First, a little background info:
So, my hubby and I, along with one of our four sons, 3 horses, 2 dogs and 2 cats live on a seven acre mini farm in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I was raised a city girl, but have always loved the country life. No surprise then, along with our other animals, I wanted to add a small flock of chickens. I mentioned it to hubby a couple of times over the last few months and each time it was met with little acknowledgment....a sure sign of his lack of enthusiasm in the idea. Finally, hubby's blessing or no, I decided it was time to start working on a coop. I announced it over supper to my family one day last week. My husband cut his eyes at me. Our youngest son, gleefully exclaimed, "We're getting chickens?!" Then the words from my husband I was dreading...."NO.....SHE'S getting chickens!" At that moment, I knew I was completely, totally, and utterly alone in this project.
We have a perfect 3 sided shed that would convert nicely into a coop and run. It has been used for years for scrap lumber storage from the previous owners. All I need to do is clean it out and use the lumber for the coop. Easy enough. I have been going over BYC's website and have a really good idea of what I want. I have all the materials I need, how hard can it be?...........Shut up, I hear you men out there snickering!
Ok....so 4 days ago I start emptying the shed.....I have 3 piles: 1. trash 2. scraps I don't need/want/give away 3. The keepers, real nice lumber pile
DAY ONE.....Hubby is at work...Late afternoon I create piles and start emptying the shed. Results yield seven antique doors with the old skeleton key door knobs, 4 nice unfinished pine table or desk tops (size 3x5), one pile of keeper lumber, and a F250 truck bed of scrap lumber. Oh yeah, and one antique pellet pistol that scared the snot out of me 'cause it was so realistic looking.
DAY TWO....Hubby comes home and starts work on one of his projects without a so much as a glance in the direction of MY shed/coop. I get some housework done then I clean out more lumber in MY shed/coop. I am having to slow down because of the amount of dust from mice nests, termites, and the spiders......OMG the spiders! Most of the wood is still in really good shape. Only a small amount had insect damage and went into the trash pile. There was some really nice furniture grade lumber and cabinet tops in there. I finish the day with a total of 2/3 of the shed cleaned out.
DAY THREE.....Hubby goes out to work on his project again then mows the yard. Off I go to my shed/coop. I finish cleaning everything out then rake all the leaves that had strayed in there over the years. Hubby comes out to see my progress and offers some pointers for a floor. Grrrrrrr. Guess he was serious about this being my project. He knows I'm no carpenter. Everytime I try to hammer a nail it bends, let alone try to use an electric saw.....Take a breath.......It's ok...I'm tough, I am not going to give in...I can do this. All total I have about 3 truckloads of scrap/give away lumber and a really NICE stack of keeper lumber. The scrap piles go on Freecycle.com and Craigslist for pick up. Hubby did cook supper though and that was nice.....Chicken and steak fajitas, yum!
TODAY, DAY FOUR.....Hubby is at work. There was a lean-to on the back side of the shed. I decide to clean it out and knock the lean to down. While cleaning I found 18 antique windows, in tact, stacked one on top of the other. I remove them carefully and set them aside. In my cleaning I disturbed 2 mouse nests...One of the mice was a HUGE field mouse. I swear as he ran away, he paused and looked over his shoulder at me as if to say "I could whip you if I wanted to"...Go ahead buddy, right now I'm Superwoman...give it your best shot..... All that finished, it was time to get started building MY coop. I go around to the front and mentally visualize how I want everything. I take out my tape measure and start measuring. I know I need a frame so I can put my floor down. Trick is to make it level since the shed had a dirt floor and was built on a slant. Ok, I need sturdy lumber, a level, hammer, nails, and saw. I head off to hubby's tool shed, the MAN CAVE....(enter dramatic music). As I stand there, I am overwhelmed at all the tools and JUNK in there. (OK, I know guys, it's not junk really, but to us women it truly is.......). Other than the basic hand tools, it really hits me hard that I have NO CLUE what I'm doing.
What the__(insert words here)__have I gotten myself into? Next, taking a deep breath, I did what any self respecting wife would do in this situation....I went inside the house and make a phone call.
A few hours later, my newly hired carpenter shows up to evaluate the situation. We got the frame done for the floor and he will be back out tomorrow to get working on the rest of the coop. Everything should be done in a day or so and I get my new flock of Buff Orpington hens this weekend! Yay!!!
See pics below for all the lumber that came out of the shed (shed measures 15 long x 7 wide x 6.5 tall on the coop side).
The shed before:
The wood piles:
All cleaned out:
More pictures and posts to follow as we progress with the coop. Hope I posted this in the correct forum. If not, I apologize in advance!
So, my hubby and I, along with one of our four sons, 3 horses, 2 dogs and 2 cats live on a seven acre mini farm in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I was raised a city girl, but have always loved the country life. No surprise then, along with our other animals, I wanted to add a small flock of chickens. I mentioned it to hubby a couple of times over the last few months and each time it was met with little acknowledgment....a sure sign of his lack of enthusiasm in the idea. Finally, hubby's blessing or no, I decided it was time to start working on a coop. I announced it over supper to my family one day last week. My husband cut his eyes at me. Our youngest son, gleefully exclaimed, "We're getting chickens?!" Then the words from my husband I was dreading...."NO.....SHE'S getting chickens!" At that moment, I knew I was completely, totally, and utterly alone in this project.
We have a perfect 3 sided shed that would convert nicely into a coop and run. It has been used for years for scrap lumber storage from the previous owners. All I need to do is clean it out and use the lumber for the coop. Easy enough. I have been going over BYC's website and have a really good idea of what I want. I have all the materials I need, how hard can it be?...........Shut up, I hear you men out there snickering!
Ok....so 4 days ago I start emptying the shed.....I have 3 piles: 1. trash 2. scraps I don't need/want/give away 3. The keepers, real nice lumber pile
DAY ONE.....Hubby is at work...Late afternoon I create piles and start emptying the shed. Results yield seven antique doors with the old skeleton key door knobs, 4 nice unfinished pine table or desk tops (size 3x5), one pile of keeper lumber, and a F250 truck bed of scrap lumber. Oh yeah, and one antique pellet pistol that scared the snot out of me 'cause it was so realistic looking.
DAY TWO....Hubby comes home and starts work on one of his projects without a so much as a glance in the direction of MY shed/coop. I get some housework done then I clean out more lumber in MY shed/coop. I am having to slow down because of the amount of dust from mice nests, termites, and the spiders......OMG the spiders! Most of the wood is still in really good shape. Only a small amount had insect damage and went into the trash pile. There was some really nice furniture grade lumber and cabinet tops in there. I finish the day with a total of 2/3 of the shed cleaned out.
DAY THREE.....Hubby goes out to work on his project again then mows the yard. Off I go to my shed/coop. I finish cleaning everything out then rake all the leaves that had strayed in there over the years. Hubby comes out to see my progress and offers some pointers for a floor. Grrrrrrr. Guess he was serious about this being my project. He knows I'm no carpenter. Everytime I try to hammer a nail it bends, let alone try to use an electric saw.....Take a breath.......It's ok...I'm tough, I am not going to give in...I can do this. All total I have about 3 truckloads of scrap/give away lumber and a really NICE stack of keeper lumber. The scrap piles go on Freecycle.com and Craigslist for pick up. Hubby did cook supper though and that was nice.....Chicken and steak fajitas, yum!
TODAY, DAY FOUR.....Hubby is at work. There was a lean-to on the back side of the shed. I decide to clean it out and knock the lean to down. While cleaning I found 18 antique windows, in tact, stacked one on top of the other. I remove them carefully and set them aside. In my cleaning I disturbed 2 mouse nests...One of the mice was a HUGE field mouse. I swear as he ran away, he paused and looked over his shoulder at me as if to say "I could whip you if I wanted to"...Go ahead buddy, right now I'm Superwoman...give it your best shot..... All that finished, it was time to get started building MY coop. I go around to the front and mentally visualize how I want everything. I take out my tape measure and start measuring. I know I need a frame so I can put my floor down. Trick is to make it level since the shed had a dirt floor and was built on a slant. Ok, I need sturdy lumber, a level, hammer, nails, and saw. I head off to hubby's tool shed, the MAN CAVE....(enter dramatic music). As I stand there, I am overwhelmed at all the tools and JUNK in there. (OK, I know guys, it's not junk really, but to us women it truly is.......). Other than the basic hand tools, it really hits me hard that I have NO CLUE what I'm doing.
A few hours later, my newly hired carpenter shows up to evaluate the situation. We got the frame done for the floor and he will be back out tomorrow to get working on the rest of the coop. Everything should be done in a day or so and I get my new flock of Buff Orpington hens this weekend! Yay!!!
The shed before:
The wood piles:
All cleaned out:
More pictures and posts to follow as we progress with the coop. Hope I posted this in the correct forum. If not, I apologize in advance!
