One of my goals this year is to put up my greenhouse.
I had this greenhouse in Atlanta when I lived there. I pulled out the file and found I had bought it in March of 1990. I moved away from Atlanta to California in 1996 and left the greenhouse.

When I returned to the southeast I saw that the new owners of the house were not using it. I spoke with them and they were thrilled when I offered to take it down and off of their property. That was in 2002.

It has been in my basement since then. I have wanted to put it up but things have gotten in the way. It started with 5 years of little money and then I was traveling too regularly to be able to take care of it all the tropical plants that I grow.

This year I was ready. I decided to do the 100 day project. The project I picked was to build out the greenhouse.

I started strong. I made the list of what needed to be done. I talked to people about the project including an electrician. That is when it all fell apart.

I thought I would do solar power. When I told him about the power needs, he told me solar wouldn’t work.  I would needed to dig a trench for power and water from the house. The spot I had decided on was so far away. That would be a lot of digging.

This wasn’t what I had planned. Everything stopped. The 100 day project just fell apart.

I still wanted to put the greenhouse up.  I pulled out the original greenhouse file and read the directions.

It had been awhile. In the directions they said to pick the location wisely. Having it close to the house is the best choice.

I was open to a new location. And the perfect spot showed itself. It is so perfect that I was surprised I hadn’t even considered it in the past.

Now I had no trench to dig and I even have water access from an interior sink. This spot is perfect.

It was time to start. My first step was to string the area.

That was the step that got the greenhouse build going. Once it was laid out I could imagine it.

Now I am taking it one step at a time. There is no big rush. I would like it done by the end of the year.

It will have a concrete slab and a 2-3 foot brick foundation. Then I will have the erection party. It is like a big erector set. An aluminum frame with double walled poly as the covering.

Each step I take, gets me closer to the finished product.

Each step also opens up many questions about how things will work. Just stringing it has given me more information about the thickness of the concrete and the steps to prep for the concrete pour.

It is hard to envision a project and break it down into steps, until you get started.

Each step gets it closer to happening.

This project has reminded me of Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird. In it she tells the story of her brother freaking out the weekend before his term paper about birds was due. He hadn’t put the time in. He didn’t even know where to start. His dad said bird by bird. And that was exactly how to proceed.

Get started and keep moving, step by step. You can only do one step at a time.