon right now! Isn't she a beauty?

Now all I had to do was find an electrician for the louver motor, and a gas technician to hook up a space heater. Chip Ditchendorf rescued me on the electrician, but it took seven calls to find someone to help with the gas hookup. Lord have mercy. Gotta say I'm weary of fighting my way upstream here, but these are the times. Anyone who does house repair/installation/renovation work is booked up to their eyeballs. 

I finally called my friend Walter Dean, who also helps me mow and burn, and he came through, bigtime!

However the gas hookup was not to be a smooth ride, as you will see in subsequent posts.

Mr. Murphy and his Law are my constant companions. 

So it was out to the meadow we went, to gaze at the colors and breathe and try to calm down and know that all would happen in its time.

And the house was lit afire by the setting sun, in a field of burning sumac. 

 

The Glass Goes In! Day Three

We're on Day Three, Thursday, October 26. The frame was up and ready for glass by nightfall of the second day. On Day Three, almost all of the glass would go in. 

 They had a regular workshop set up, with sawhorses where they'd prepare each pane for insertion, and ladders to reach the ceiling of the emerging greenhouse. It was fun to watch them flow through the work.

             

    

Everything gets pinned on Brian, the eldest. Here, he's applying a suction cup, while Bob hammers in the spacers (?) to hold each pane in place. I couldn't help but think how much better this will be than holding the panes in place with Gorilla Tape, my best friend in the plastic deli-box Groanhouse decade.

           

The afternoon of the 26th, the glass started going in. 

The low panes are easier. Putting them in over one's head is a whole 'nother thing. 

The way to pick up, carry and especially insert a 30 pound pane of glass is to use a suction cup, since you can't very well hold a 30-pound pane by the edges and set it into place in the frame without smashing your fingers.

      

Doing all this over one's head while balancing on a ladder? Nooo thank you. I'll watch instead. 

As I watched the McCollisters work, and looked at the absolute battery of special tools they used, it sank in on me that trying to hire someone who had never assembled a greenhouse or solarium, as I had, was total madness.  The extended ghosting I got from the local glass guy, ending in a big nothing, is why my greenhouse is being constructed at Halloween.

I was encouraged to find a local glass specialist. What did I know? So I tried. And tried. If I'd only engaged American Glass and Metalworks from the very start, I wouldn't still be waiting to use my greenhouse on October 28. So please, learn from my mistakes. When told you can find your own installer, say, "Who do you work with, and whom do you recommend?" Then engage the installer who works closely with the glass company/greenhouse supplier of your choice. It may seem expensive to bring a crew who live in the Carolinas and Georgia, but trust me on this: Unless you're experienced in it, you can't do it yourself, and engaging someone who comes in with a lower estimate but doesn't know what they're doing is false economy. These guys assembled the frame in two days and had all the glass in the third day.

 Helping anyone who wants to have their own greenhouse built is a big part of why I'm blogging this process--to save you some of the trouble I've run into. As Bob said, "This is not a kit. There are no instructions." And no tools included.

There's no substitute for the peace of mind of knowing your project is in the right hands.

      

Coming back from my evening walk I marveled at all they'd accomplished. 

I gazed out at the meadow for awhile, feeling exhausted, overstimulated, awestruck, and lucky.

 It's hard to put into words the mix of emotions I had on finally seeing my dream take shape. I'd been away for a full week in coastal North Carolina, doing field trips and giving a talk at the 25th Annual Wings Over Water Festival. I was so out of practice traveling, my suitcase weighed in at 49 pounds. Embarrassing!  I flew back Monday, getting home in the evening of the 24th.  Tuesday morning the 25th, bright and early, the crew arrived and sprang into action. There'd been no time to unpack or rest--I just had to fling myself at the job at hand. There's what you wish for (downtime to rest and recharge) and then there's what happens, and you've got to take everything just as it comes. 

That's been the big lesson in this whole endeavor. So much of what happened along the way was out of my hands. But now, with 20/20 hindsight, I could see the wrong turns I'd taken; the blind alleys I'd traveled. To have things suddenly go right was almost more than I could process. The right people had finally come to me--AJ Johns, Lane and Stone; Chip Ditchendorf; Jeff and Chris Cline, and the McCollisters. It just took awhile. Nine months, like making a great big stone, glass and aluminum baby where there had been nothing before.

                

In the rare moment of quiet, I waited for the great horned owls to start calling, as they have every evening this week. It seemed fitting that I had to listen for them over the snarl of a nearby chainsaw. Everything's going to be all right, their soft hoots reassured me. You may not have done everything right, but you've done everything you could. Soon. Soon.

The Glass Men are Here!

Here's the last photo I took of my walled patio, as I had come to think of it, on the morning of October 24, 2023.  Curtis and I were setting out on our morning hike, and we were waiting for a 9 AM meetup with the glass crew. Along about 8:55, Curtis took off running toward the house, leaving me out at the end of the orchard. I heard laughter from the yard and knew he'd found his mark. Sic 'em, Curt! 

From left: Brian, Tim and Bob McCollister from American Glass and Metalworks.  It's three brothers...omg they crack me up. Right away, I had to figure out the difference between Tim and Bob. Tim has a wavy beard and Bob's is straight. Both their beards are breathtaking. I say that as someone for whom it has taken about eight years to get used to great big beards. I'll never forget walking into a bar in Marietta when the trend was first starting and seeing all these young guys with beards from the Civil War standing around with beers. And beards. I actually asked what the heck was going on. Now I kinda dig it. 

I asked  Brian why he doesn't have a bee beard and Tim said it's because he doesn't have the hormones for it. Snort laugh! Tim is particularly terrible. But later Brian told me Tim got worms from his hogs (I said ringworm isn't a worm) and they were even. Brian is the eldest, Tim is the youngest, and Bob (in neon green) is the middle sibling, cracking the whip!

I would hang around all day just to listen to them give each other grief but don't want to be in the way.

If you look closely in the picture above you'll see Curtis is panting, because has just finished an enormous zoom through the backyard in his extreme joy at having a crew to snoopervise for the next few days. It was so funny and fast I couldn't get it on video.

The McCollisters live down south, Savannah and Georgia, and they convene for road trips to install greenhouses. They stay in a hotel for the duration of each job, which will run about four days here on Indigo Hill.

The first day was a lot of nitty gritty measuring and making sure everything was going to work. Which it will. In this photo, note that they've cut off siding and applied boards to which they can anchor the greenhouse frame, up there under the slot windows. It's really happening! 

It was very exciting seeing the struts leaning against my liberated bonsai!

There's a cap of metal flashing atop the wall, which will integrate it with the bronze frame. I had a choice of white or bronze. Knowing how algae loves to grow inside greenhouses, I opted for the darker color. I would have liked white, but the inside of the Groanhouse was absolutely green with algae after ten years, and I don't want to look at that. I'll figure out how to wash it down over time. I can run a hose in there and have at it.

A significant wrinkle in Oct. 24th's progress was the annual explosion of Asian multicolored lady beetles, the dreaded, detested ladybugs that get in everything. They were flooding into the house by every crack and crevice, and poor Brian, who was putting facing on the high siding, was bundled up in a hoodie on this warm afternoon, just trying to keep them out of his clothes. They were so bad even Curtis couldn't stand to be outdoors, but the crew kept working through this fresh hell.

Photos can't begin to show the horror of a house seething with ladybugs, which head right for one's face and neck, crawling down your shirt and up your pants legs. Then they work their way into every door and window opening so they can spend the winter biting your neck and the back of your arms, getting into the butter and the sautée pan, filling the vacuum tank so it always smells like ladybug BO when you vacuum. That kind of thing.

Curtis made sure everything was ship shape on the site.

 

Later, the ladybugs go so bad he asked to come inside. He went downstairs to continue snoopervising 

from bed! 

At sundown, the McCollisters and I went up to the towertop to see the colors. It was a nice break from the beetle assault. They would be here until dark, and they'd show up shortly after daybreak the 25th, to erect the metal frame for the glass. I didn't sleep too well that night, for the excitement of it all. The blazing fall foliage would be excitement enough, but having a greenhouse suddenly appear after nine months of gestation was a bit much for my nervous system!