Our girls just moved into the coop last week. While I do appreciate that my husband is handy and does this stuff, it drives me crazy that he'll agree to something and then make random changes or just ignore steps.
For the coop I was being kinda picky--wanted something pretty basic and it had to look nice enough b/c we have no privacy to our yard so this structure would be on display to the neighbors. I found some on-line, asked his opinion but, as usual for these kind of things, got the 'yeah, whatever' kind of response.
Our problem is that *I* am the perfectionist/overthinker...although it's not that I need everything to be my way, but I expect follow thru on agreed upon plans.
While we did plan ahead and he was on board with getting the chicks (we even planned last spring that we'd get them this year), it was a very wet spring so there was little time to work on the coop until the last minute. FTR...I bought lots of the supplies and did bits of work where I could, but my greater contribution was keeping our young boys out of the way--that's just as demanding!
The most frustrating was when his builder/architect friend came over (great guy, a big help, but even worse about deciding that certain steps weren't worth it). The lame thing is that they made it more work! My husband complained that it was 'overkill' that the plans said to attach the corrugated roof at every single bump....it says every other. Interior walls, cut plywood rectangles and use a couple of screws to keep them propped in...but he has to make all these cuts to fit around the frame and then staple gun the poop out of them and then complain that it "doesn't make sense".
There are freaking pictures right there in the plans of how to cut the pieces! I lost 2-3 sq feet that way, the plan only has 18 to start, so it did matter. And deciding not to caulk, so I explain about ventilation and moisture wrt chicken housing and he says "well, maybe I haven't read as much about chickens as you..." Um, I read a lot and you have read exactly nothing!!! Then an access door to the coop...he does some random section of it, again with "it doesn't really make sense," when nothing about what he did followed the very easy to follow plans!
Then he went out of town when it was largely done but not livable. Poor chicks (6 of them) were in a large dog crate in the garage, i was putting them in a big bin each day and carrying them to a pen in the yard for some outside time. 2 more weeks of that was gonna put me over the edge, so I hired someone to fix and finish the coop. What a relief.
I find it funny the idea that us women-folk are (taking a break from watching soaps?) and getting some chicks then demanding the perfect coop be built right away!
In case anyone is concerned, my husband got to work in peace, had food ready for him, had clean clothes, and probably still spent more time hanging out with his friends that week than I did.
Do parents every really get a "day off?" I feel lucky to get a couple of hours to myself here and there. My husband has to do more than go in to work to "earn" a day off the watch a game.
For the coop I was being kinda picky--wanted something pretty basic and it had to look nice enough b/c we have no privacy to our yard so this structure would be on display to the neighbors. I found some on-line, asked his opinion but, as usual for these kind of things, got the 'yeah, whatever' kind of response.
While we did plan ahead and he was on board with getting the chicks (we even planned last spring that we'd get them this year), it was a very wet spring so there was little time to work on the coop until the last minute. FTR...I bought lots of the supplies and did bits of work where I could, but my greater contribution was keeping our young boys out of the way--that's just as demanding!
The most frustrating was when his builder/architect friend came over (great guy, a big help, but even worse about deciding that certain steps weren't worth it). The lame thing is that they made it more work! My husband complained that it was 'overkill' that the plans said to attach the corrugated roof at every single bump....it says every other. Interior walls, cut plywood rectangles and use a couple of screws to keep them propped in...but he has to make all these cuts to fit around the frame and then staple gun the poop out of them and then complain that it "doesn't make sense".
Then he went out of town when it was largely done but not livable. Poor chicks (6 of them) were in a large dog crate in the garage, i was putting them in a big bin each day and carrying them to a pen in the yard for some outside time. 2 more weeks of that was gonna put me over the edge, so I hired someone to fix and finish the coop. What a relief.
I find it funny the idea that us women-folk are (taking a break from watching soaps?) and getting some chicks then demanding the perfect coop be built right away!
