Over the past few days I started painting the duck house.

But first, I removed the roof, so I could paint to the edges of the walls:

The roof will be screwed to the walls on installation; it is kept separate for now to make moving it easier. Here’s the underside of the roof:

Some more caulking:

Then it was time to start painting. I started with red paint on the walls. This is the same red as on the cat house (leftover paint):

Then blue paint on the doors; again the same as on the cat house:

Then white paint on the trim around the doors:

And the trim and interior of the walls etc; here’s the south and east sides:

East and north sides:

North and west sides:

Inside, looking at the treat door and nesting boxes. I didn’t paint inside the chicken coop or cat house, but ducks are very damp, so I wanted to paint everything here, using outdoor paint, to help protect against moisture. Note that this is only the first coat of white paint, so is still a bit patchy; it’ll get a second coat later:

Inside, looking at the west wall with the duck door:

Next up: the second coat of white paint, which will conclude the painting.  Then I can attach the door hardware, and do the roofing. Once I buy some drip strip and shingles.

Last Saturday I finished off adding the battens for the fake board-and-batten siding.

Here’s the front (west) wall:

A closer view of that wall.  There’s a gap between the bottom of the battens and the loose board above the awning, as it will be attached after the roofing shingles, which will raise it up a bit:

The north wall, with new battens to the left of the maintenance doors:

The east wall, with the cupboard doors, and new battens below the doors:

The south wall, with the sliding vent.  The wall behind the vent cover is recessed enough to allow for the battens (almost like I planned it, eh):

I drilled a hole through the wall from the cupboard for power cords (power to the house, and from the house to the pond pump).  To make them tidier, I added a conduit with a removable cover for the wires to travel down the wall:

Here’s the inside of the power cord hole, and the cover for the inside, with a notch for the wires:

I also added a surround to screw the cover into:

And a similar surround for the power cord hole between the cupboard and main part:

Finally, I added a couple of boards to the back of the cupboard to enable adding screws to mount the power strip and light timer:

That concludes the construction phase, at least until I build the floor joists and ramp. Next up: starting painting!