The very first blog post asked these questions:

What’s it like to actually live in a tiny home inside a greenhouse? How is it different than a more conventional tiny home? Will the reality measure up to my hopes and the hype?

Now into the second summer living fulltime inside a 400 sq foot home inside a 60’ by 36’ greenhouse, I won’t bury the lead – it has measured up to every hope and the hype. That’s not to say it’s been easy or that there weren’t a lot of challenges. But I did as much research as I could before committing to this project and had reasonable expectations of the lifestyle this arrangement could provide. All in all it has been a good decision.

Some Challenges

Financial recovery

My objective was to build my last home where I could age in place as long as possible. There was never a goal to DIY or build as cheaply as possible. This project is fully permitted and is standard stick-built construction on a ¾ acre standard residential lot.  I don’t know if the situation is different in other countries but here in the United States, there is no one – not a bank, a credit union, or private money lender – who would loan money to build this project.  That meant if I wanted to proceed, then I’d have to self-finance. For four years I practiced extreme thrift to save and invest as much of my salary as possible. While I economized on some things that I could live with or could upgrade later, there are some ‘extravagances’ that I was committed to finding a way to keep in the budget. Meaning, by the time the general contractor was done and handed over the keys, I’d stretched the budget a little more than was comfortable. It has taken time to recover before taking on any big projects.

A lot of work

As with any home construction project there is a lot of work to do even after the contractor is done. In this case I still had to set up the gardens, finish and fill the pool and ponds, repair the landscape, and turn the house into a home. I also have pre-existing structures to maintain or repair. I enjoy this work, have varying amounts of experience with each project, and am physically able to do much of the work on my own. For just the cost of materials and my time (and a generous gift from my sister of 10 hours of a laborer) I’ve picked away at each project on the list.

Preparing to grow food

The entire space west of the house was planned as a food garden. My property had about a 4’ drop from east to west end of the greenhouse footprint. We used cut and fill to level the area which meant there is no undisturbed native soil within the greenhouse. The food garden area soil is so hard it takes a jackhammer-like machine to dig into it. All food, except a couple trees, is grown in pots or raised beds. I’ve framed the beds, hauled in twigs for the hügelkultur beds, compost, horse manure, and yards of soil and installed irrigation fed from the rainwater tanks. This took so long that I got a late start planting the first year and experienced problem after problem.

Although I have more than 50 years of food and ornamental gardening experience, I’ve never had a greenhouse before and was not prepared for some of these problems. It was very discouraging.  Finally had the soil tested (should have done it sooner) and the results were it was sufficient in all measures except it had almost no nitrogen. The first year was also a lesson in the sunlight pattern in the food garden area of the greenhouse due to tall trees off the southwest side.  

I spent the winter and early spring reworking a couple raised beds and irrigation, washing the walls with potassium bicarbonate to remove powdery mildew, moving the olive tree, bringing in yards of better soil, and starting seeds. The results have been rewarding and I’m harvesting strawberries, peas, beans, herbs, lettuce, and potatoes as of June with lots more fruits and vegetables to come.

Making the sitting area enjoyable

No matter how well designed, a tiny home can feel too small without additional space for hobbies, entertaining, or just being able to get outside 4 walls. This was my primary reason for the greenhouse – to expand the living space while still protected from the elements. Traditionally this is done with a 3-season or 4-season porch but I wanted the greater expanse of the greenhouse than an enclosed porch can provide. About half of the space to the east of the house is the ‘sitting area.’

The builder poured a concrete walkway from the greenhouse door to the house door and a large pad that defines the sitting area. Everything after that, however, has been up to me to turn it an enjoyable space to use. I didn’t want the complexity, and couldn’t afford the cost, of automated greenhouse shades so have installed sun shades in strategic positions. These not only provide some shade but also block looking into the setting sun. They’ve also provided an unanticipated benefit of catching debris that comes in through the ridge vents. Without exposure to wind and rain, these very inexpensive shades are holding up well.

The garden around the sitting area is much smaller than the food garden but was also effort to bring in soil, irrigation, and planting. The first year also suffered from the same poor soil as the food garden and there wasn’t enough visual interest from flat beds. So over the winter and spring I brought in 2 raised bed rings filled with better soil, and started flowers and herbs from seed to get an early planting start this year.

The final step is to get comfortable furniture. I wasn’t sure if I needed outdoor furniture or whether indoor furniture would survive the conditions so I’ve been using odds and ends I already had. After 2 winters and now a second summer, I’ve decided to purchase outdoor furniture. Although protected from wind, rain, and snow the wooden and painted furniture isn’t holding up well to the expansion and contraction with the temperature change.

Filling the pool and ponds

There are several reasons why I allocated so much greenhouse space to a 40’ lap pool and 2 ‘ponds’ but there was no model to follow and I knew it was going to be a lot of time, labor, and money to finish them.  Altogether they hold approximately 14,000 gallons that comes from two 2,500 gallon rainwater tanks that are also the source for the greenhouse irrigation. Doing the math it will take almost 3 rain tank fills to fill the pool and then 1 more fill for irrigating the greenhouse through the dry season. Before adding water I had to build the water filter and circulation systems and the substrate for the pond plants. This had to be done early enough in spring to capture 4 rainwater tank fills.

Unfortunately there were leaks on the first fill. After draining and while waiting for materials to arrive, time to do the work, and proper temperature for working the materials it was too late to use that much water for the pool. After patching during the warm months and waiting for the rainy season to refill, there was still a leak. Hoping to avoid the same hold up as last year, I drained and patched earlier this year to try to fill before the end of the rainy season. Managed to get around half full but there has been almost no rain in April, May, or June. The rainwater tanks are less than half full going into the dry season (usually starts July). So here it waits.

Repairing the landscape

Fortunately I don’t have HOA rules to comply with and the interior of my property is not visible from either the public or private road so there isn’t time pressure to repair the landscape. To lower maintenance I’ll leave mostly ‘natural’ the areas not visible to visitors like the north side of the greenhouse. I haven’t decided what I want to plant in the area between the ramp and retaining wall so for now I’m bringing in horse manure and soil to raise it to the finish grade and letting wildflowers grow.

The bank slopes a couple feet downward from the ramp toward the trailer so I’m slowly moving as big of rocks as I can handle to provide a level border along the ramp for flowers. I may need to leave the rest of the rocks for a laborer or for the backhoe when he comes to dig for the carport.

There’s a similar situation on the west side of the property where the edge of the ramp from the greenhouse down to the parking area needs to be stabilized. A pile of rocks was left nearby from the construction to use for that purpose but most are too big for me to move by myself. Yet another project beholden to that financial recovery mentioned earlier.

Learning how to manage the climate

Learning how to manage the greenhouse climate has been one of the biggest challenges over the first year. My greenhouse is a commercial agricultural model that had options for fans, heaters, dehumidifiers, and vents that a commercial grower would need. Most of which are too large, too noisy, and/or too expensive for a residence. Not only am I trying to manage the climate for human comfort, my space includes features, like a pool, furniture, and aesthetics, that a commercial grower’s space doesn’t so there really wasn’t a model to follow or manual to learn from.  I’ve had to learn when to open and close the ridge vents, when to turn on and off the air to ground heat exchange systems, when to open and close the greenhouse doors, and when and how to water.

The first winter humidity was too high in the greenhouse (but inside the house was fine and there has been no mold in the house or crawlspace). By the second winter I’d dialed in enough that humidity was not an issue. Last year watering was an issue because I didn’t have the irrigation installed and didn’t get mulch laid. This year with a thick layer of straw on all beds, I’m able to water less and less evaporation.

Now I’m focusing on better ways to deal with the heat. Last year I had to open the greenhouse doors on both ends for airflow with the consequence that deer came in to enjoy the buffet until I put up a cargo net on the west double door. This year I’m starting to retrofit large awning windows to provide enough air that I can keep the doors closed.  Last year there were about 3 days the greenhouse was too hot for comfort that I closed up the house and turned on the air conditioning.  When the outside temperature is in the 90s or 100 there is no way to have the greenhouse cooler than outside so I expect similar days of air conditioning this year.

Some benefits

I’m experiencing all of the benefits I’d hoped for.

The outside is inside

Most of the year, at any time of the day or night, I can step ‘outside’ in relative comfort. I don’t have auxiliary heat in the greenhouse so when the sun isn’t shining the inside temperature is about the same as the outside temperature. However, the inside always seems a bit warmer without rain, wind, or snow to deal with. Since I’m still working fulltime and have other commitments, I do most of my projects inside the greenhouse in the evening after work. With lights on the house roof, lights on the 8’ purlin, and other general and task lights I can continue even after dark.

For much of spring through fall the greenhouse is the perfect temperature to use the sitting area to entertain more guests than fit inside the tiny house.

 Privacy

My greenhouse’s walls are twin-walled polycarbonate, not glass. The effect is more like looking through water than like looking through glass. A lot of detail is blurred. For example, I can see there’s a travel trailer about 15 feet from the greenhouse but I can’t read the branding or license plate. I can see splashes of color outside but can’t distinguish they’re wildflowers. So even if my property were not well shielded from the roads on each side, passersby would not be able to see me inside the greenhouse like they would if the greenhouse wasn’t here.

The expansion of space

From what I could research, every house inside a greenhouse around the world is designed with lots of windows so it is visually ‘open’ to the greenhouse. It’s harder to tell how much the house actually opens to the greenhouse. There are a number of design ‘tricks’ I used to make my tiny home feel larger than it is even when the doors and windows are closed. One trick, however, is to actually open much of the house to the greenhouse.

On a sunny day as early as March the greenhouse will be warm enough that I can open all the house doors and windows. This gives the impression that the house is only a room within a greater ‘house.’  It is a very pleasant sensation of being open to nature and sheltered at the same time. It is different than a traditional house with sliding glass doors or even a folding window wall. The distinction is the wall of the greenhouse provides a visual barrier that the greenhouse space is still ‘inside’. Compared to traditional homes the shelter ends at the house’s boundary and everything outside is ‘outside’, it is not shelter.  Or said another way, when my house doors and windows are open my 400 sq ft house feels like a 2,100 sq ft home. When a glass door or wall of a traditional 400 sq ft house is open, it still feels like a 400 sq ft house.

Knowing what I know now, would I do it again? Yes. Without a doubt.