Yippee
The coop is very close to being finished, provided this rain stops for the weekend. All that's left is insulating (free), ply-wooding the inside (can you tell I'm not a carpentar?!)(left over from previous jobs), laying down the cheap-o linoleum on the floor for easy clean-up ($8), and building roosts and nest boxes (left over scraps). Oh, and then comes that little ole run we've gotta build. One step at a time though.
We went from the idea of an A-frame, to buying a 4x4 playhouse, to this 8x8 monstrosity. Might I add that there are only 5 chickens at this point in time. There's a Volvo plant in town that my father's company does business for, so he got a brand-new and free, lovely 8x8 skid, only used previously to transport one piece of machinery, for the base of the coop. Worked beautifully, after we fenagled bricks, old fence posts, and God knows what else to level it on the completely uneven yard.
So far we've only hit about $150. We struck 2x4 gold at a construction site building a brick building. They use them for support and then toss them away. We only had to buy a few 2x4s, namely for the trusses. We got a lovely little window for 10 bucks at Habitat, the siding was 'damaged' (i.e the groove didn't go down the whole way, BFD) and we got it marked way down, and we had oodles of Kilz left over, along with an assortment of ply wood and other scraps. Oh, and gorgeous red paint: $15. All that's left to purchase is roofing and we've not completely decided on that. We're looking at the heavy duty fiberglass roofing as it's very pretty and much less work than shingling.
Anyway, I'll shut up now and let you at the pics.
All framed up, with that brand new cheap display window:
Soffit installed (found gutter guards that worked beautifully):
Let's start siding
God love the Kilz
Barn red that seems a bit brighter than the paint book
Will be trimmed out in white, of course!
A few notes: despite what the pictures lead you to believe, I actually have helped! Also, we haven't decide whether the run will be within the fenced in part of the yard or extended out, hence why the chicken doors haven't been cut out yet. Hoping to figure it out this weekend.
Oh, and witness the dog made dust trail. For the life of me, I cannot understand why my dogs will follow that same path daily. I like to think they're preparing the perfect dust bathing area for their little sisters
And that's it so far. I think we've done pretty darn well for $150!
We went from the idea of an A-frame, to buying a 4x4 playhouse, to this 8x8 monstrosity. Might I add that there are only 5 chickens at this point in time. There's a Volvo plant in town that my father's company does business for, so he got a brand-new and free, lovely 8x8 skid, only used previously to transport one piece of machinery, for the base of the coop. Worked beautifully, after we fenagled bricks, old fence posts, and God knows what else to level it on the completely uneven yard.
So far we've only hit about $150. We struck 2x4 gold at a construction site building a brick building. They use them for support and then toss them away. We only had to buy a few 2x4s, namely for the trusses. We got a lovely little window for 10 bucks at Habitat, the siding was 'damaged' (i.e the groove didn't go down the whole way, BFD) and we got it marked way down, and we had oodles of Kilz left over, along with an assortment of ply wood and other scraps. Oh, and gorgeous red paint: $15. All that's left to purchase is roofing and we've not completely decided on that. We're looking at the heavy duty fiberglass roofing as it's very pretty and much less work than shingling.
Anyway, I'll shut up now and let you at the pics.
All framed up, with that brand new cheap display window:
Soffit installed (found gutter guards that worked beautifully):
Let's start siding
God love the Kilz
Barn red that seems a bit brighter than the paint book
A few notes: despite what the pictures lead you to believe, I actually have helped! Also, we haven't decide whether the run will be within the fenced in part of the yard or extended out, hence why the chicken doors haven't been cut out yet. Hoping to figure it out this weekend.
Oh, and witness the dog made dust trail. For the life of me, I cannot understand why my dogs will follow that same path daily. I like to think they're preparing the perfect dust bathing area for their little sisters
And that's it so far. I think we've done pretty darn well for $150!
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