As mentioned yesterday, Jenn started painting the siding while I was doing irrigation stuff. Today, she continued, while I did some changes to the poop door, and mounted the two end windows. Read on for more.

Cutting in the paint on the siding.

West and south walls painted (barring touch-ups).

The large piles of door & window hardware to be installed.

I replaced and moved the handle on the poop door (see original), and replaced the hook & eye latches with gate latches, which work much better.

Hard to see, but there’s another gate latch to hold the door open, too.

East & north walls painted, and east window installed.

West window installed. Again I used a hook & eye latch, but am not pleased with how well it holds the window closed, so will probably replace it with a slide bolt or something. Hey, I need to go back to Home Depot anyway — my table saw died, so I’ll take it in for repair (fortunately I don’t really need it anymore for this project).

Today I finished installing the siding on the chicken coop.

Working on the west wall.

West wall done.

Offcuts.

Working on the north wall.

North wall done, and working on the east wall.

All walls finished.

West and south again.

North and west again.

It’s finally time for the siding. I’m installing HardiPlank lap siding, to match that used on the old coop and the house (or part of it). 

The first board in place. 

One wall done. (Other than painting.)

Fiddly bits around the pop door. 

Starting the east wall. 

Current progress. 

Today Jenn continued her painting of the coop; now all of the trim boards and soffits have been painted, just waiting for the siding.

Meanwhile, I finished installing ground barriers, installed the cute weathervane, and made a ramp for the pop door.

Painting done (other than siding), and weathervane installed.

Another view of the weathervane and painting.

Soffits.

Pop door ramp.

Today I took advantage of some fine weather to do a bit more on the coop, including mounting the poop door, and installing hardware cloth under the coop.

This is the poop door — a hatch below the roosts, that will enable me to more easily clean out the coop. The door is missing a handle on the left side currently. Though maybe I should move the handle to the middle? Not sure having handles on each side is all that useful after all.

Digging a trench below the edge of the wall.

Stapled on some hardware cloth (wire fencing), to keep the chickens (and other animals) out from under the coop. The top will be covered by the bottom of the siding.

Buried. Chickens are diggers, so burying it about a foot underground will prevent them from digging under it.

It was a bit drizzly yesterday and this morning, but this afternoon we both did some work on the coop. 

Jenn painted the window & door frames a bright pink, while I did some small stuff: I tweaked the front door frames, built a pop door, and pop controller internal door.

Just one picture today, showing some of Jenn’s work.

My original design for the coop didn’t include window boxes, but Jenn asked about it, and I figured I could add them below the two side windows. So this morning I did.

The boxes are cedar, with a plastic liner to help protect the coop and make it easier to plant. There is a plywood backer to give some vertical space from the bottom of the window, since that will hinge from the top. 

They’ll not only make the coop look a little nicer, but have practical benefits, if we plant things like mint and such that help to repel flies. 

I spent some time today finishing off the trim, including the corners and around the vents at the back.

Here you can see the trim on the corners and back vents.

A closer view.

Over the weekend Jenn started painting the coop in vibrant colors, inspired by Caribbean styles.