Hi everyone! I'm reviving and updating this thread. My daughter and her baby ended up moving home. My shed is now full of their stuff, so things have been on hold until now.
My local Ace Hardware started carrying chicks. Ace Hardware ?I know, right? So the kids and I went in for paint and walked out with a Buckeye, a Wyandotte, and a Buttercup chicks. Scrambles, Omlette, and Sunny-Side-Up. I thought my husband would have a fit, but he really likes them.
Right now they're in a huge Rubbermaid tub in the house. I plan to move them to the back portch by the end of the week. It's just so darn hot here that I worry about them. Maybe, I'll just put them out at night.
So. The shed is a no-go for a chicken coop. However, I have a Step 2 Playhouse that the kids don't use anymore. I'm going to make that into a coop. Now I just have to create a shady spot for it. The area it's in now would be perfect if it were 50 feet from the neighbor's house. I don't know... Maybe they'll be quiet enough, and if I keep the coop super clean, the neighbors won't mind. One of the crazy things about living in the desert is that shade is a hard comodity to come by.
Well, that's my update for now. I'll be floating around BYC, posting all over, so I'll see you around.
I glued styrofoam insulation to the outside of the nesting-box wall then wrapped 3 walls with tar paper. Since then, I've finished the front with cedar shingles because I got sick of looking at tar paper 
The roof is done in the really thick tar paper, which so far is doing a good job of keeping out the rain. I will be shingling it properly at some point soon, I hope... And I started insulating the roof but I only had that little bit of plastic. The chickens are able to escape the 4' fencing of the outdoor portion (I don't clip their wings) but only a couple ever do. Two of them don't always come home at night but I know where to find them 
I debated for a while whether to build a floor or not and I must say, the dirt floor is MUCH easier to maintain, especially if you lay down some leaves or whatever under the roosts. Once a week I rake it out, takes like 5 minutes; scraping floors with a shovel is not nearly as quick!
I built it one wall at a time, hauled them up the hill on my back and then assembled it. The only piece I couldn't do by myself was dropping the roof into place. I originally designed it to come apart easily for when I move but after doing the exterior work and building the nest boxes into two walls I think I'll just leave it. Besides, the roof alone is going to way a TON after I shingle it, lol!
