UPDATE: Pics URL on post #24: Journal of a newbie coop builder

[Whitewater]

18 May 2010, later

My, how things can change in a few hours. Yet another neighbor signed our form, she walked up to Hubby and I as we were putting siding on the far back wall (the one up against the chain link fence, more on that below . . . .), and she seems really nice. Wish she was our other next door neighbor instead of Eastern Guy! She says, "I'm not an egg person . . . maybe I'll ask you for some around the holidays, when I bake", LOL. That made me laugh. I think she agrees with us, that it's sad when we have to ask our neighbors permission to have pets!

So that was good.

As for coop construction -- yep, there's more. I came home from dinner with my mother with the urge to build something. And since there was a good hour of light left, that's what I did! But DANG, folks, when planning your coop's location make sure you have plenty of room around it for whatever you have to build right there! Learn from our mistake . . .

Yes, I can squeeze back there in the 12" or so between the left wall of the coop and the 4' chain link fence, but that doesn't mean it's comfy, nor does it mean that it's easy to work back there. Lest you think otherwise, trying to screw 2" screws into thick cedar siding when you barely have room to drill in a level position is NOT FUN. Thank Heaven Hubby came out to help me hold the boards, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it.

I also put together the 3 walls and the lip of the nest boxes. I would have put on the 'roof' of the boxes, but we're using that really nice, thick plywood for the boxes, and the 30" 'roof' was just too heavy and unwieldy for one person to hold it in place AND screw. Tomorrow, when Hubby comes home. I also found a half a quart of colored wood stain that will be nice for the nest boxes (obviously I can't put untreated plywood in the coop!) at Home Depot tonight in their 'oops' cubby, for fifty cents . . . huh. Guess I better get out there and start painting if I want to get the boxes done tomorrow, whoops!

So. Two out of the four walls have their siding on, tomorrow evening Hubby and I are going to put up the other henhouse wall frame and the angle brackets for the run frame (which means that we can also put the door pull on the run door and actually start using it, finally!), and I hope before he comes home from work, that I'll have put most of the siding on the egg door/nest box wall, so that we can take measurements and get the hen house floor cut and put together tomorrow also.

I'm really starting to hate that siding. Not because it looks bad or anything (actually, it looks fabulous, which is what's keeping me going with it) but because it is SO HARD to put on. If only I was six inches taller! As it is, I'm really sore right now and am not looking forward to doing more of the same tomorrow.

Because we don't have 36" OSB, just 24" OSB (it *is*, however 3/8" thick), we're going to cut out sort of a 'sub-floor' out of 1/4" plywood that we have hanging around, then tack the OSB onto the top of it, then put the vinyl on over THAT. Screw it all together with the 2" screws BIL gifted us, coat the plywood bottom with lots of poly stain, and be done with it.

Before Hubby comes home tomorrow I want to have gotten at least two coats of stain on the siding and got as much of the siding on the 'egg wall' as I can.

I think we're going to have to call another work day to get the roof taken care of. And I am not looking forward to putting the hardware cloth on, either, but it has to get done.

It's coming along nicely. Looks wierd without a roof, but hey

Whitewater (who is going to go out and paint the nest boxes, and then is DONE with this coop for the night!)

 

[Prospector]

If I could humbly make a suggestion, you may not need to OSB at all. The 1/4" may be enough if you just put another piece of 2X4 under it to support the load. Why not put the 1/4" stuff in, and see how rigid it feels. If you think it feels OK, then just put the vinyl right on it. The plywood will stand up to water/dampness better than the OSB would anyway.

Glad you got another signature. I'm cheering for you!!

 

[kfchickenlady]

Go Whitewater!!!

Good luck getting your last signatures, if it were me, I would talk to them about why you want chickens, how hard youve worked, etc. and ask them to HELP you by signing. (people love to feel like they are heroes)

or tell them whats in it for them if they are the more self centered type

Of course, anything else such as cookies, eggs, etc wouldnt hurt either

I just know you will do it and have a beautiful coop and happy chickens before you know it. Next, you should find other chicken owners in your city and see what can be done about changing those LAME rules so others wont have to go thru what youve had to endure!

Posts like yours make me very thankful to live where I do.

Cant wait to see pics of the coop! @

 

[Whitewater]

19 May 2010

Well, I'm feeling much better about things tonight. We got 2 signed forms in the mail today!!!

Oh, and pictures can be found at this URL: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/577727046doZyzb -- if it doesn't work out right, let me know and I'll try to fix it.

Today, I worked on getting the siding on and getting some stain on it, as the weather report calls for rain for most of next week, poop. I guess we get to see just how rain-proof our coop really is!

Hubby came home from work and joined me, we got the little brackets on the far side of the door, which meant that we could actually USE the run door, yay!

and we got most of the siding on the egg door wall (not quite all, gonna have to finish that tomorrow, and put siding on the hen house wall . . . ), and framed in the last hen house wall.

We are now officially done with the framing!!! Yahooo! Now, it might not sound like much, what Hubby and I did today, but it took me an hour and a half before Hubby came home from work, then it took both of us another 3 hours to get the final hen house frame done. It's a solid frame, lemme tell ya, this coop could probably withstand a tornado, the way it is right now. It might not look like much, and it might not be square, quite, but believe me, it is SOLID. I don't think we over-engineered all that much, given that we have two feral cats roaming about AND Hubby and I saw a young raccoon tonight about 9 blocks away, by the lake, searching for dinner(while we were driving to a restaurant for our OWN dinner!), so . . . Coop Knox it is.

Tomorrow I get to finish putting the siding on, and then stain all the new siding. And maybe I'll go to Home Depot to buy and then install a door latch/lock system for the run door . . . right now it's just sort of sitting there. And just FYI . . . we have more siding than we know what to do with. Seriously. We could build a whole other coop with the stuff we have left. Hubby and I are seriously considering using the rest to make a compost container, about 5'x4'x3' tall, 'cause we hate to just leave this stuff sitting around (and we'll have 2x4's left over too). It's higher quality than anything I've seen in a long, long time . . . we were extremely lucky with this particular Craigslist find. And right now our compost is just a heap next to the garage!

Oh, and a funny thing -- our dogs have taken to the coop and really enjoy sitting and laying in it. I think they think we're building them a deluxe dog house! Boy, won't they get a surprise! Willow has taken to lying in the shade created by the eastern side of the henhouse and napping in the dirt, I hope she's still that calm when there's chickens on the other side of the (yet to be installed) hardware cloth!

We have 8 days to get 2 more signatures, then we're home free.

If I get ambitious tomorrow I may start measuring and marking the cuts for the coop floor. We'll see.

But boy, this is a tiring business. If I didn't care so much about giving any animal that I take responsibility for the best home I can, seriously, I would have found an easier set of plans. But this is the right coop for our current urban situation. It's just taking forever!!!



Whitewater

 

[kfchickenlady]

nice job!

 

[Whitewater]

Thanks!

I hope it looks ok to new eyes, I've been working on it so long (and I'm kind of a perfectionist) that all *I* see when I look at the pics is our mistakes!


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

21 May 2010

Well, it rained for a good while last night and the untreated siding on the coop held up ok, but the stuff on the ground is still very wet. Thankfully we won't have to use it for anything! Looks like the unfinished pine held up well too.

I hope it's dry now -- shortly I'm going to go out there and get the stuff done today that I should have done yesterday (despite the fact that it's cold and cloudy and blah . . . ), ie, finish the siding and stain the naked 2x4's.

We got yet another form in the mail yesterday and that brings us right back to where we were before the city messed us up -- waiting on that final signature from our neighbors. We can't turn the permit application in until we have all our paperwork, you see!

I am very tempted to do some, uh, *fudging*, to provide that last sig., but I know that's not right, so I am resisting the temptation. I did, however, write up a nice letter saying how we appreciated the outpouring of support but that we still need one more sig., etc etc, along with a picture of a black australorp hen, so that people could see what we want to get. Maybe the cute picture will give that one neighbor the push they need to turn in that final signature.

We can but hope!

If the rain holds off I think I might start putting on the hardware cloth too, if I get really ambitious and the staining/siding doesn't take as long as I think it will.

We'll see.


Edited to add:

After working on the coop for about 4 hours, I have stained everything that's exposed, put up some of the hardware cloth, finished the siding on the egg door wall (well, done as much as I can until the hardware cloth gets up there), and I attempted to put the siding up on the hen house frame, but gave up in frustration because the studs just weren't taking the screws, and I didn't want to mess with it. Tomorrow Hubby (who is taller than I am, and stronger) can help.

My plan for tomorrow is to work on the hardware cloth, with or without Hubby. It takes FOREVER to pound in all those poultry staples and I figure, I can do some, take a break, do a little more, take a break, etc, and go on like that most of the day.

I really want to get that egg door finished and on. And I really want to get the henhouse floor in there too. On the other hand, I have found myself swinging once again back towards 'Oh, why am I doing this, we'll never get our chickens, we'll never get that last permission form . . ." blah blah blah. Objectively I stand back and look at myself and how my feelings can flop around so much (all because of one piece of paper!) and I just can't believe it, I've always been a pretty levelheaded person, but this is making me go from one extreme of mood to the other, like there's actually something wrong with my head.

I dunno. I'm going to have a snack and then go to the gym, at least I can get some cardio work done and literally work off my frustrations. Hopefully gym time will also bring my emotions back to an even keel!


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

22 May 2010

Well, we *were* going to have a work day on the coop today, just Hubby and myself, but Mother Nature had other plans and today we all got woken up early by a raging thunderstorm. The thunderstorm has now cleared out, but it's still pretty wet and not very sunny (and really windy) and all in all, not very good coop construction weather.

But we're going to have to get SOME stuff done today, regardless, because WE GOT OUR FINAL SIGNATURE TODAY! which means that we ARE getting chickens and we ARE getting inspected by Animal Control within the next 20 days and we WILL have to have a finished coop to show the officer.

Um, yeah.

I'm thinking we can go do some indoor stuff in the garage, like put the floor together, while we wait for everything to dry off. My biggest issue now will be to keep myself from using all the tricks I know to save time -- building sets for a theatre show also tends to give you a firm deadline, and I learned a ton of tricks to get the sets up and done by opening night. Unfortunately, those tricks really screw with the quality of the build and leave you with something that's, well, flimsy at best.

So we'll have to work as well as we can, as fast as we can, and see what happens. I will also call Animal Control on Monday and ask them what the inspection is all about, and would showing the plans be enough, and so on, and see what they say.

And I get to email our 'farmlette' today (hey, it's what they call themselves!) and tell them that we've FINALLY made some progress with the permit. Yay!

I am so happy right now. It's been interesting, emotionally, building a coop for chickens that might never actually appear. I guess it's like Noah, building his ark on faith, despite his past and current circumstances which indicated that an ark was a totally unnecessary expenditure of money, time and worry.

Noah built an ark, I built a chicken coop -- and we were both rewarded in the end, despite not knowing at all, in the beginning, what was going to happen. Just illustrates the importance of faith and hope and never giving up.

Here's hoping the rest of the permit process goes smoothly, and the rest of the coop building goes reasonably quickly!



Whitewater

 

[Prospector]

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope your chikies appreciate all the hard work you've done!

 

[Whitewater]

22 May 2010, later

I added 4 more pictures (the stuff we did tonight) to the coop pics up in my webshots album . . .

Here's the URL again, if people need it: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/577727046doZyzb

Well, once the wind died down some and the sun came out, the day actually wound up being pretty nice, right about 5pm, as I noticed when I came back from Home Depot with a bunch of 3/16" fender washers -- whoever came up with that idea, you are a GENIUS, by the way -- some door pulls and a quart of oops paint for the floor. The washers are a bit shiny for my taste right now, but I figure a few years of wind and weather will dull them up nicely.

I grabbed Hubby when I came back from HD and we did as much work as we could, given that we lost most of the day due to the weather. We put up an entire wall of hardware cloth (the wall beneath the egg door wall, it's the smallest one!) and installed the hardware cloth on the other walls where the siding is for the henhouse. That was so we could finish putting up the henhouse wall siding, which is exactly what we did, we even managed to stain almost all of it before the 2nd quart of stain ran out.

We only have the hen house access door wall yet that needs siding, and then all the walls will be done! We were trying to get all the siding on today because it's supposed to rain again tomorrow, and we got most of it, like I said. 8 more boards and we'll be good to go. In theory I can do that tomorrow, but only if it doesn't rain.

Hubby and I also cut most of the OSB needed for the henhouse floor -- we would have cut it ALL but the battery on the circular saw ran out. So it's on the charger now, and I'll finish cutting tomorrow since I can be in the garage while it's raining *and* I still need to paint it, even though we're covering it with plywood and then adding linoleum. I don't want to take any chances with moisture, so I'm going to paint the bottom of the OSB that will hang out in the atmosphere in the run, then cut the plywood and paint the top of the plywood, to get a moisture barrier between the plywood and the linoleum. I don't want any wetness to create mold!

We also discovered tonight that we do in fact have enough plywood to cover about 95% of the OSB, which is nice. We discovered that since our OSB was 84" long x 24" wide, that we needed to get creative with the measurements in order to get the floor right, which we did, and it will all work out quite well, though (again) not like the Garden Coop plan -- between the size of the OSB that we had and the real measurements of the hen house (very different!) we basically used the GC plans as a template for our stuff, and changed whatever we had to change in order to make it work. The plans call for a floor in two parts (that fit together) so that you can get them in and out via the hen house human access door, for cleaning or repair or whatever. And our floor is surely going to be in two parts, just not the same two! LOL!

Tomorrow I also get to put on as much of the hardware cloth as I can, and some of it I am NOT looking forward to, mostly the two rear walls, because there's only about a foot between the coop and our chain link fence, and as I said previously, it's a real tight fit.

The hardware cloth was the right decision for us. It will easily keep the cats out and it will keep the young kids out as well, who I just know won't be able to resist the chickens. They probably won't even be able to stick their fingers in the chicken's run, which is a good thing. The last thing we need is for a trespassing kid to get pecked on the finger by a curious chicken!

Oh, and we re-hung the run access door entirely tonight. It now swings open in a totally different direction and hangs upside down, but I think it looks better upside-down than right-side up! I took a picture, you be the judge

I also got a cheap door pull and a hasp that can be padlocked for the run door. Going to get another hasp (they don't have those at the ReStore, unfortunately) for the egg door this week.

Plans for this week include finishing and installing the henhouse floor and putting the egg door and henhouse access door into their places.

In theory by the beginning of Memorial Day weekend, we'll have the floor, the doors, and all of the walls (including the hardware cloth) done and installed on the coop.


Whitewater