More Than a Greenhouse
Summary: How 114 square feet -- and the kindness surrounding it -- made me feel safer in an uncertain time. (Thoughts on Giving Tuesday and supporting The RightWay Foundation)
We constructed our 114 square-foot greenhouse two and a half years ago. Despite the structure’s small size and the fact that it’s not connected to water or electric, it still needed to jump through the hoops of permitting, as it’s located in a preserved natural + wildlife area with high wind and flood risks. For this reason, we wouldn’t risk erecting the greenhouse on our own. We needed a professional who was familiar with odd building projects as well as the climate of the region.
No one wanted to take on the job. We were told it was too small and too strange. If anyone was going to consider it, it was going to cost us… a lot. Even if we weren’t already in the process of building our little home (which is technically a guest cottage), as well as renovating the Farmhouse we bought with our friends, the quotes were FAR out of the reach of my company. (I actually screamed when I read the first one: $21,000.)
Dressing the Tiny Greenhouse for the Holidays
This holiday season, I wanted to create a little bit of magic for our 5 year old, who has shown immense compassion, understanding, patience, and love this year. As were still between homes (our small ADU cottage is under construction, and the farmhouse roof is being replaced/restored), I figured that decorating our tiny, mixed-use greenhouse would do the trick:
We’ve long kept all our holiday decor in a vintage suitcase, with the exception of the live tree, and garlands made from discarded clippings, which we get locally.
In celebration of our tiny cottage and the canals, we got one new ornament this year: a green canoe, just like the old one we had when living in Venice.
(Pictured below: A sampling of hand-me-down, add-on, and handmade stocking-stuffers for the kids. They don’t have to be new, pricey or flashy to be exciting for the littles.)
The greenhouse is powered by an extension cord that leads to the main house. There’s one plug-in, multi-strand string of warm, twinkling lights for the tree and stockings, and three battery-powered strands for the garlands. (I use rechargeable AAs, as well as carbon neutral batteries from Better Battery Co.
Here are some of our ornaments, most of which we put on the sprawling garlands, rather than on the little tree. Our tree is decorated with small brass bells, and wooden snowflakes and deer that were intended to be used as gift-topper tags.
We don’t leave the lights on too long so as to minimize the disturbance of wildlife. But when the strands are switched on, they reflect off the angled panes of glass, amplifying the glittering glow.
It’s a happy little place, and I think we’ll make this holiday dressing a yearly event whenever we’re in the States for December. (The farmhouse needs to be further winterized, which is a project we’ll have to tackle later down the road for budgetary reasons.)
(Pictured below: The yearly stocking-stuffers I get for myself.)
Although we are extremely eager to have a house of our own soon — either the farmhouse or the ADU — this special space is certainly making us feel at home for the holidays.
Our Tiny (~114 sqft) Greenhouse
Constructing a tiny, multi-purpose greenhouse.
The tiny greenhouse is up, folks!
It is a ~114 sqft, T-shaped design that straddles the sunny field of the prairie and the cool canopy of the oak trees. It’s still a work in progress as far as finishing touches and styling are concerned, but that’s the easy part!
We started this project back in the spring, but first had to navigate the permitting process since we’re in a flood zone here in the Southeast. Turns out that we had to lift the structure 5’ off the ground to satisfy requirements, so now it’s got a treehouse vibe to it.
If we could’ve build it on the ground, I would’ve done so on top of a low, 2-3’ brick or stone perimeter wall to create more height and to mix-and-match textures and materials. Still, I’m so happy with how it turned out!
Since we’re in a high wind zone here in Florida, where there are product approvals to pass before building anything new, we couldn’t construct a structure of recycled/repurposed windows and materials. So instead, we found this sweet little aluminum + tempered glass greenhouse kit from The Home Depot.
What drew us to this partial model was its unique shape and compact but easily navigable size. Despite its small footprint, it has an overall height of 8’2” so our family can sill move comfortably around the interior. (I’m almost 6’ tall, and Adam and my father are even taller.)
The framework base can anchor to bare level ground, a concrete slab, or a wood platform like the one we had to create. We used pressure-treated lumber from The Home Depot to make the 14’ x 14’ deck, and placed the greenhouse towards the back of the surface so that the extra square footage extends beyond the front of the greenhouse like a miniature — but very usable! — stoop.
It took about a one week for two people (our friend Alan and my husband + business partner, Adam) to construct the unit. Alan studied the instructions in advance, and came prepared with all the necessary tools and back-up materials, just in case. It would’ve all been completed sooner had they not stopped repeatedly for the summer rains. Uninterrupted, I estimate that it would’ve taken 3-4 days of work for the two of them.
Now that it’s all up, we’re debating— deck paint? Slip-proof tile? Both, I think! And of course we need to add some railings.
In the meantime, we’ll be outfitting this gem with flexible zones for potting + growing and lounging, and we fully intend to enjoy it as much in the fall and winter as we undoubtedly will when spring rolls around again.
Since the greenhouse has a sliding front door and 2 roof windows for ventilation, it’s actually quite a comfortable temperature inside — especially with a fan oscillating. This is welcome news for us, since we intend to use the space like a conservatory or sunroom, more so than strictly a greenhouse for plants.
I’m sure some readers will be concerned about the possibility of bird strikes, so I want to address that topic in this post as well. Prior to constructing the greenhouse, we spoke with a neighbor in the community about their experience with strikes on their greenhouse. They’d not yet experienced any, but we went ahead and purchased some decals on Etsy anyway, just in case. Thankfully this small house has several aluminum beams in addition to our furnishings and accessories to visually break up the glass. In the three weeks it’s been up we’ve had no incidents, but we’ll remain on alert. (As a family of vegetarians with three rescue pups, we take animal safety seriously.)
There will be many more posts featuring this beautiful little greenhouse to come. We’re thrilled with how it turned out, and I look forward to sharing more small space living stories from it with you.
I want to thank The Home Depot for working with us on this project. They’ve always been so supportive of our small business’ funny little ideas— from our tiny closet nursery at the cottage, to our galley kitchen’s more energy-efficient renovation, to our outdoor shower and mini thoroughfare garden makeover in Venice.
Note: This post features gifted product from The Home Depot. Our small business appreciates that The Home Depot has, for years, tangibly supported designers, bloggers and creators of color and from the LGBTQ community.