So, after waiting months to finally get our GH up and getting fed-up having to shimmy by the big boxes in the garage...progress has been made!
Our main motivation was that our house was one of 3 on the Gates C&S clubs fall home tour this past weekend (Tony and Mike (firelab) were the other 2, and both were awesome!)
So... 2 weeks earlier with the help of my father we started to dig out the dirt from the area I wanted the GH in. This was by far the toughest part of the job. The dirt was extremely compact and took every bit of our energy to dig away. Took us 2 days! We had to use a pick-axe, as a spade shovel was no match. And of course, the 2 days we worked on it, the temps were 105F and 107F...
Here is what we started with.
You can see the remains of dirt circles on the ground there...
This is where those plants got moved to for the 2 days of digging.
And a few apres dig shots...
I tried to show how compacted the dirt was, but the pic doesn't really show it very well. Those are the pick-axe marks.
Watered it down in hopes to soften it up a bit...pretty much a lost cause, just made it heavier to lift
Once the area was cleared out and leveled off, it was time to start the foundation. I had initially planned to use regular cinder blocks and stucco them to match the existing wall, but when we got to Home Depot...hey look! they have the exact same blocks as the wall, cool! These blocks were slightly smaller than regular cinder blocks (6x16 vs. 8x16inches) Which actually worked out better, as I really didn't need that much headroom. I know 2inches is not much, but still makes a difference.
So we load up 48 blocks, 6 bags of cement, a few lengths of rebar, some pressure treated lumber and some other odds and ends and head back home. Now comes the long and tedious part...leveling and squaring the foundation. Actually, it worked out pretty smoothly and wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.
We laid out the blocks and got it all level and square. I then pounded 2foot long lengths of rebar into the ground, into every other block cell. Since I was just laying the blocks on the surface, I felt this was the best way to keep everything solid. The devious hard packed dirt once again fought us all along the way
On the concrete slab side, we drilled holes and pounded in 1foot lengths of rebar. I also added rebar lengths horizontally (the blocks had grooves just for this) So now the blocks are tied into the ground and into each other. Should be solid as a rock 
Mixed up the cement and poured it into the cells. At certain intervals I left the cells open. Since I wanted to have a wood base to be able to screw down the GH frame, I had to figure out a way to secure the wood to the blocks. So I got two 6foot long threaded *sticks*. It's like a very long bolt, but no head. I cut those into 4inch lengths and threaded nuts onto them.
Next was to prepare the wood base. I first drilled a pilot hole at each spot I wanted a bolt and then used a spade bit to countersink the top nut and washer, then drilled the final center hole. Then with the 4inch threaded lengths I inserted them into all the holes in the wood. I then filled each empty cell with cement and sunk the threaded lengths with the nut into the cell. I put the top washer and nut on and tapped it down flush with the top of the wood. Once the cement was dry, the nut submerged in the cement would prevent the threads from lifting out when I went to snug down the top nuts after it all dried. Worked perfectly!
So now the blocks are laid, all are filled with cement and the wood base is all snugged down, level and tight. Now comes tricky part #2... squaring up the GH frame! But that will be for another day, I’m dead tired!
note: The GH came in 5 boxes (each being about 5ft x 4ft x 1.5ft)
So now it's Friday (the day before the home tour) and I swindle the afternoon off work with the intentions of busting arse to get this up for the tour. I get started at 12 noon.
So now it was time to pull out all the parts for the base...referring to the note above...this sucked! I had to open each box, sift through all the parts and pull the ones for the base. Each box comes as a section...front, back and middle sections. So now my driveway was flooded with boxes and a gazillion and 2 parts!! (I missed getting a pick tho
) Anyway, got them all out and laid along the wood base. I used a scrap piece of wood to act as a spacer guide as I screwed down the GH base, sliding it along to make sure the distance from the edge of the wood was uniform all around (yes, I was praying the wood was straight and wasn't warped...it sat out for a few days after I bought it) Bing, bang, boom...the base is down. Honestly, I forgot to actively measure to make sure it was square...I knew the wood base was square, so I was relying on that. Phew, it worked out!
At this point it still didn't look like much, and I was a bit overwhelmed with the millions of parts I was staring at and thinking... OMG, this is going to take F O R E V E R. It was actually quite easy to build. All the parts were slip together and then secured with plugs that fit into holes in the grooves of each part. Quite a nice design actually. Even if it was all plastic.
So with the base complete, was time to start on the meat and potatoes of this project. I put up all the wall parts (I skipped a few steps ahead as I really wanted to see more than a 8" tall GH
) ahhh, that’s more like it!
Now it's time to construct the roof. It had to be built up into a single piece and then lifted onto the walls...well, I couldn't use the driveway...it was still full of parts! and I wasn't going to be able to lift it over the wall. So the last place left was between the 2 gardens on the grass...which was about 10inches too short on width, but I could work with it. The sucky part was since it was sitting a few inches into each garden, the only way to get from one end to the other was (A) walk all the way around the house or (B) crawl on my hands and knees. I chose the hands and knees
Grass is soft right...well it is if there are no irrigation sprinkler heads to continuously jab your knees on 
So I get all but the last section of the roof built and hear my wife from the window... You do know it's 12 midnight, get some sleep! that’s a solid 12 hrs of work. So yeah, I call it a night. The tour wasn't due at the house till 10:30am, so if I get up at the crack of dawn, I might just be able to pull this off.
8:30am, the roof is complete and ready to be lifted onto the walls...but there's no way I can do it alone. What's this, my neighbors are awake and outside watering their lawn...SCORE! Within 20 mins the roof was up! Woohoo, NOW it looks like a greenhouse
I now have an hour and a half to get all the plants I can into it. Here is what it looks like today...
There is still alot to do, like add all the gaskets and seals, build the doors and put in the mid-roof panels on the backside, build the staging and of course, go over every single plug hole to make sure they all have plugs in them! I'm sure I missed a few... but it's functional! I must say it’s very exciting to finally have a GH
edit: just found the original thread when we got the GH... meh, it's only been 6 months
http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtop ... greenhouse
Looks even better in person. 
Seeing those pick axe marks really helps explain how hard that soil was, Sheesh!
it was minus 2 centigrade (29f) here last night and winter has hardly started yet 
