Thursday, March 22, 2012

Chicken Coup Saga Final: Painting the Outside.


Have you ever had a project go well? Like really well? Like maybe you were painting outside and the weather was perfect without a cloud in the sky? And the it was perfect temperature and you had enough paint and paint rollers and there was no running to town in the middle of a job to get anything because you planned ahead enough? But the whole time you are worried because nothing ever goes this well and you are not sure if a tornado can appear from a clear sky but you can't relax because you are waiting for something bad to happen?

Just me?

It was kinda freaky. Everything went well. It was a wonderful day. We did have to cheat the dry time between coats to three hours instead of four, but otherwise it went just fine. There was only a few hiccups. Like when I certain cat, who shall remain nameless, decided to rub herself all over the wet paint and now she looks like a bad tie dye job, or the chickens throwing dirt at the fresh paint because they have no appreciation of hard work, or that fact that we kinda forgot that white paint plus sunshine equals blindness. But those were minor things and all in all it went super awesome. Almost too awesome.

At this point, at the end of project I should say some stuff about what I would change, and what I liked about it.

I know, it's just too pretty for words.

What I would change about it:

Not much. I think we could have gotten away with the building being shorter. It's a full 10ft in the front, and 8ft in the back. We could have 8ft and 6ft and it would have been easier to put up. A lot easier. Also cheaper. My only real regret, my true regret, and you might think I'm crazy, is that we did not build the whole thing out of stone. Just the foundation. With the time limit we had though, (the old coup was in it's death throes) we could not really have done it that way, it's just you know stone.

Yes I put real house windows in my chicken coup. Don't judge me.

What I like:

I am not going to lie. I did my homework on this one. I like the fact we put in vents up high, so fresh air comes in but it does not blow directly on the chickens, or me. Which is great in the winter. I love Love LOVE the tall ceiling. It's like, I dunno, a cathedral. But for chickens. I don't know what to say. A ludicrously tall ceiling in a chicken coup just makes it feel like a temple, like it's more then just a utilitarian structure.* Window placement was awesome, they get sun in the morning and early afternoon, but not late afternoon evening, which will be a big plus come summer. I like the perches we installed, which are made with real two inch think tree branches instead of the two by four they used to have (two by fours hurt their feet).

BOO YA!

I like the fact we installed a full size, metal house door on the front. Most people make little chicken houses. You know, chicken sized chicken houses. NEVER DO THIS. Oh it might be darling to have to bend over ninety degrees to get inside for the first week, but anytime after that you will hate yourself. It's sooo nice just to walk the fuck in and not have to crawl inside through a fucking Umpa Loopma door.

The chickens love it too. I have never had so many eggs. So many eggs.


Hey anybody need some eggs?

Hello?

Anybody?

Damn.

*Yes this is unabashed love for my chicken coup. Shut up.

Confused? Here's Part One.

3 comments:

  1. I love it! It's so cute and I'm impressed that you guys put it up(I wouldn't know where to start). Made me laugh because, here the chicken coups are basically a box, maybe 3x3 feet in floor space... so when I saw that you had actually built a house for them I was amazed! Lucky chickens! And I love the:

    "a fucking Umpa Loopma door"

    cracked me up!

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    Replies
    1. I told Scott, I'm sick of hitting my goddamned head.So we made it ten feet tall. It might have been a little bit of overkill on our parts.

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  2. I love the Umpa Loompa door, too.

    And I feel good for your chickens. Delaware is central for corporate chicken farming. We got 'em all: Tyson, Perdue, Mountaire, Allen... But they're huge giant farms. I'm a big fan of free range. nice.

    and yes, I'll take fresh eggs!

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