This summer we toyed with the idea of putting our house on the market. We had never planned on living here forever- honestly, we thought we would live here a few years and move up to a bigger house. Well, the housing market has had other plans. We looked at houses, at land, dreamed a little. We de-cluttered and painted the house to tone down some of the crazier colors. We researched other comp houses in this area and came to the conclusion that we aren't going anywhere. With 3 houses for sale in our neighborhood (on our street alone), we're pretty sure that houses like ours just aren't selling. So we decided to do something that I have dreamed about for years. We got chickens. I have longed for chickens for a long time. Many years ago, while babysitting, I saw an episode of Martha Stewart's show where she talked about her chickens that layed colored eggs. I was hooked and dreamed of having chickens. But the timing wasn't right for a long time- we didn't want to put down the roots of getting chickens because it would obviously make it more difficult to sell our house. Plus, with the revolving door of newborn children that have shown up in our house over the past 5 years, I have been a little busy. With the children getting older, it seemed like a nice time to bite the bullet and go for it. But we had to figure a housing solution for the chickens. I found coop plans online but the cost factor and the fact that we've never built anything before was scary. And buying a coop pre-built was crazy expensive. However, luck would have it that, as always, Justin managed to find a way to make my dream come true. He found a large shipping crate from one of his jobs and envisioned a coop. So, he hauled it all the way from West Virginia in the back of a pickup truck. Two weeks before he was able to come home, I jumped the gun a bit (shocking, I know) and purchased 3 red sex-linked pullets from Tractor Supply. But where they going to live? I made a brooder box for them from a plastic storage box and they lived in the corner of the kitchen. For a little bit of outside fun, I built them a "playhouse" for temporary outdoor time. But the coop was to be their permanent home. Justin came home with it on a Wednesday evening and first thing, Thursday morning, we got to modifying it to make it a home for chickens. We built nesting boxes, we cut doors and windows, w framed out the run, we went to Lowes no fewer than 6 times. And after 4 days of work, we had what we consider a little masterpiece in our backyard. A chicken coop. A real honest-to-god chicken coop. And what is a chicken coop with just 3 tiny chickens? That is certainly not good enough for us- we called a guy with a Craigslist ad and 3 hours later, we had 6 more chickens. And a couple of hours after we got home- we had an EGG!!!! I was checking the inside of the coop for something else when I spotted it. Excitement and disbelief- those would be understatements to convey my emotions. So here we are. We have our ladies in the backyard, our kids running around in the woods (what tiny bit of wooded area we have), and a firepit in the backyard ready for s'mores. It's not the country home that we long for, but it's as close as we're going to get and it's home. And it looks like we're finally getting settled in.
The coop pre-construction
The coop pre-construction
Justin and his work of art (I'm so proud)
