It's the Chicken Taj Mahal

I cannot tell you how much time and energy we spent getting our property ready for our birds - probably more than on any other project! There was lots of fencing to be built, and lots of gates, and then of course the little barn itself... but it's finally done (well, okay, except for some custom feeders Matt's still building).

We were feeling overwhelmed so opted to have the basic structure pre-built, but we painted it ourselves and outfitted the inside with all kinds of perches, nesting boxes, storage, etc.

While I would have liked to go a 'greener' route for the barn's construction, I have to say that I would do it this way again in a heartbeat, given our time constraints and the need for the structure to be super secure. Duane at Capital City Sheds did an awesome job - he pre-cut all the materials, showed up at our house at 8:00 in the morning, assembled the shed, and was gone by 5:00 that same day. Pretty incredible to watch, and much faster than Matt or I could have done. Not too expensive either.

Here are some pics of its progression.

Here it is with some paint (same color as the house), and with the lower fence posts in.

Upper fence posts added...

Side enclosures going in...

Some salvaged windows and a couple of Wooly Pocket planters (made mostly from recycled plastic bottles, how cool is that?) complete the front of the barn.

We're still planning to add a little cement patio/landing in front of the big door, with a small planter on either side for home-grown greens for the birds.

The barn interior and the yard is divided into two sections - one for chickens and one for the ducks and turkeys. The duck/turkey side has lots of nice trees and such, but the lower yard for the chicken is in need of some enrichment - I'm planning on adding a few maple trees but don't want to put anything too close to the fence because I don't want them to use it to escape. Any other enrichment ideas besides trees?

Bye-bye from Rosa. :-)

Our Bedroom

The perfectionist in me wants to wait to post these until we get our furniture and other pretty things moved in, but the pragmatist in me says 'get over it!' :-) so without further ado, here's the first completed room in our new house!




It's hard to get a decent photo of the whole room since it's very tiny. But everything is new - texture, paint, flooring, trim, and window! And I love the way the colors all turned out - three walls are a nice neutral beige, there's one orangey accent wall, and that gorgeous deep red on the floor.

For the walls, we used eco-friendly no-VOC paint from Yolo Colorhouse. I love this company because they don't have hundreds and hundreds of colors - instead, the designer and artist owners hand-select a few dozen awesome colors that they are sure will look good in your house, and they provide lots of guidance and suggestions about what colors will complement other colors. It definitely made me feel more confident in my color choices.

We are not fans of wall-to-wall carpet - it's just not practical with pets and kids - so for the flooring, we went with Marmoleum, a brand of linoleum that is made from renewable, all natural ingredients - no funky plastics or off-gassy glues - yay!

This room will be ours until after the final phase of our remodel is complete, which could be a few years down the road, depending on finances. Eventually we'll have a bigger room and this one will either be a guest bedroom or a second child's bedroom.

Oh yeah, Otis wants to make sure you know he helped with the painting in this room!

Etsy Shopping

I love Etsy - not only because it's been a huge part of my success in growing my own business (god, that sounds like an infomercial), but also because I can always find cute, unique, handmade things that are the polar opposite of what you might find at Wal-Mart or Target. Last night I felt like feathering our new nest a bit and decided to go looking for some homey touches for our new house (well, yard, I guess) on Etsy. Here's what I bought -

Hanging Bird Bath by phoebedarby

Cedar 'Rustic Row Houses' Birdhouse by CleggFarmCreations

Sunflower Seed Bird Feeder by CleggFarmCreations

Things are starting to come together out at the new house - this Saturday, we get new floor in the bathroom and our bedroom, and the week of July 19th, our bathroom cabinets, countertop, and shower surround are going in. We should be all set to move in after that (though there is still a lot of work to be done, so plenty more fodder for future blog posts). I can't wait to share all the details of our green bathroom remodel - we found out about some great products that I think you're going to love! Stay tuned...

Fence!

Phase one of our huge fencing project is complete. I guess there's nothing too green about a wood fence, but it's necessary for keeping our animals safe (plus I think I need to get over feeling like I have to apologize if not every single post here is 'green'-related; the unfortunate truth is that I can't always find an eco-friendly option, but I'm trying my best).

(That whole stretch to the left is done now; I forgot to take a picture after it was finished.)

I think phase one (the wood fence) was about 250 linear feet; phase two is a wire fence (close to another 25o feet, I'm afraid) that will separate two chicken yards from the human/dog yard, and phase three is another (much shorter) stretch of wood fence on the upper corner of the property.

On June 14th, our chicken barn is being built on-site (not by us; whew!); after that point, we'll execute phase two of the fence and the property will officially be chicken-worthy. Here are a few pics of our feathered friends, who are blissfully oblivious of all the work taking place on their behalf...