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):

I didn’t have time yesterday after sheathing the walls, though I did add the canopy over the roof. So this morning I added the Tyvek wrap to waterproof the walls.

Certainly not as tidy as a professional builder would do, but that’s consistent with the rest of the construction. The wrap covers all of the windows and doors at present (with loose vertical sheets temporarily over the front window and door, to keep the rain out). Later, I’ll cut holes where needed.

The inside view:

The coop is starting to look a bit more real now: today I added the OSB sheets to the walls.

The forecast for today was for sun, with the next week rather rainy, so I started rather early, to make the most of the sunny day:

Sheathing underway:

These quick-grip clamps were invaluable in holding things in place:

Done:

Inside:

Tomorrow I’ll add the Tyvek wrap before the rain starts, to protect the walls.

After finishing assembling the beehives (I should take photos of that), yesterday I worked on the sub-fascia and barge rafters for the chicken coop.

Here’s the sub-fascia, the boards connecting the bases of the roof rafters. They have a bevel cut to match the roof slope, and stick out beyond the side walls for the barge rafters:

Next up was constructing the aforementioned barge rafters, aka roof ladder, which are the bits of the roof that stick out on the ends:

Here they are installed (this morning):

As planned, today I mounted the rafters, that were previously constructed.

Firstly I needed to cut a smidge more off the birdmouth notches, to leave enough room for the OSB sheets:

Then I mounted the rafters on the coop:

Here’s a close-up showing the hurricane ties that help reinforce the attachment:

I didn’t have time to add the barge rafters (that extend beyond the walls) and sub-fascias (that connect the ends of the rafters); a project for another day.

Nice weather this weekend, so I’m taking advantage of it to continue work on the new chicken coop.

First up is the east wall, on the left of the coop. This is much the same as the west wall, except it has a “poop door” at the bottom. This will be a hatch to make it easy to remove trays that catch the chicken poop that accumulates under the roosts where they sleep at night, making it easier to clean.

Here’s the design drawing:

And construction underway:

Complete:

Next up is the center wall, which will divide the chicken’s part of the coop from the storage area.

The drawing for the center wall:

Finally, I added the double top plates to the walls. This adds extra rigidity to the structure. Here’s a view from atop the ladder:

And the whole coop, showing all five walls:

Lastly, a picture Jenn caught of me:

Tomorrow I’ll mount the roof rafters, and perhaps do the sub-fascia.