DIY
The last 3 days haven't felt like much of a weekend, but I'm glad we decided to do it on a 3 day weekend, because we otherwise would have had trouble finishing.
We started with the kitchen cabinets because we went from dark brown wood cabinets to all white cabinets. If we tested the wall color with the brown, it would have been inaccurate because of the light reflection.
The kitchen isn't done yet, and the house is still a mess. We emptied all the cabinets before we started sanding and painting, which was not exactly necessary, but helped keep dust on our glasses and dishes to a minimum. The reason I emptied them was because I wanted to wallpaper or contact paper the insides of the cabinets.
We still need to paint the walls and the trim on the cabinets, but we came a long way this weekend, and I think painting the cabinets was the most difficult and time-consuming part of the process. The paint on the cabinets isn't perfect, but we are planning to touch it up later. I'm sad that I wasn't more careful, but I had no experience painting, so now I know better.
Not sure when we will paint the walls and trim, but I'm excited!
It's done! We still have a few minor things to do, like add a handle to the door, but they moved in the second we finished. Sooner actually, since they invited themselves into the run while we were working. This was the longest I had ever kept them outside, and as the sun began to sink, they started making upset noises, as if telling us to hurry. Naturally, after a sweltering 11 hours in the sun, that didn't make me too happy.
But having the Goddesses moved into their permanent home definitely made me happy. We were so tired that we didn't clean up or even get proper locks for the latches, which is why a stick is in the back door latch.
I'm not sure why, but the egg door is my favorite part. I like the way it looks and opens; it's so fitting and makes so much sense. I chose and installed the latch, which was one of the only tasks I performed entirely by myself. At the store, I didn't really care for the latch, but when I installed it, the look of it grew on me.
I'm so excited to have the chicks out of the garage. I can't wait to reclaim the space, have it be and smell clean, and most importantly, be able step out there without stepping on poop.
If I didn't already say so, I bought The Garden Coop plans online for just under $20. For weeks I looked up info on making my own and trying to plan, but I overwhelmed myself with trying to include everything and hardly being able to make decisions. The Garden Coop plan had pretty much what I wanted with the flexibility to add whatever it didn't already include. My basic requirements, other than what chickens require (ventilation, space needs) were that my coop have an attached run, house at least 5 chickens, and look nice. I originally wanted external nesting boxes, a slide out poop tray or slatted floor, and some windows, but once we started building I realized these weren't very practical for our level of skill.
The creator of the plan was extremely responsive, friendly and helpful whenever I had questions. The plan was a great start, but I also think that having such a plan made us feel as if we were obligated to follow it. We began to deviate from the plan more towards the end when we began building the henhouse, but in the beginning, I wish we had deviated more. Part of it was because I did the hardware shopping and didn't know what to buy, so I just followed the shopping list on the plan. It was great because I didn't know what to buy, but it was also not great because I didn't realize that screwing the frame together would have been better than nailing it together. DH found this annoying, especially when we made a mistake and had to waste a piece of wood.
Throughout this whole process, I kept thinking about how long this was taking and how much we were spending, but I know that DIYing was the best way for us. Although this is our first construction project, I tend to prefer DIY because I like to customize. Also, pre-made chicken coops and event custom-built coops did not appeal to my aesthetics, and that was important. This structure would be an important part of the yard, and I would see it every day. I didn't want to open the back door and sigh in resignation or wrinkle my nose in distaste. The Garden Coop is one of the better looking coops out there.
Modifications:
We used larger redwood boards for the henhouse so we wouldn't have to sand and stain anything else. It actually wasn't too expensive, we needed fewer boards, and it looks really nice. Some of the boards are almost a salmon color, which for some reason I find funny.
I didn't like the hen door in the floor of the hen house, so we made it on the side instead, which wasn't too much trouble.
The original egg door was too small and required too many steps to cut and frame, so we simplified it by making one of the panels open. This probably wouldn't work as well with slimmer wood. Ours was 7.5" wide, so it worked very well.
I didn't like having the human access door to the hen house on the inside of the run, so we built it on the back wall, across from the egg door.
Instead of adding a spring to the run door, we used springed hinges. Our run door also opens outward.
We added two extra 2x4s under the hen house in the front and back to which we secured the hardware cloth.
I wanted to be able to secure all the latches, so instead of regular barrel bolts (which I bought because of the list), I got several different types of latches, all of which allow a padlock or something else to secure it.
Still To Do
For the hen house, we still need to put linoleum on the floor and add the final panel on the inside wall. Though we don't have to worry about it for a while, we also need to make the 2 nesting boxes. The run door still needs a handle, and the door framing needs to be put in.
I also want to hang a chain from the middle board underneath the hen house to hang the feeder, and I need to get proper locks or at least some sort of something for all the latches.
We also couldn't get a screw in this one spot on the side, so I want to make something to hang on it.
Future Reference:
As I mentioned before, we would have used screws on the frame instead of nails.
Also, we might end up cutting and installing windows someday. I'd like to be able to see in there without opening a door and disturbing them.
I have been thinking about adding another door on the side of the hen house for easier cleaning.
We also bought a different length for the framing wood than the plan suggested, which did not work to our benefit. We had a lot of extra wood leftover. This was good and bad. Good because we were able to use the scrap for other parts or to correct mistakes, but bad because most of it is sitting there and we don't know what to do with it. I suppose we have enough to give away or to make something else out of them.
I can't think of any other comments or specifics, but I'll post if I think of anything. I'm really tired now, and I want to lie down. I wanted to read a little, but it's a little late and I have an early day tomorrow.
I'm really looking forward to lazing around next weekend. We're not gonna be taking on any projects at least for the next 6 weeks. I, and I'm sure DH, look forward to a break. Woo!
A big, big thank you to my DH. I couldn't have done it without you! ♥
The storage at our house is very different from our apartment. We used to have an Ikea shoe shelf on the wall in our apartment, but since we don't know what we're doing with the living room yet, we haven't put it up. I had my shoes stuffed on a shelf in the closet, but I realized I need that shelf space for other things. I thought about having DH install the Ikea shoe cabinet on the wall in front of our room, but again, I wanted to avoid unnecessary holes in the wall since we might just move the shoe cabinet later.
Since we had a few spare wine boxes lying around, I decided to stack them together against the wall to create a place for my shoes. I haven't attached them together in any way yet, but I might in the future; wood glue would probably be best since the wood is too thin for nails or screws. I also steamed the labels off and scrub the boxes a little, but they look better without them.
I wear a fairly small shoe size, and my overlapping sneakers shows that this would not work for someone with larger feet -- my husband shoe size is more than double mine, so we can't store his shoes this way. But it's a good, inexpensive storage solution that looks nice and has a little personality. I might use these a bookshelf in the future or hang them on the wall and use them as crafty storage when I get my studio set up.
I came up with this idea last night when I was trying to sleep. I wanted to put something on the door of my new craft storage solution (wardrobe, pictures to be posted) that I could pin stuff to and I thought, why not make one myself? the concept is fairly simple, so today, I set to work. I had all the necessary materials on hand except the ribbon:
- Cardboard for the backing
- Fabric
- Buttons
- Ribbon
- Stuffing
- Staples
Unfortunately, the padding I used is too wide to allow the wardrobe door to close while mounted on it, so I may have to put it on the outside of the door, or maybe on the side. I actually think it looks like a giant pillow, but I guess that's alright. The whole thing only took a couple hours, and considering this was all improvised, I'm fairly pleased.
I measured the space I wanted the board to fit in my wardrobe.
After digging through my stash a bit, I chose my fabric and ironed it.
For the backing I used the box that our new tv came in. I thought the plastic handle could be used to hang the finished piece, so I used a section of the box that had the handle in it. I used the measurements to draw my cutting guidelines and used an exact-o knife to cut.
I specified the tv box because it is super thick cardboard; I'm not sure this project would work with standard cardboard boxes.
Once the cardboard was cut, I used it to cut the fabric to size, leaving an allowance to attach the fabric to the backing.
I laid out the ribbon on top of the fabric for placement, but in retrospect, I should have drawn an outline for where the edges of the cardboard backing was so I knew what size it was because the ribbon ended up being too widely spaced.
I first sewed the buttons to the ribbon and fabric so it would all stay in place when everything was put together.
Again using the cardboard backing as a template, I cut some old mattress padding. Thinking that the padding would need space to expand when compressed by the fabric, I cut the padding a little short. But the padding remained the same size when I squished everything together, so next time I'll cut it to size.
I tugged the fabric tight and stapled each side to the cardboard, stapling one side, then its opposite side. The back isn't finished nicely, but I was planning to adhere it to the inside of the door anyway.
