I'm amused by the irony

[RoeDylanda]

...that I'm not keeping up with BYC very well any more because I'm too busy *building my coop* all day! I'm very excited to get going though. Pictures as soon as I find the cable to connect my camera to the computer.

I'm progressing much more slowly now that my "help" is 2 small children. DH is a lovely man and a great husband, but not as detail-oriented as I prefer for this sort of thing.

My best friend came down for the weekend and got me started, and we retrofit an old plastic playhouse for her to use as her coop, thanks largely to what I've seen on here! She still needs the inside setup, and I'm pretty excited to see if the modular walls I calculated out to 2 decimal places will actually *fit together.* Lots of former-math-whiz street cred resting on this! I dusted off 25-year-old algebra skills for this, so we'll see. Wish me (and my potentially embarrassed and/or chilly chickens) luck!

Chicks in four weeks! (Yes, I'm building the coop now. I'm kinda type-A that way. And every other way, actually

)

 

[mcfarmall]

I build furniture in my shop for fun and repair manufacturing equipment for money. I am also a machinist. Do you want to know my degree of sickness? I use digital calipers in my shop and now I get upset if my wood pieces are not within 0.005" tolerance. Now that is sick, especially when wood can swell 0.020" or more from winter to summer.

I hope your prefabricated parts work out but if they don't, it won't be a deal breaker.

 

[THINGUM]

Please, Please, AND MY TOLERANCES ARE: somewhere between "we ain't building a Grand Piany, and
Good enuf for Govment work. U 2 guys remember your toughest critic is going to be a chicken.

Quote: "Build her hell for stout, "pretty" always takes care of herself" ...Charlie Settlemeyer

 

[Luke13:34]

I'm in CT with a retrofitted plastic playhouse coop. Actually,,.I did very little retro-fitting other than to add a roost, install a brick floor and throw a wooden box in for a nesting box once I got my first egg. I silicone-caulked along the roof seam and put spray foam insulation along the eaves and joints except along the front and back eaves to allow for ventilation. For the winter I screwed plexiglass onto the door windows and duct taped the shutters closed. The girls did JUST FINE over our big blizzardy winter. The water bottle inside the coop only completely froze a handful of times. I did put them into the garage twice when we hit below 0 degrees. If your friend has cold-hardy birds, she shouldn't overthink the retrofitting.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I know only too well!! Just remember that if DH does offer his help and he doesn't do it "just" right thank him over and over and then later put some trim pieces over it

I like building things "country" or I go with "shabby chic"....must less forgiving that way.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Gawd I am there. I work in CAD most of the time with sheet metal and tolerances in +-.002. So I Analyze everything to death. when It would be a simple matter of going out there and giving it a try to see if it works.