BUNGALOW BUNGLE FINAL TOUCHES HOPEFULLY SOON SEE END OF THREAD

[Time-Out]

I paid about $200 for mine, because I waited until the off-season price drops. I probably spent another $250 on it with the window, ply, insulation, wood preserver (pointless, just paint it. It didn't stop the roof rotting), caulk, brackets, vents, glue and anything else I can't think of. I wish I could think of a way to make the access door the whole width of the side. I think it would be too risky to cut out though. I don't want to have to go through all this again!

Did you say how big yours is? Mine turned out to be 7sqft.

 

[Kim95037]

When I get home I'll post a pic of what I did to mine. I had a nice size opening on one side where the nesting boxes would have attached. I didnt like the 1/4 inch gap all the way around it but I didnt want to close it permanently because I wanted to use it for access since the tray is a pain in the neck to pull out. So I attached the exisiting door to a bigger piece of wood and just invented a way to close it up nice and snug but also make it removable. You could probably do the same thing on yours. I think mine ended up being about the same size as yours, and I probably spent about 150 bucks on material to fix everything that was wrong too. I think on one of my pictures on this thread I have my battery drill laying on the tray, that might give you an idea of the size. Way too small!!!

 

[Kim95037]

So here is my fix for the door. The first picture is the opening where the nest boxes install. There is one on each side, so you can choose which side you want to put the nesting boxes on. Sorry about the glare from the sun.
Like I said before the cover was pretty cheesy, big air gap all the way around and cheesy latches. I wanted to keep this access available since the tray is a pain in the neck to pull out now that I had to partially cover it for rain. Not to mention they should have put some metal rails in instead of having wood slide on wood. How long is THAT going to work? Probably not long .Especially since the stupid thing had me cussing the first time I tried to slide it in and out.
The 2nd picture is a peice of wood that I cut to fit over the opening, about 1 1/2 over lap on 3 sides and the bottom even with the opening. Only because it tilts outward (picture number #3), I attached the original door to the backside of my new door. You dont necessarily need to do that, I just used it because it was there, without this peice you would just have to screw another little piece of wood on the outside along the bottom to rest the door on.
So now picture number 4 is a couple of pieces of wood I put together, one on each side of the opening that would accept a 1 x 2 going across the door horizontally to hold the cover peice of wood firmly against the side of the coop, kind of like an old fashioned brace they would have going across the inside of a giant door in a castle (?).
Picture number 5 is the peice of wood covering up the hole with the 1 x 2 brace going across it into the peices that I put on either side of the opening.
Hope this makes sense. It took me a while for my bird brain to figure out how to do it, but now I have tons of access to the inside and room enough to add electrical later on.
Oh and there is one picture at the end with a can of water inside is to show how DINKY this stupid thing is!!

 

[Kim95037]

Well I put the finishing touches on the Bungalow today, what a pain. I added some white zbar to act as a rain gutter to keep the water from running off of the roof into the run. I pulled the tray out (hopefully for the last time) and put a peice of plexiglass inside of it. I also ended up putting more wood on the bottom to support the floor, the wood slats going across the bottom have the strength of a toothpick. I also took out one of the three roosting bars and relocated the two I left in there.I dont know what the guys were thinking when they built this thing. I removed one of the dividers in the nesting boxes, they are too small as well in my opinion. I ended up building a little soffet around where the nesting box attaches to the coop to keep the rain out, upper right tucked up underneath the roof (third picture). Bottom line is I would NOT reccomend buying this coop, its cheap, it leaks, latches are cheesy, theres no way I would put six chickens in this thing like they say its meant for and the design just leaves you will all kinds of problems. I spent another 100 bucks buying material to remodel this thing, not to mention all the time I spent trying to figure out how to fix all the shortcomings. The My Pet Chicken people were awesome tho, they refunded a 100 bucks for my troubles and supposedly forwarded all of my information that I gave them about all of the problems to the manufacturer. I doubt the design will change, its probably made in China or somplace. Anyway, Im glad to finally have it done, now I can finish my expansion and the run (last picture). This thing is turning into the Holiday Inn. I have to redo my ladder I think, the girls wont use it.

 

[nono]

I'm so glad that you were able to retrofit it for your needs. It looks really nice!