A Room for the Chickens

We did not get much done today. As a work weekend this has been largely a bust. I spent much of the morning doing some design work on the built-in chicken feeders and nest boxes I'm working on, but made little progress because I could not get the saw I was working with to do the things I want. I need to spend some time and make a good jig.

Then Noel came home from a cultural event and we got a larger concrete drill bit. With the larger bit the anchor bolts went into place perfectly. Progress was slow, but we got ten bolts in around the foundation. This shed is not going anywhere.

Anchor bolt in place

(Anchor bolts keep the shed from overturning in high winds, and also keep it from sliding off its foundation in earthquakes.)

Our next order of business was correcting some mis-framing we did yesterday. Somehow, I failed to put the window for the chicken room in the right place, and it ended up way too far over to the right in this photo, so the center wall overlapped it.

Stud to be moved

We knocked out that stud and put two more in on either side of where the window belongs. Then we put in two studs to use as nailers for the plywood lining of the chicken room.

In the meantime, the chickens were just sort of roaming around the yard, and every now and then they would come and check on our progress.

Chickens inspecting the work

And here we are at the end of a really frustrating weekend. We have plywood up on three walls of the chicken room (the fourth wall is the doorway). We have the shed attached to its foundation. But we need to get siding, we have a lot of blocking and the framing around the windows to put in (after which we will cut out the windows from the chicken room, I guess). And, oh yes, a roof to frame out.

Plywood chicken room in place

I guess it's a good thing that it's not going to rain here until October at the soonest, because this has gone much more slowly than I had hoped. On the other hand, the little shed side of the shed feels really great. It's going to be a terrific room.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

posted by ayse on 06/08/08