Coop Building Has Arrived

Well...the coop building has finally commenced.  In fact, it's about 75% complete - at least complete enough for the chickens to move in.

My intent was to have the coop ready for moving day today, but underestimating old age and weather played factors against that goal.

The building plan finally started on Friday after work.  The final location was selected previously, but I finally went out to make sure the location  was going to work.  I cleared out some snow and then measured the space.

I previously mentioned this, but I had to make sure that the structure was going to be within 6 feet of the house so it didn't count as an accessory building.  By not being an accessory building, I didn't have to pay for additional permits or have to have the land surveyed again.

So the space chosen is five feet from the house.  The structure runs 10 feet wide by 8 feet long.  The run will be added later once all the snow is gone and the ground becomes more stable - so I'm hoping by mid May this can be accomplished.  Lets see how realistic that is.  I'll let you know what the odds are once the Office Skeptic harasses me on Monday.

Where was I?  Oh yeah...Friday afternoon.  I cleared some snow away and measured the space.  Then it came time for setting the foundation.  That was a cold mess.  It involved a trip to Home Depot and working with cold, wet paver base.

The plan was a cluster-f@#$.  I didn't take the time to actually frame out the perimeter (first mistake).  Instead, I just kind of placed the blocks where I thought they should go (I did measure for distance, though).  I used the paver base to raise the blocks on the sloped side of the space and to even out the other blocks.  The first row went fine using this method.  The blocks were even and spaced apart correctly.  The second row, however, is when things went to hell.

The first block got placed (seemingly) correctly.  It was level to itself and to the neighbor block already placed.  Then came the block on the end.  Again, it level to itself and to the neighbor block.  When it was time for the middle block, everything fell apart.  When it was level with its neighbor to the north and east, the south one was too short.  When I tried to 'fix' that, then it got out of level with the other ones.  Long story short, the attempt on Friday night was aborted as my hands started to freeze and it just wasn't coming together.

Let's sleep on it and revisit in the morning.

I like sleep.

On Saturday, the first thing to do was to go pick up the window and siding from the BMO and check out to see if there was any more interior siding to pick up.  Nope.  So home it was with the goods.  Got them unloaded into the garage. 

Floor frame and sheeting begun.

At this point, the idea was to just bring the floor frame out to the foundation supports and see how out of whack everything was.  Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as it seemed from the previous night.  Sure, blocks had to move and be re-dug and centered.  But with the frame there, it was much easier to see how everything needed to align and to check for level. 

Now that that hurdle has been cleared, it was time to put on the floor sheeting.  That was a relatively simple task that didn't take too much time.

Then it was off to Menard's for the side windows and other supplies.  Originally, the roofing materials were going to be purchased there, but for a few cents more, the decision was to go to Home Depot instead.  Off to Home Depot.  Now at Home Depot, the roofing pieces were purchased - including all the framing materials and sheathing. 

Back home, it was time to have lunch.  Dang...lunchtime already and not much has been accomplished.

Helper dogs.

After lunch, it was time to start cutting wood and framing the roof.  It was at this time that I had to head back to Home Depot to rent the framing nail gun again.  What a time saver.  It was also at this time that I started to panic about how the roof was going to get put on.  So a few texts were sent out to friends and happily they accepted and came over a few hours later.  Whew...load off my mind. 

Once home, it was time to frame the roof and install the walls.  This was very simple and didn't take too much time at all - less than two hours.

At this point, it was around 3pm and the friends showed up to help hoist the roof up.  But first, they had to help put the windows in.  That went pretty quickly.  The little side windows took a few minutes each.  The big window took a little more time, but was pretty straightforward, too.

Yea!  Four walls and a floor done.

Then it was time for the roof.  But that part of the story is going to have to wait.  It's bedtime.  More to come tomorrow.