The egg house

Ok here it is..... my first house designed and constructed by me - it may be a chook house, but it is a house providing shelter from the elements and most importantly from the cunning fox for my lovely hens and most handsome rooster.

The inner scavenger came out in me on this project as I went through the sheds on the farm that had been left full of building materials and tools. Oh the treasures I found...it was a recyclers dream.

From a very sketchy design that evolved as we went, the little hen house was completely constructed from recycled and scavenged materials from the farm, with my own hands. urghmmm..cough...urghmmm... I would love to say that I built it entirely myself, but I did need some instruction, technical advice and assistance from Dan's dad, who taught me how to use a nail gun and power saw, put on a roof, cut joints, skew a nail, and succeeded in not taking over to much (as dads can and usually cant help themselves from doing), but kept it rudimentary in construction, just as I wanted it. It even has a skillion roof so rain water can be collected, since water can be scarce round here.

I enjoyed building it so much and it was really rewarding - physically being able to do the work and more so seeing the process of something that began as a rough sketch in my mind form into something tangible. It has inspired me to learn more about building and particularly carpentry so I can get some of these ideas/dreams for furniture, garden sculptures, and cubby houses out of my head and into reality.

The kids had a lovely time helping me select a colour and eventually paint it a lovely shade of blue. The Chickie's seem to be enjoying their new house, providing us with a lovely supply of eggs and many chases around the farm catching escapee chicks. Yep, the next building project is to construct a more adequate fence to keep them in the yard during the day.