Empty nest syndrome.

It's moving day at this little house on the ditch.  Not for us (I'm never moving again!) but for the chickies I brought home just 6 short weeks ago.  Remember?  I had enthusiastically said they could stay in the house as long they wanted.  Silly me!  They have completely out-stayed their welcome.  They've been staying outside during the day, but sleeping inside at night.   They make the house stink and the cats told me they feel quite put out that they are not allowed to investigate the intriguing noises.

The snag in getting them moved outside sooner was that they had no place to stay that was warm, dry and safe.  We burned the old chicken coop in an effort to eradicate the chicken virus.  We had to build a new one before we could boot them out the door permanently.

Peter's original idea of a suitable chicken coop was a box with a door and a pitched roof.  Somehow that didn't suit my idea of a proper hen house.  Mind you, he built a fine sturdy box.  Absolutely functional.  While he was building the box I piped up and said - wouldn't it be nice if there was a window?  Peter trotted off to the barn and brought back... a window!

I found some paint in the barn that was a lovely hot pink and got all set to paint the coop.  Once I stirred the old paint it became a boring barn red.  Quite disappointing.  I was faced with a dilemma, the paint was free, but ugly.  Did I use it anyway?  Free won out and I painted the coop barn red.  It looked like a very nice box with a peaked roof painted barn red.  Not at all what my imagination had conjured up.

I needed cheap, colorful paint!  I started to haunt the paint departments in big box stores looking for cheap mis-mixed paint.  Really - the paint masters at these places need to make more mistakes in livelier colors.  I finally found an adequate green.  It wasn't hot pink but at least it wasn't beige, gray or barn red.  Peter found some cream colored mis-mixed paint on one of his excursions.  So there we had it - Green exterior with cream and barn red trim.  I'm too practical frugal to waste paint..

I had a vision that needed following so I got to work on painting, cutting shingles, making an entry cover and window boxes.  Peter provided me with a chicken stencil and had the great idea of adding a belly band.  It seemed my husband with the plain box idea was embracing the task at hand.  He devised clever double-hinged access doors, a pulley system for the chicken door and cut decorative trim.  I sure like him, he plays well with others!  Our original idea (yes, even mine) was to make a hen house that was portable so we tried to keep the weight of it down.  Around the time the chicken-stenciled belly band went up, Peter pointed out that weight just didn't matter anymore, it wasn't going anywhere!  I think we're considering adding a proper foundation under it.  Maybe a basement wine cellar...

Needless to say, all this decorating turned a simple one or two day construction job into a project that lasted a week or more.  But finally, today, the chicklets got to move in.  We still have some work to do on their yard, and a little more trim work to finish up, but the house is almost perfect:

The inside of the chicken coop is painted all white for easy cleaning.  Just to make sure that my girls start their day out right, I put this over their door:

I think I'm funny!