The latest update on the chicken coop: soffits. Those are the panels under the eaves. Not vitally necessary, but make it look nicer.

First step: boxing under the eaves, in line with the gable ends.

I then stapled insect screen in the gap between the underside of the roof and the top of the wall, between each rafter. This will serve as additional ventilation on both sides.

Here’s what the screen looks like from inside, before the soffit was installed.

Then I added a beam to the top of the wall, to help mount the soffit panels.

Here’s the first soffit panel in place. You can see the holes for the vents, plus temporary blocks on the wall to hold it while I nailed it. The gap between the soffit and opening below is sized for a trim board, to be added later.

The south soffit finished, with the vent covers in place. (Well, it still needs caulk and paint, of course.)

Same thing on the north side.

Then there’s the soffit on the east side.

And the west.

One more step on the chicken coop: adding trim and roofing to the awning over the pop door (the chicken door from the coop to the run).

Here’s the pop door, with trim added.

The wooden awning, with trim added.

Roofing paper.

Starter strip.

Shingles underway.

Done.

A little more done on the chicken coop: trim around some of the windows and doors.

The trim around the front window, egg door, and people door. (Not quite completed; still needs boards at the bottom.) I used wider trim around the door to avoid a narrow strip of siding between the two doors, and between the door and right corner (which will also have trim, not yet installed).

Trim around the east side window, looking through to the west side window.

The front and west sides.

The east side, including the poop door, sitting temporarily in place.

Closer on the poop door. I cut the sides narrower to allow for the corner trim (yet to be installed), and the bottom to fit around the concrete footings.

Back to working on the new chicken coop, in between work, garden stuff, etc.

This week I built all of the doors and windows.

Here’s the person door under construction:

These are the egg doors — double doors to access the back of the nesting boxes, which will be configured as “roll-out” boxes, where the eggs gently roll into a padded collection area, so they stay nice and clean and easy to collect:

Here’s the poop door: a hatch underneath where the roosts will be, with trays to collect the night-time poop for easier cleaning:

These are a couple of the vents on the back of the coop, temporarily clamped in place:

This is a small Lexan window that will go between the above two vents, covering the pop door controller. It needs a window as the controller has a light sensor to automatically close the door at night, and re-open it in the morning:

Here’s building the front window, that will be above the egg doors:

And the two side windows:

Finally, all of the doors and windows together, after being caulked (somewhat messily, but the paint will cover that up):

Continuing on the roof, today I installed the roofing paper (underlayment).

The easy first row:

Then it’s time to go up on the roof for the first time. Yes, I hadn’t been up there before; the sheathing was added via ladders from the ground and inside.

It’s quite a steep roof (about 35°), so I built a temporary safety ledge attached to poles to enable me to go up there with less risk. The nailer is because I also needed to finish nailing the roof sheathing, where I couldn’t reach from ladders:

Finished the south side:

Here’s a view of the temporary safety ledge from the ground:

Working on the front (north) side, from a ladder:

Close-up of the roofing paper, a plastic cap nail, and the drip edges:

The north side, with its own safety ledge and lots of ladders:

Finished the north side:

Taking a moment to enjoy the view of the pond and gazebo from the top of the roof:

Finally today, I finished off the metal drip edge (the gable ends go on top of the paper, whereas the long ends go underneath). This picture also shows the slopes of the roof:

After a few days on other stuff, it’s back to working on the coop for a few days — the weather forecast indicates it’ll be fine till Thursday, so hopefully I’ll be able to finish off the roof before the rain resumes.

Today, I added the fascia boards on the edge of the roof:

Plus the drip edge on the long sides (the gable ends will get their drip edge on top of the roofing paper):

Time to start on the roof!

Here’s me:

First OSB sheet installed on the roof (the small wooden bits sticking up on the edge are to temporarily hold it in place before it’s nailed):

One side done (again with a temporary block):

View from the top of the front wall:

The front sheathed:

Inside, looking up. The gap at the peak is for a ridge vent, to let out heat and odors.

A little addition to the chicken coop today: a wooden awning over the pop door (the chicken door into the run).

In due course it’ll have painted trim and shingles on the roof.

Here’s the side design:

Construction underway:

Completed (for now):

Underneath (the door is still covered, but outlined):