Wildwood Cottage Alaska: Homestead Experiment #18-Our Free Chicken Coop (Update)

Wow! Our chicken coop has been prepped, pieced, and painted (somewhat) and now it is a freestanding structure! Woo Hoo!! We still need to add the nesting box, grind off some long bolts, add a door, handles, caulk and more paint, but so far, so good! I sincerely thank the Lord for that!

So what about the "free" part of the experiment? Well, we are off to a good start. Along with all the free lumber and supplies I listed in the last post, we also scored free exterior paint (Benjamin Moore no less!) from the 'dead paint' wall of our local paint store. I had asked via local yahoo boards for leftover remnants people might have, and some participants pointed me in the direction of this paint treasure trove. It just goes to show it doesn't hurt to ask! As you can see in the pics below, we were able to get the red and white barn look that we were after. Hooray!

We also found a free doggie door frame attached to an exterior door I had received for another project down the line. With a scrap piece of luan, we will have a great door to secure our hens.

Where did our budget get off track? Well, let's just say I never thought I would spend over $100 in nuts and bolts! Actually, we also bought hinges, handles, clips, and many boxes of screws for that. Still, out of all we had to buy, none of it was lumber; it has been all hardware! I admit, I am somewhat sad that we didn't get to make it for free like I had hoped. However (!) in all those home decorating shows where they claim they can "....make over an entire room for $___..." they do not include the cost of hardware, sandpaper, and painting supplies. So, that being said, our coop would still be considered 'free' by their standards. I just think that's really manipulating the truth. ;P

So, here are a few pictures of our hardworking construction crew on the job. I hope you enjoy! Be sure to check back for more updates as we near completion.

Rolling on the brown base coat before the red.


Next coat! Hint: Let the kids roll with a 'trim' roller. It takes longer but gives them more control.

Joining two of the closet doors together to make one long wall on the a-frame.

Have you ever seen the inside of a hollow-core door? It's basically very thin sheets with horizontal slats running the width of it. Here you can see the gaps stuffed with paper to help them show up better.

We used salvaged rubber sheeting to cut wide strips to wrap and staple around the cut edges. This will also help make a gasket between the walls.

We added a 2x4 to each end of the pallet. This is what we will use to initially attach the end walls.

My handyman attaching walls to pallet.

3 walls up!


Attaching the side with the hinged door. This will be our point of entry to clean the coop. My hubby is 6'1", so you can see the relative height of the building. It is roughly 60" at it's peak. We will actually be resting it on salvaged tires to elevate it for drainage.