sn0wwhite's Wichita Coop for the Twin Cities

[sn0wwhite]

Hi Blondizamilz and welcom to BYC! I had a ton of leftover deck wood and probably could have gotten by for less $, but I was frightened due to my huge inexperience. I'm sure now I'll have a double ton of leftover deck AND coop wood. I think I will put it out for free with my leftover pallets and sort of "pay it forward" to someone more talented than I.

 

[blondizsmilz]

Thanks so much for the warm welcome! I am really loving this website and making new friends with fellow chicken lovers. Hope it all goes well with the leftover wood for your project. Hope it goes up faster than ours (he only works on it Saturday & Sunday).

 

[sn0wwhite]

It was too wet to get much done today. We screwed together the 4 bottom frame boards and placed them on the blocks and the strange part is that although the level says it's level, there are some gaps between the boards and the blocks. I'm going to try to lift the blocks up a bit for a better fit, but I don't really want to do it in the mud. I'll try tomorrow after work.

I'm doing this by myself and with the help of a friend of my husband's. Our marriage seems to go better when our home projects are not done together. And the craziest part about that is we both work together at the same company and there we work great together! Here... not so much lol.

 

[stormrider1]

It was too wet to get much done today. We screwed together the 4 bottom frame boards and placed them on the blocks and the strange part is that although the level says it's level, there are some gaps between the boards and the blocks.

I had the same thing, I ended up leaving the gaps and figured with the weight of the coop and time it would settle down level, we will see.

 

[sn0wwhite]

Well, I lifted a few of the blocks with the biggest gaps and pushed some sand under them today and put in the two outside back corner posts.

I have to ask... how do you all do this? I'm constantly checking the Sketchup plans for measurements. Do you just know where to put boards? I think I'm going to be bringing the laptop out to the garage to check as as I go. I usually follow recipes the first few times I make something, and this feels like something I need to follow so I don't have problems later - or is it more forgiving than I fear?

Those angles side posts for the sloped roof scare me...

 

[sn0wwhite]

And when in the process do you sandwich in the wire?!

Oh, oh. I'm having that panic attack part Again where I feel inadequate to accomplish this.

 

[aart]

A small gap between one block and the wood probably won't matter if the wood is level, putting sand under might hold or not...unsettled fill doesn't usually stay and it usually doesn't matter.

Building things takes time...and thought....especially if you've never done it before.
Can you print out the drawings?

Just go slow and take a break if you're feeling overwhelmed.
You'll probably make mistakes, but you'll learn from them and how to fix them.
I have to do this and I've been building stuff for 30 years.
Often the anxiety comes when a big or difficult step comes up, take a breath and get thru it, you'll gain confidence on how to deal with it the next time.

Not sure what plans you have and if they have detailed instructions or not.

Hang in there, try to Have Fun!

 

[sn0wwhite]

Thanks, aart! I just have these periodic panic attacks. So far we have this:

And I realized as I was trying to fall asleep, that if I want to sandwich the hardware cloth, it might need to go behind those boards - but I'm following a combination of the Baldesarriclan (sp?) plans and pictures. Of course, I can't hang wire on the air, it needs something to attach to...

Tonight I think I will "position" the hardware cloth. I'll put it behind those posts and hopefully it will be rigid enough to be in place as I put up the next posts.

And since it's getting dark before I want to stop, we're getting some lights to give us the ability to work at least another hour in the evening.

Thanks for talking me off the ledge... I can see I'm going to need that rather more than I'd like.

 

[stormrider1]

And when in the process do you sandwich in the wire?!

Oh, oh. I'm having that panic attack part Again where I feel inadequate to accomplish this.

I had the whole thing basically framed up before I started putting the wire up, I actually started putting wire up because my wife couldn't keep up with painting boards for me. I didnt actually start sandwiching until the very end, since it was sturdy enough with the just the first set of 2x4s. (I sandwiched all my hardware cloth between 2 2x4s) If you want any close up pictures of anything let me know, or I will try to help with any questions if needed, since I just finished almost the same coop. Looks like a good start.

 

[sn0wwhite]

I was just too worried about getting that wire behind the boards so I took them down and put them back up with wire tonight. One of my big reasons for building THIS coop is to get all the wire edges covered since I was getting cut to death on my old coop. This is how it looks tonight.

I plan to do the same thing with the front 7' wall tomorrow and save my next panic attack for tackling the angled cuts on the side walls.