Coop Progress!

It's true. I actually picked up my tools and started framing up the front of the coop today. AND I remembered these funky recycled stained glass windows I have stashed, so I'm plotting how to incorporate them to light up the coop. And then, just as I was fading out, my neighbors showed up and were kind enough to help me frame out the back wall and get them squared up on the platform. Aww yeah progress. Tomorrow will be finishing framing the sides and starting on the roof.......

Recycled window!!

Front wall framed!

We got this! Go Mel.

Front and Back frames up! Tomorrow the tie in!

Did I mention how stinkin cute the chicks are? Despite being a bit mcscruffles as their feathers grow in, they are calming down and becoming more curious about the big giant human....

F*#% Yeah, Urban Chickens.

I had no idea chickens were like little people (peeple?). Seriously. Only now my house is just one big chicken chaos zone with flapping, dragonball-fighting little wingnuts rocketing around the office and escaping every 10 minutes. I NEED TO GET MY ARSE IN GEAR AND BUILD THE GD COOP.  No more messing around. I mean it. really. These girls need their own house by the time they finish feathering their little butts out.

Caro is nothing but a little troublemaker

Ethel, on the other hand, is the adorable runt.

So I trenched out a space and started assembling legs. Then added some cross braces and a plywood base. Now I juse have to bury some hardware cloth to keep racoons out and level out the frame so I can start framing some coop walls.

Sadie on hawk watch duty. Trench for legs in background

OMG. Squaring shit is harder than expected.

I may have to call my girls in for some motivation this weekend (and beer. lots of beer.)

Already Finished -Before and Afters

Tiny kitchen gets part of a wall knocked out (and floor torn out)

Other side of the kitchen. Pink floor gone, much more open. word.

Master bedroom gets a deck and a window turned into a patio slider.....

The Master Bath - Before

The Gloriousness of The Master Bathroom as-bought. You wish you had this pepto bismo - aquamarine awesomeness at your house. I'm tearing this mutha out, first chance I get.

Suddenly, Chickens.

No seriously. I was at the start of a nasty bout of flu, I had just finished a project in another city two hours away for my "real-job" and I noticed the farm store. Hmmm, I thought, I've been looking for a trough to use in my bare-earth to magic-veggie-garden remodel and I should check that place.  To quote Kit verbatim (over at DIYdiva.net) "I just happened to be at Tractor Supply on Saturday, and there just happened to be chicks in the breeds I was considering making adorable little chirping noises that sounded remarkably like they were calling my name, and then I may have blacked out for a minute and the next thing I know I’m sitting in the car with this little box of nuggets next to me."  You cannot make this shit up.  Had I been thinking about chickens for my little urban garden experiment? Absolutely. Did I own anything that might indicate chickens were actually on the horizon (Like a coop or a chicken feeder thingy or even a book on chickens?) Nyet. Nein. Nope.  And Suddenly, Chickens.  Six of them. Girls.  and two hours to drive home wondering what the proper ambient car temperature is for 6 tiny little fuzzbuckets that make WAY more noise than someone who's never owned chickens would expect. And, oh hell, where am I going to put 6 tiny baby chickens that my 3 oversized dogs won't think they are scooby snacks? nuts.

That was one week ago. And I'm proud to announce all 6 baby chickenses are still flapping and squawking on this earth. I screwed a bunch of scrap together for an outdoor playpen and acquired a darling hot pink kiddie pool perfect for six chicken girls to start life in. In my home office. I even acquired 'chick grit' and have been frantically searching the internet for urban coop plans. Because now. Oh yes now. The little chicken girls are getting feathered up. And discovering that they can flap them little wings something Fierce. And flying chickens have not yet been prepared for. Only cute squawky running chickens. What to do? Two words. Chicken Guantanamo. and I need to get my arse in gear building a coop.

Caro is going to be a lap-chicken

The night residence

 Oh my god. Coop construction begins tomorrow. I think I'm going to adapt something like THIS: http://thetanglednest.com/2012/12/infographic-how-to-build-our-coop/

Because when you live on 1/4 acre in the middle of a large city, space and style are at a premium.

The First Ten Months - Exterior

And what, you might wonder, does an overambitious, type A single woman decide to do first? Something nice and safe and tame like painting a room? or knocking down all the cobwebs?  NAAAHHHH. Let's make a list of "shit I feel like doing to the house".....

1.) New Roof - I don't know why, but I've always seen this house as a Mediterranean beauty with a large front courtyard and a water-wise California front garden.

After ripping Two different roofs off.....

 

New Tile Roof? Hells Yes.

Now we're getting somewhere.....

2.) New Exterior Paint - Peachy beige is not working for me. Maybe something is a bright cream color?

I live in this room more than the living room...

3.) A big, livable front courtyard with raised beds.......

 4.) Start getting rid of that water-sucking green lawn (I live in an irrigated desert, ya know). Alright, I admittedly only got half done before I burned out (and nearly threw out my back shoveling out lawn and shoveling in DG.

 One side of lawn out out, One side of garden bliss in...

And now, for my next act..... the biohazard suit - worthy interior........

The House I Bought.

There she is. My first house. Purchased 10 months ago and in need of a serious overhaul. So you know that saying about your eyes being bigger than your stomach? In my case it's all about my "I can totally learn to remodel the whole house myself" being larger than my rational brain. And so it began....... Did I mention I didn't even own a drill or a saw at the time of purchase? Or that I tend to get in a little bit over my head? Giddyup.

And yes, it came with it's own stockpile of abandoned crap and squatter trash. Yippee!