First project in the new house: chicken coop

In this household, we love projects. From planning, to purchasing materials, to the manual labor, I love it all! It's invigorating to see it all come together. We try and do all of our remodeling projects ourselves, with a lot of help from Matt's dad (he loves a good project as much as we do, and he's retired!) The house we just bought was at the top of our price range and although the materials inside aren't my taste- tan, granite, light wood... there isn't anything wrong with them, so that means I'll be living with them for a while.

What wasn't in great shape was the chicken coop.

Isn't it so tiny?

The previous owners had 4 chickens and we were lucky enough that they stayed with the house. We were so excited to get them. The girls fell in love with them when we saw the house the first time, and Elle quickly turned into the chicken whisperer. It's so funny to watch her with them! The coop was in pretty bad shape. Very tiny, an eyesore, and my least favorite color to decorate with-red! I had been pinning different chicken coops since before we closed on this house and found one that I liked and was practical. We used these plans, but made our run longer by a few feet. Next thing I knew materials were being ordered and our first project was underway. We used hardware cloth as opposed to chicken wire which was on the existing coop for extra protection on keeping things out. I also knew I wanted it blue, so after searching and searching, I ran into Home Depot and just grabbed a shade- I don't suggest doing this, I normally do sample after sample, but I was short on time and had to make a game time decision, I love the way it turned out. The girls loved "helping" Pap and I love the memories they made. 

You should have heard the chickens squawking when their old pen was removed. They were mad!! This new home more than doubled the size of their run, so they quickly changed their tune! What I love about this plan is that it's so large you are able to walk right inside to clean and the doors of the nesting boxes are low enough that Elle, and eventually Wren are able to open them up and gather the eggs. 

 

         Wren wearing Pap's gloves <3

        My girls taking it for it's first spin

Our first dozen eggs!

Since building this chicken house, we decided to add a few vents to it and will put rectangular roosts in instead of round, apparently chickens usually prefer one over the other- ours like rectangle. We still need to landscape around the perimeter, but the hens are in and loving it!