When I started to build it, I committed to the framing, post spacing, roof truss design, but I wasn't quite sure what I was going to use as windows/walls. The roof is a combination of clear panels and corrugated tin over the porch. The clear panels are Tuftex panels from Lowes. They are well reviewed and were very easy to work with. A fine tooth blade in my circular saw made quick work of any trimming I needed to do. The porch roof is just the tin Lowes also sells. The biggest challenge with the roof was not any fault of the products but a side effect of my design. My roof has 6 vents, 3 on either side of the ridge. They are opened and closed in a sequence so that the roof plastic that is attached to them overlaps in a manner to prevent leaking when up or down. Getting the vents mounted and the plastic cut and attached to them so that when they are closed they line up with the rest of the roof panels was tedious.
With the sides, I had 4 feet to work with between my posts, and I started building before I really had that part figured out. I started looking for old windows, but didn't want a hodgepodge of different windows. As luck would have it, my wife asked our neighbor to keep an eye out for us and 15 minutes later, we got a call from her. She found the windows you see in the pictures 20 minutes from me and they wanted $150.00 for all 8. Fully functioning, with screens! They fit well within my 4 foot post spacing and all I needed to do was frame up the bottoms and sides of them with some dimensional lumber and some wood siding panels cut to fit.
On the back side gable end, I used more Tuftex to sheet from the header up and on the front, I got so lucky with my louvered windows and the place was really looking nice, I did breakdown and buy two conventional windows and a storm door from a construction surplus place near me for the front to keep the place looking classy. After all, I was planning to sit on that porch and enjoy a beer or two once it was all finished, I didn't want to half-*** the focal point of all my work! Again, the rest of the front gable end is covered in more Tuftex.
Having the front porch, it just made sense to run the porch decking all the way into the greenhouse itself. There are cheaper options, but this suited me and checked my form/function boxes.
I think coming up with the roof vents and a simple way to positively lock them in their open and closed positions was the biggest challenge of the whole project and required me to sit quietly on the ladder and stare at the vents until it came to me and it took a couple of versions of my solution to get it right. It was well worth it however, it gets hot in there! Thanks for everyone's interest, I'll add some Pics to this...
