Greenhouse Building Progress Update For April

I feel like nothing has gotten done on the greenhouse yet we’ve regularly worked on it throughout April. Have you ever had that feeling? Maybe it’s just that we’re in that “the middle is hard” part of the project or maybe it’s because we’re doing painstakingly boring tasks (Hellooooo window glazing! Who’s idea to use old windows was it again?! Oh yeah….it’s me…hi.)

Today I bring you the latest current project update on our DIY greenhouse. Here she stands.

DIY greenhouse progress for the month of April featuring DIY shiplap siding, window sash repairs, and more

Yup. She doesn’t look much better but she is getting more solid every day. I also need to remember to give myself a little bit of grace because this was three weeks ago:

An in progress greenhouse building project covered in a snow during a big spring snow storm

The Windows Have Found Their Permanent Resting Place

I’m not sure we ever mentioned this, but in March we “finalized” the window arrangement once again.

I think this was the third time we rearranged the windows. Maybe fourth. Don’t ask Colby, it’s a sore subject. But in my defense, he temporarily secured the windows to the frame so we could easily make changes. You can’t blame me for taking advantage!

This time is the final time, I swear. I wanted all the windows lined up along the bottom. There were a couple that needed just a little bit of adjusting.

Now that the windows are in their final locations, Colby has added blocking to the bottoms and between panes to fill the gaps.

Greenhouse window blocking and leveling the window sash

Added An Angled Window Sill

The next major advancement to the DIY greenhouse building progress was adding an angled window sill around the entirety of the greenhouse.

Angled is important since it will direct water away from the windows and extend the life of our windows. Hashtag rot-free for you and me.

Building the window sill was pretty straightforward using wood from our stash of rough-cut lumber that we had. Tutorial forthcoming.

DIY greenhouse window sill angled away from the window sash to direct water away from the windows

Insert Snow Intermission Here

And then it snowed more than two feet at the end of March. It melted and we thought we finally made it to spring. Then we realized it was spring of deception and it snowed another two feet at the beginning of April.

Fingers crossed we make it to May with NO MORE SNOW. Mother Nature, can you hear me?! I beg of you, no more snow!

An in progress greenhouse building project covered in a snow during a big spring snow storm

Replacing Broken Window Panes

Next up on the task list was to replace the broken window panes. We had quite a few panes that broke in the building progress, during all the years we stored the sash, or have been broken all along.

Broken window sash in a greenhouse in need of repair before painting the entire greenhouse structure

Replacing broken window panes isn’t a hard process or even an expensive process. What it is…a time-consuming process. Especially if you’re like us and you like to do one sash at a time, take it down, lay it on a work surface, and reglaze the whole window while you’re at it.

In the span of a Saturday, we replaced the five broken window panes we had originally identified. And I kid you not, as soon as we fixed those panes, we found three more that we missed. It’s like the Law of Attraction’s lesser-known, third cousin twice removed, the Law of Finding More Things To Fix Once You Fix the Initial Thing. Have you met them before as well?!

Alas, another glass order to the hardware store has been placed and we should be able to pick those up any day now.

Replacing broken window panes and reglazing the windows for the greenhouse

Glazing Windows

One thing we hadn’t intended to do but have found ourselves doing is reglazing pretty much every single window pane and sash. It’s funny how that slippery slope works! And honestly, we should have seen it coming.

But once a few windows were reglazed, we realized just how bad the glazing on the other windows was. It didn’t take much effort to chip off the glazing, replace the glazing beads (some panes didn’t even have any!), and reglaze.

Glazing windows for the greenhouse and adding new glazing beads to secure the glass to the wood frames

This process is taking us a while as we only do one or two windows at a time. We take the windows down, chip out the old, reglaze, let the glazing dry, adjust as necessary, and rehang.

We originally thought we could paint all the windows which would be good enough for now. But with how much love and work is going into this project, it just made sense to do it right from the start and not need to reglaze windows a year or two when the greenhouse is fully operational.

So far we’re 9 windows done and only 8,289 more to go…I mean…quite a few left.

Removing the window sash one at time to make repairs and reglaze the glass

Making And Installing Shiplap Siding

When we originally talked about building the greenhouse WAY back in the day, drawing up our original design plans, we thought we were going to do vertical siding below the windows.

PLOT TWIST! After seeing the first couple of boards go up, I changed my mind and asked Colby if we could switch to horizontal shiplap.

The kicker is that we already had all of this rough-cut lumber, scored for a killer deal, we were planning to use. So I pondered, could we turn rough cut boards into shiplap siding? The search engines provided and I found a few videos covering how to make shiplap. Although, it wasn’t with rough-cut wood.

We’ve been experimenting with a router versus dado blades on the table saw. The table saw appears to be winning but we didn’t have the right safety guard to comfortably make more progress. And by comfortably I mean safely. Like not cut a hand off. Here’s a shiplap progress shot with the boards Colby used the router on.

Making our own DIY exterior shiplap siding for our greenhouse, cut from rough-cut lumber from a local saw mill

The table saw guard is on order so hopefully by the end of the weekend, all the shiplap will be up. Huzzah for progress!

Greenhouse Building Next Steps:

We’re getting freakishly close to painting this bad boy and it’s just about warm enough to paint. This has lit a fire under my butt to finish glazing windows. The next steps:

  • Finish glazing windows
  • Order polycarbonate for the gable ends
  • Fully secure and trim all the windows
  • Finish making shiplap
  • Install shiplap siding
  • Install polycarbonate on gable ends
  • Paint the greenhouse
  • Build and install Dutch door
  • Stain and poly door

Pssst…To catch up on all the greenhouse building progress so far, check it all out on our current projects page.

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2 Comments

  1. The greenhouse looks A-mazing and don’t worry, it WILL get done. You guys are doing an awesome job and I’m sure you will love having it once it’s all done for all the plants! Can’t wait to see it painted! By the way, is it going to be white like your house?

    1. Thank you for the pick me up. I’m in an I-just-want-this-project-to-be-done-already mindset so your words are super encouraging! I can’t wait to paint it either! I’ve got itchy painting fingers! We’re going to paint the greenhouse black, the same color as the shed and the framing. Fingers crossed it will look good!

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