La Coop Grand Hotel

Usually being a Craigslist addict gets me in trouble. There is not a day that goes by that I cannot find a great deal. Our outside area is proof of that. Stacked everywhere are the deals I could not pass up. It has paid off occasionally, like the time I built a small addition to our existing barn with wood from my treasure piles. I have also made a couple of  25' long garden beds with my great deals.

My husband tries to reason with me, no more deals. Don't even look at Craigslist......yeah, right, ok. I wish they had meetings so that I could go rid myself of this addiction. Now that I am retired, I have justified my searches with only looking at the free listings, well, most of the time.

OK, now the story of the grand chicken coop that we are building. As I was "just looking" one day on Craigslist, I saw this ad for a shed that had been torn down and was this horrible looking pile of wood in a driveway for $50. Fifty dollars! I could not let this one go, I had to be the one to get the deal of the century. Like a drug dealer calling me up with a clearance sale on some drug.....So I called the number on the ad. Several other people had also called ahead of me. I kept calling her, yes, people came to look at the pile but walked away.Yes, I was getting further up the list.

Finally, after 3 days, she called to tell me it was still available and I could come look at it. It looked horrible. Just this huge pile of splintered wood full of nails that no matter how hard I tried, I could not see anything that looked remotely like a shed until I got to the bottom of the pile, there they were, beautiful large double doors that even had a locking mechanism, these doors looked exactly like the kind on a "Tuff Shed"! I could not give her the money fast enough. Problem was, she required the shed to be removed from the driveway immediately.  I told her that it would be gone by the end of the day. My grandson and I made 3 trips with the big truck and I had my shed.

Now, to figure out how to piece it back together! The seller had no plans, no information except that it was a 12x12 shed. My husband found the same type of shed at Home Depot and took alot of pictures inside and out to use as a reference for building. By the way, the shed at Home Depot sells for $3,400 !! Some of my husband's military buddies showed up one rainy weekend, I kept them happy with lots of good food and beer and ta da! A chicken coop rose from the pile of wood!

I knew that a 12x12 shed is big but this thing is massive! There is a place for a window, and we are adding corrugated plastic skylights on both sides.

The second picture shows how big it is on the inside, Hubby is installing the nesting boxes on one side with a hatch on the outside so that I can gather eggs from the outside if I want.

I cannot wait until it is done, which I hope will be this weekend if the weather cooperates with us. And as an added bonus it matches our existing barn! I have big plans for this grand hotel for hens. Once it gets painted on the outside, my granddaughter and her best friend are coming over to paint murals on the outside. It will be so cute! We also are going to paint signs for the coop and the chicken pasture. Since I do not have any roosters, my granddaughter wants to paint a sign to go over the door that says,

NO BOYS ALLOWED!!