My new coop project

A couple weeks ago I saw an ad in Craigslist with this picture:


It's an 8' X 24' fireworks stand. It's made out of 8' X 8' panels that are bolted together. All the front panels are 1/3 hardware cloth and 2/3 plywood. Should let in lots of light and air. The section along the top that says 'fireworks' is hinged to fold down over the wire sections. There are 3 shelves along the back wall and one along the front. It has full sized doors on each end.

So I bought one! Of course I did, he only wanted $200. The lumber alone would have been over $500, and I don't even want to THINK about all the hours of measuring, cutting, nailing etc. it would have taken (not to mention bandaids, muscle rub and pain meds) to build something this big from scratch.
We've been getting it all put together over the last couple days. It didn't take long at all to bolt it all together, maybe 2 hours total. It took a LOT longer to put down a foundation of concrete bricks so the wood wouldn't be on the ground as it isn't made with any treated lumber and we have termites in our soil. It has a dirt floor.
I've been taking pictures of the progress and will be posting those starting tomorrow after I take the roof pics.
The thing came with enough 'extra' panels to make it actually 32' long, and we are dividing it into 4 separate 8' X 8' rooms. There weren't enough roof panels to cover more than 2 of the rooms so we put galvanized tin roofing (that I whitewashed to reflect our strong summer sun) on half of it, the other half has plywood covered in roofing paper. The two rooms with wood ceilings are going to be a storage room & an incubating/brooding room. The other two will be breeder pens for the Barnevelders we want to get in the Spring. The inside divider walls will be chicken wire. Yay! I actually get to use CHICKEN WIRE for something useful! Who would have thought? LOL
The ceilings are 8' high. I've never had a coop that I couldn't reach the ceiling. SO much space.
So far we have the foundation, the walls and roof, and framing for the inside dividers/doors finished. The storage room is whitewashed with 2 coats and looks great!
The outside of the building has a LOT of advertising banners and posters covering it, and they are all glued on with gorilla glue or something cuz we can't get em off! Those will have to be painted over. We bought a 5 gallon bucket of barn red paint, hoping it will be dark enough to cover.
Anyways, this is really an exciting project for me and I am just thrilled by finding such a great deal!
More to come tomorrow.............

 

Quote:DH and I had a 'discussion' about the "FIREWORKS" poster. We agreed that ONE picture of the purple hooded phantom could stay, but everything else is getting painted over.

Mainly because the Sheriff has already been here asking to see our permit to sell fireworks, LOL

 

I have a really slow internet connection so it might take as long to upload all the pictures as it takes to finish this coop!
But here are the panels in my brother's trailer behind my house:



DH (on left) & Brother unloading the trailer.



Everything stacked on the ground:



Bricks being laid out:

 

Gryeyes: Bantam Barnevelders? errr.......I wanted the bantams, but DH thinks the eggs are too small
Who are you getting your eggs from?
"What dear? Why are those hens so small? Oh, no, they aren't bantams, they are still growing...........heh heh heh........" I wonder if that would work?

 

Some of the walls up:
(I forgot to reset the date stamp on my camera )


Gratuitous pic of Vern and Puffy watching the construction:

They might be getting just a lil bit jealous about now, since they live in a slum coop