waffling-decisions, decisions...

[gottadance]

OK - this decision making thing is hard! Part of me is like, just trying to save money, it's a chicken coop, do it on the cheap, and the other part of me is like, well, if you're going to do it and you've got to look at this in your back yard, do it the right way, so you'll be happy with how it looks, just spend the $. LOL

I'm building an 8 x 8 coop with a plywood roof with shingles. I got a ton of deck wood in good cond for free, a whole bunch of shingles for free. Picking up some hinges for free after work. I have two human doors from other projects I can use - I like both of them. But two things I'm stuck on - the run and the run roof. Someone sold me a dog kennel - 13 x 7.5 x 6H new in box for $125. I figured that it would be easier to just set that up and one less thing to have to build (or pay someone to build). I would just put some hardware cloth at the bottom and over the top, put a tarp on it and call it a day. For the windows for the coop, I just thought I'd find some cheap windows from craigslist or ReStore, etc. But then, I was thinking about it and since my coop/run will be right in my back yard, I want them to look a certain way. So now I'm thinking of selling the dog run and having the run built the way I want it, with a roof that matches the coop roof. So I keep waffling and going back and forth. Now I found some old farm house windows for $25 each - four of them - large - that I'm thinking would be perfect for the coop and in keeping with the rustic look of my house/yard.

LOL - anyway, so, I keep swinging back and forth between cheapo way and nice/more costly way. My handyman is coming over tonight to give me an estimate on building the coop - I think I'm going to get an estimate with the run and without the run. He's usually very reasonable. I thought about building the coop myself, but I'm just pretty clueless when it comes to that stuff.

I just want my coop and run built and done - I tend to over think things - and I've been thinking and thinking and thinking. Now I'm getting impatient with myself - just get the darn thing built! Plus - work is getting in the way of my coop planning. Need time off, but we're short staffed. Need to make my final plan so I can figure out how much hardware cloth I need....well maybe I'll have a better handle on it tonight after I see how much the handyman wants to charge.

 

[gottadance]

Oh - that's another thing - the guy who gave me the free wood, is also now offering me his free metal tool shed which is in pretty good shape - I'd have to take apart then it's mine. But I'm not thrilled with how tool shed's look - cold metal, utilitarian. But the fact that it's free and lightweight, easy to reassemble is very tempting. He lives five minutes from me. LOL

 

[MyShunshyn]

Our coop is an old metal shed.... and here is is.......

the only thing we had to buy was the chicken wire and fence posts.. oh and some shade cloth, we are eagerly awaiting our lil chickies too
much can be said for FREE stuff!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Yeah but could you take it, disassemble it, then simply use the bits to reconstitute as some much better-looking coop? The metal sides/roof should be usable as siding/roofing (perhaps interchangeably -- the siding should be fine for roofing a run, for instance...)

Materials is always a good thing to have extra sitting around of.... (that sentence hurts my brain, I'm not even going to TRY to go back and fix it, sorry LOL)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[gottadance]

yes, I'm a believer in having extra materials - you never know how you'll use them.

Got the build price from my handyman -he wanted $1,300 just to build the coop. I told him that I understood there was a lot of labor involved, but that I could buy a shed from HD for $650 and have my bf help me me put it up. I already have lots of shingles I got for free - yes it would have to be modified - chicken door, windows, but the framing is what is the real issue for me and the bf - we have no skills at that at all. I'm sure we could figure out putting on shingles. Might take us longer than you handy people, but we'd get it figured out.

Anyway, since I've got all of this free wood, and free shingles, I still want to have mine built. I've now moved on to another idea - trying to barter to have it built. I have a 1950s dinette set I'm trying to trade for the build. We'll see if I get any takers. I have a diamond ring I'm not attached to, but I've been trying to sell the set for ages and want it out of my garage.

 

[lady feathers]

Take the meatal shed, use the metal for roofing which saves you other materials so you can build a bigger coop to house MORE CHICKENS!

 

[wingsofglory]

Wow, for $1300, I'd take the metal shed, put a door on it like MySunshyn's and your $25 windows. Then put the $1300 into a dream run: big, secure, and partly covered by your free lumber and shingles.

There are YouTubes on how to build if that might help, seeing it done. Walls are just a big ladder-type affair hooked together and covered with siding or plywood.

 

[domino7]

To me, the framing is the easiest part. Build it yourself. You will be richer for the experience.

 

[WallTenters]

It can be so much fun! Build it, find some old windows and paint them a cute color, etc. Look at all the way cute coops people post here on the forums and on the site that are decorated! I'm hoping we'll finally be able to finish our coop this summer and get it all painted and cutesy, but right now it's a terrible frankenstein coop!

But we still have a lot of good memories building it!

 

[urbanfarmette]

i was thinking of having our handyman help us or get us started. my husband and i are not handy at all. i'm good at drawing out what i want but beyond that i don't have any carpentry skills. my husband is supposidly an engineer but the man is literally afraid of tools and has no idea about construction whatsoever.

maybe your handyman would consider gelping like ours? do some reading on framing walls (maybe something basic and easy to read like "remodling for dummies") and look at the coop design page. then call him and ask how much he would charge for bringing over his tools (things you don't have like a table saw) and working with you and your bf for 4 hrs. for liability reasons, let him do the cutting on his table saw while you and bf put it together using your own tools (you'll need a drill, a level and not much else). he'll be available to consult on how to frame, etc. even if it's $100/hr it would probably be worth it. sure you could get your home depot shed for less but this way you're getting what you want and learning too. have your design drawn out in advance with measurements, angles, etc. build a scale model. get all of your supplies (research what is best--ex. galvanized nails and screws tolerate moisture well). you could even mark your boards in advance where they need to be cut. do as much work in advance as you can so you can use the time he's with you the best and not be trying to figure out how big this or that should be or taking too many trips back to the hardware store to get things (but there will be at least one trip back--there always is!).

4 hrs should be long enough for him to cut all the wood with a few short breaks to give advice/help.

jessica