The contractor said that he prefers to use either Samsung or Daiken for the mini-split, 1 ton unit.

Thanks Ken!

Good luck with your project, Kathy.

Thanks. It changes every day!
How are things going there?

The three ceiling fans and eight lights as well as the porch's vinyl ceiling/trim have been removed. Now you can see all the way into my attic. I hope we don't get invaded by critters. I don't know what comes next. There is a 32'x18" beam and two columns that have to be removed. I guess the roof and fascia up to that beam will have to be cut, some 2+ ft. I have never seen an elevation and don't really understand how the glass will be connected to the roof.

The porch demolition is complete with the exception of removing the huge, 2' thick beam. The gutters and downspouts are gone and all that's left of the porch ceiling are the rafters.




The brick has been removed and the double window will become matching French doors. The tile flooring will be covered with about 4" of concrete, to bring both the porch and patio up to the level of the house flooring. The two columns will be replaced with one and the 2' (layered) beam will be replaced with a nice laminated beam. The column and beam will be stained the same as the tongue and groove ceiling.



Debris and 2x6" and laminated beam material.



I had to move a couple of irrigation heads before they begin to excavate to enlarge the patio (tomorrow). There are three irrigation pipes here, a 2", a 1 1/2", and a 1".

Looking good!

I had the carpenters ask about my tomatoes, and I am loaded with the two varieties. They said they had never heard of tomatoes like I grow, much less seen/tasted any. They kind of whined about store-bought, tasteless tomatoes, so I am giving each of them a bag-full this afternoon. They are in for a treat.

Ken, that looks promising and I am sure your Carpenter Guys will love the Tomatoes. I am only buying Tomatoes here at the numerous Farmer Market's around here the Summer

Me, too Ursula. Can't stand tomatoes from the store anymore.

Ken, its great to keep on the good side of your workers. Offer them grilled Blt's on the day they finish up? Otherwise they'll drag their feet on your project to keep scoring the wonderful tomatoes.

I think I will offer them a beer or a glass of wine to go along with that BLT the day they finish (I think they probably prefer beer), and let them know that's their reward.

The electrician is here. All the electrical lines/boxes must be run before the ceiling (in the porch) can be insulated and the beaded board ceiling put up. Now I need a plumber to show up so that the drainage trench can be put in place, the trench/sink waste lines run out into the yard, and the water pipes put in place to service the potting bench sink. Then we will be close to being able to overlay the 4" of concrete over the existing tile/patio and extending the patio 8' with new concrete.

Maybe I'll be in the sunroom before winter arrives

Congrats! I am in limbo in every way possible!

Has the demolition part been decided upon or are you still in the planning stage?

Kathy, not to add to your confusion but investigate the window film carefully. We have untinted 3M film on our sunroom windows and I was promised my plants would love it. Not true. Things just do not grow as well and it looks like light deprivation to me. Sadly every window in the house has this film; it is almost a necessity when you live on a barrier island.

Not much progress here. The electrician ran some wires and re-aligned all the (8) ceiling lights. The beam was thickened (it was a gigantic 2' x 4") to 2' x 8'. The glass weighs several thousand pounds and this beam also has to hold up a 32' length of roof. Better too much beam than too little I guess. About half the beaded-board was put up and you can see that the ceiling is open wide, right into the attic space. The rest of the beaded-board won't be put up until the plumber gets the hot/cold water pipes run from the attic and the insulation is laid in.

A few pieces of the major glass frame was unpacked just so the carpenters could see what they looked liked. I don't think they could tell heads or tails of it. I had the glass roof/walls construction plans printed out and I gave my copy to the head carpenter. He said he had to do some "homework" tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow, the concrete framing will get done and the plumber will show up and get those two pipes run, the floor trench-drain put in, and the two waste-water lines run out into the yard.

I guess some progress is better than none.

I have had 2 carpenters give me opinions/options and Steve at Florian too. No one is giving me an estimate yet. Definitely planning stages which change weekly. Looks like I will have to set up lights in the basement if we sell our farm in fall or winter. So weird since this is the best place I have ever lived and it's so hard to sell!!!

Spend a bit more and get the T-5HO, 6-tube fixtures, Kathy. They produce an incredible about of light and do so economically. Your plants will think they are in S. Florida.

You are ahead of me Ken. I planned on asking what to get soon! How big an area do they cover?

Four of the six-tube, four foot long fixtures light my 10'x12' greenhouse very well, Kathy. It is about as bright as winter daylight at noon. These are all T5HO tubes. Four tubes are 6500K and two tubes are the 4000K in each fixture. They are mounted as close to the ceiling (9' high) as I could get them, about 6" from the ceiling. I ended up moving my top shelves down about a foot (they are now approximately 2..5' from the ceiling because the lights are so intense, they were beginning to cause some signs of early sunburn on the more tender Catt. orchids. I now have my orchids no closer than 18" to those tubes. I keep my seedlings no closer than 3' to the lights. It might be more like 4'. It will be interesting to see what my Adenium seedlings do under the lights, and how close they can be to them.