Chicken Coop project commences: Day 1

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! The chickens will have a permanent home sooner rather than later!

--Just had to put this photo in because it is SO darn cute.

First decision was to make a plan, and then a plan of attack. I decided on an 'urban coop'--something that would easily fit on any urban or suburban lot, since my goal is to make these and sell them here in Eugene, where the concept of backyard farming is a hot topic. Incidentally, Taylor and I visited a new business in town, The Backyard Farmer, and he is definitely interested in seeing what we come up with, as he is interested in offering coops for sale; he has lots of requests, but no time for building them himself. We were so tickled that we asked! We plan to finish this coop, then drop by with photos and a proposal to consign chicken coops at his business!

We decided on a 4x4 footprint, with a storage space, nesting space AND a roost; and I decided to make mine tall enough to stand comfortably in, but the ones we will propose to make will undoubtedly be somewhat shorter...So off to the lumber yard we went, then promptly got to sawing and nailing. Made a square, filled it in with two joists, then covered it with OSB. We didn't have any 48" square OSB, so we pieced it together, and put down 2 layers to strengthen seams.These were scraps that we had, and I will be covering this with a low VOC, waterproof epoxy paint, for ease of cleaning. (all the painting will happen at once, at the end of the project.) Ultimately we plan on using salvaged goods as much as possible, but because I'm not too savvy about where to salvage bulding supplies in Eugene, and also because I didn't want to waste a lot of time 'making do' we bought supplies for this project. I also wanted to get a sense for how much these would cost to build, as opposed to using salvaged goods.

The only other thing I did this first day was to trim the windows I purchased from a very nifty place here in Eugene. I had gone to our local thrift store and asked if they knew of any place in town that was like a thrift store for builders. A customer overheard me asking, and pointed me to Bring Recycling. Um...JACKPOT!! Everything we will need can be found here, and more. It will be a great jumping off point for moving to a 100% post-consumer product!

Incidentally, I find myself laughing at my propensity to do something, stand around and admire my work while I ponder my next step. 'Shades of my father' as my mother would say. :)

Next Step: Walls. Hoping that tomorrow is a sunny day.