Because the farm, can I call it a farm if it’s only 3.46 acres?, has 5 outbuildings on it and one seemed well suited to becoming a new chicken home, we decided not to move the coop up here. Plus, Mike wasn’t confident that we could successfully get it here since all the main routes are 50 mph plus. He was worried the metal roof on it might come off at speed.
So I sold it to Jessi, who works for the Everett Herald, and her husband. They live about 15 blocks from our old house and want to get chickens this spring. On Thursday night we took down a fence panel along the alley, backed their truck up to the yard and four strong men lifted the coop into the back of it. Well, it wasn’t quite that smooth, but almost. Hopefully Jessi will send us a photo so I can share!
Anyway, there’s a shed here that we decided to turn into a coop. As I was out of town when the property inspection took place I asked Mike how much work it would take to turn it into a coop. Not much was his response. Welllll, that was a bit of an underestimation. When we got here on Friday the first thing I did was go check it out since the girls were in the old puppy crate in the barn (and had been in the crate for 24 hours already). And I was dismayed to find this:
Definitely worse shape than I remembered. And way worse than Mike told me it would be. I was really concerned that the girls would be stuck in a barn stall indefinitely. And turn into mushrooms while they were there since there’s no power to the barn and no easy way to let them outside from the stall. It opens up fairly close to the closest neighbor and I didn’t want to meet the neighbors because my chooks ate their garden…
The shed floor was pretty soft, and holey in parts. The roof is missing part of it’s top layer of cedar shake shingles and so leaks along the front edge. The windows were empty holes and there was no door. I was sure this was going to take weeks to fix. And maybe wasn’t fixable.
Luckily, Mike had better vision than I. And we’re pretty dang handy! And the building turned out to be fundamentally sound, just neglected. Turns out that there were plenty of materials stashed in the barn, garage and generated from a bit of demolition.
So in 6 hours, and with only a smashed finger apiece, Mike and I managed to turn the above into this.
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What did we do? Well, we demo’d the weird falling apart wall dividing the inside into two. Then we overlaid a new plywood/strandboard floor by piecing together scraps that we found. We fit an old door that we found in the barn into the open hole and then put in a sidelight by using the glass from a crumbling 4-pane window that was in the tractor shed. There’s a hen-sized door below the sidelights, it’s just closed in the photos. We put chicken wire in the windows to keep out the rif-raff.
We did all of that for $0 dollars using the found materials and hardware / chicken wire that we already had.
Of course, today we put up plexi-glass over the windows for winter and a new roost bar to finish it off. But that only cost us about $50 so we’re still not out much, all things considering. Tonight we covered the floor in straw and the girls moved in after spending 3 nights in a stall in the barn (not in their crate). I think they’ll be glad when they wake up tomorrow.
Of course the roof still needs to be replaced, but we’ll get to that in the next two weeks. We’re just going to tear off the shakes overlaying the 3-tab asphalt roof and screw down a metal one. And the whole building could use a few coats of paint and maybe some newer siding in places this summer. But for the moment the girls are warm, dry and safe. And that’s what matters, isn’t it?
*****
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that coop is bigger than my first apartment
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(and in better shape, now that you got to it
Looks great! And all reused/repurposed materials, even better! I see you’ve been checking out the Tiny Farm Blog that I sent you, isn’t it good? I’m looking forward to lots of good photos of your new challenges/opportunities. Have fun.
P~
Yay for you guys!! What a great restoration! I cannot wait to see it all painted.
Already into re-use mode, sooon you will be dimp picking, err, freecycling with the best of us
Fabulous job, the chooks will LOVE it. What a coup! I mean coop!
Congrats. on your move! Great job on the restoration. It’s so satisfying to do a project using all found items. Can’t wait to see it painted this summer. Also looking forward to reading about life on the farm.
Debbie
Wow. What a great job. The pictures were each worth 1,000 words. Already you have great stories which is the best sign of a good home. Congratulations.
I’m seriously impressed that your ingenuity and creativity solved the problem in creating a coop fo your girls. But I’m even more impressed that you did it right after moving into your new home!
This truly shows your dedication and devotion to your chickens.
Well done!
Congratulations on a successful move Laura! I’m glad to see that you are loving it and settling in nicely.
The before shot of the shed reminded me of the current state of the playhouse next to the pond at Grandmas…but you really cleaned it up nicely!
Congratulations on the move! I think the hen shack is fantastic. I’d take it
Anita – it’s bigger than my first dorm room by far. They’ve got it good, too bad they don’t realize it
P~ I love the Tiny Farm Blog, thanks for pointing me that direction!
Farm Mom – I’m looking forward to getting it painted too, then hopefully it won’t be so ugly… But first I have to choose a roof color.
Ali & Debbie – I know! I’m a bit bummed that we used up a lot of the free materials that we’re stashed in the barn and sheds on this project. We’ll have to do some real scrounging for the next one.
Katrina – thank you. I’m trying to make sure that I’m documenting everything we’re doing because it’s always so much fun to look back and see where you started.
Twinville – nice to see you, great blog by the way.
Nikki – I don’t know, I think the playhouse at grandma’s is in way worse shape – last time I looked in there it gave me the creepie crawlies…
Sugar Creek Farm – thank you for the compliment, means a lot coming from a real farmer.
Horray! Looks wonderful; great to have handy skills.
Not to rain on any parades, but please do be careful about using old peeling painted doors; it’s likely lead-based paint, and chickens looove to eat paint chips. I had a little freak-out about that myself a couple years ago from a lovely re-purposed door that was painted with interior lead-based paint that chipped off in big chunks. We went so far as to have the eggs tested, since chickens will pass along lead in their eggs and we were giving them to friends with young children. Everything was OK and we got rid of the door, but I’m still wary of chipping paint! Good luck!
Thanks Gina. I’m sorry you had such a scary experience with it!
We were concerned about the same thing which is why the ugly side is pointed outside. The inside isn’t peeling at all and has a nice shiny coat of flesh colored paint on it (though likely still lead based). The entire thing is getting a couple of coats of nice solid latex next week so that the lead will be encapsulated.
We figured we’re okay for a week or so since everyone is currently on a laying strike anyway. I think Lucy’s even decided to go into full molt again from the stress.
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