A bit risky getting up to North Scotland in February but there was a small break in the weather and I made it up and back OK - travelling 520 miles on the return journey. The ground was so frozen solid my mattock just bounced off it, with the occasional spark as it struck rock - so I resorted to my SDS drill to chisel small sections out and brake through the first few inches. This is a "Richard" greenhouse - just 2.5m long by 1.5m wide but the sides are especially tall and there is a lot of detail in the roof having 3 finials, crested ridge, valleys and an overhanging canopy.  Dear Russell, It was great to meet you during my short visit this week but I look forward to a more relaxed visit when I return (early April?) and would love to take you up on the offer of a trip to the pub or bite to eat. I journeyed up the Cairngorm Mountains after leaving yours to see another job but gladly made it home again late last night before the weather turned again. I hope the base is to you liking - although, on it's own it's an odd looking thing. Thank you for asking me to build your greenhouse Kind regards Robin Green Bug Ltd From: Russell
Sent: 08 February 2019 15:46 To: Robin McGregor <robin@green-bug.co.uk> Subject: Re: Invoice 1080 from Green Bug Ltd You are a wonder -- we have never seen someone work so efficiently or magically -- glad you made it home as we were hoping you were safely away after your dawn departure. I love looking at the base -- and am so looking forward to your return. And definitely a pub dinner on us! April would be great. Let us know when you are headed back and be glad you are not here today -- it is a mess. All best, Russell
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This job took 2 visits to complete - one of 3 days, where I completed most of the greenhouse and structure of the shed (click here for earlier blog entry on that) and this one of 4 days - where I clad the outside of the shed in cedar, boarded the inside of the shed and the partition, completed glazing the gable end, hanging 2 doors and 5 opening windows, fitted a lead skirt / drip edge around the shed walls and lead flashings, hung the shelving, and laid the concrete plain tile roof to the shed and ridged with clay capped angle ridge and pointed up the gables with black mortar. It sounds quite a lot when you put it like that!
  It was 7pm Friday night when I eventually finished so the photos aren't very clear of the finished job.
Thanks for all your work and the process. Let me know when you are available for more bookings...best for now. Guy
It's so good to be back on the road again after all the time I have spent getting the new workshop ready. We only moved a few miles down the road but the new Green Bug workshop is so much bigger it's going to be amazing - more efficient and easier. This week I made it back to Southampton to complete a greenhouse Tim has patiently waited for.
 Customary for this time of year - the finished greenhouse photos have been taken in the dark. The light fades at around 4pm at the moment so I never end up getting good photos of the greenhouse once it's finished. These photos were taken at 2am though (after I'd had a bit of kip before the long return journey home again). Thanks to Tim and his family for letting me stay with them this week and for all the wonderful food and conversations.
 Thank you Sue and Barrie for your kind Xmas wishes and card.  A happy Christmas and wonderful new year to all my customers, past and future - and especially thank you for all those patient customers who've been waiting whilst I move to the new premises.
 Another great benefit of the new Green Bug premises - I can mock up bespoke greenhouses on site here on pillars which ensure the structure is level and square before doing the "take-off" for the glass order. The view's good too eh...
It's been like holding my breath under water. These past weeks I've been building the workshop but wanting to resurface as soon as possible to carry on building greenhouses again. Thankfully I'm back. Two greenhouses now sit ready to go out in the new year and I'm back on track.  Although this workshop is massive, in comparison to my old one, I added a removable hatch so I can cut down long lengths of timber. I've used up old pieces of toughened glass to add double glazed windows around the workshop unit.  One of the benefits of the added space is I can have permanent workstations - workbench, pillar drill, bench morticer, lathe, router are connected and ready for immediate use whilst the table saw can have an outfeed table which doubles as a sanding station.
I have been granted full planning permission for business use of the barn and agreed to sound proof the workshop. There is a large air gap (corrider) between the workshop building and the main structure and I insulated the roof and walls and the glazing is double.  On the right is access to the shipping container which houses the painting area and office. I clad the walls with dense foam insulation and osb boarding. On the outside roof I added 2" insulation and 2 layers of osb to make the interior comfortable and maintain a good temperature for painting.
I just need to add lots of shelving and storage and set up the internet but thankfully, with great relief and happiness, I am working on greenhouses again full time and with much greater efficiency.
And here it is after a few weekends of working on it....
Having made sure the building is water-tight I could start on the proper job of setting up the workshop - and I had to spend some proper time on this - taking this whole week off work to concentrate on moving the business workshop here.
Part of the planning permission for running the business here is to sound-proof the workshop so, after clearing out the space, I've built another structure inside which will be clad and insulated to trap noise.
And now to move my tools over. Here's a picture of my table saw being delivered on Friday, at the end of the busy week.  This workshop is in the garden of our new home so the whole family will be moving here in a few weeks time. I've changed my contact details in readiness - although my mobile and email address remain the same of course.
 I've been subcontracted by a landscape gardener as part of an overall garden redevelopment. I was asked to design a greenhouse with attached shed which I will clad in cedar and roof in small plain tiles with clay ridge. The walls were constructed before I arrived to site so some sections had to be mocked up on site whilst all the roof and sides and shed structure were built and sealed up. I'll return with the finished timber, doors and opening windows to complete the greenhouse and shed in a second visit.    All the sides will be clad in cedar with a lead drip edge skirt around the edges. I'll add an opening window in the centre and finish the partition in hardwood ply and glazed door.
 
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