And I know what you mean about outside being dead or sleeping at times like these. It always makes me feel better getting into the enclosure and doing some gardening. Then someone comes out of hiding just to see what I'm up to and starts pacing in front of me wanting treats. So, I think it took about a month and a half to get everything set up. Mind you, it would have taken longer if my husband wasn't somewhat interested in having tortoises. I got on a tortoise forum for about 2 months, prior to setting things up.. doing research, lots of reading and getting to know people that wouldn't mind helping a newbie out. My husband and his father built the enclosure, I polyurethane'd the whole thing 3 times and let it cure, lined the inside with thick pond liner, and capped it off. We added the frame for the lights and heating which also doubled as support for the plastic dropcloth during the colder months.. also for hanging plants. Once that was done, I made a barrier to cut the enclosure in half since a whole enclosure would be much too large for 2" baby tortoises. Added a heat rope, substrate, plants that I had started growing, and the food/water dishes. I ended up running the enclosure for a good two weeks before the tortoises came. That gave the plants time to fill out and to see if there were any issues with timers, heat, humidity, thermostats, etc. It was a huge initial investment but oh-so worth it. The enclosure runs itself and all I really need to do is change the water out daily and add new food in the morning. Bioactive substrate kinda helps with the poop, but I spot clean that on a daily basis too.
Replacing plants isn't too much of an issue. I think my guys learned to respect the plants at an early age. They leave the spider plants alone and mostly eat down the newly introduced plants. If I don't feed them for a day, I find a few plants missing. Needless to say, the rest of my house is filled with stand-by plants lol.
The choice to add tortoises to our home was a great one. They're relatively easy to take care of once you put in the initial time and money, they are very sweet, my children have learned a great deal about how to care for a living creature and how to grow food for them, and I've met some cool people along the way. If you ever decide to take on turtles/tortoises, let me know how I can help
I will certainly do that if we ever manage to get that point.