Chicken Planning

So I'm on the path to chicken-hood. How do I get there? Where do I start? Well, I started with making sure Bobby didn't think I was going crazy (he may think that, but God bless the man - he says he's on board) and getting some essential reading material:

After skimming a few chapters of the above I presented myself with the following questions:

Is it Legal?
  Before I got too carried away with daydreams of fresh eggs I had to figure out whether it was legal or not to have chickens in my area. Fortunately, laws were passed in favor of backyard chickens a few years ago here in Nashville and the current regulations are pretty simple: no roosters, up to 6 hens allowed (based on yard size), no free-ranging, and pay an annual fee. Easy peasy. A quick post on NextDoor also revealed that several neighbors were already tending backyard flocks in my area - yay!

How Many Hens?
  Based on our yard size I could have the maximum of 6 hens if I'd like. Considering I'm a bonehead going into this with zero experience, I figured I'd start small. Three seemed like a reasonable number, however a lady on my new favorite website kindly pointed out that even numbers work better with hens due to their pecking order. She also suggested getting at least two of each type of hen I want so that one doesn't get left out or bullied (hens seems to have a lot in common with middle school girls). Based on her advise, I am now planning on four hens but creating enough space for six in case I go crazy.

What Kind of Hens? 
 There are a LOT of different chicken breeds out there and the kind you choose basically depends on what your end goal is: eggs, meat, eggs AND meat, breeding, showing, or pets. I'm really only in it for the eggs, but hadn't considered the factor of personality until reading this blog post recently. I think I'm leaning towards 2 Plymouth Rocks and 2 Australorps, but we'll see what I'm thinking come Spring!

Chicks or Pullets?
  I had read in a lot of places that it is more economical to raise hens from chicks vs buying pullets (i.e. young hens). While this may be true (chicks usually go for around $5 per bird and pullets $15-25 depending on the breed) I've found a lot of reasons to go for pullets over chicks in my situation.

1. Chicks require a lot of care and expenses - you raise them indoors in a brooder with specific temperature (start at 95 degrees and lower by 5 degrees weekly - like I'd remember to do that) and feeding requirements prior to moving them outside to a coop and run. You have to check on them frequently make sure they don't die from stupidity (I've read you have to teach them how to drink by dipping their beaks in water, but then you have to make sure they don't drown in said-water - cute).
2. While a $5 chick is cheaper than a $15 pullet, you're really only saving loads if you're purchasing a huge flock. For my backyard flock of four, $60 vs $20 isn't going to break the bank.
3. Hens don't start laying eggs until they reach 18-20 weeks of age - that's close to 5 months of care before you get any pay-off. Pullets should be at or near egg-laying age by the time you purchase them.
4. Chicks are difficult to sex. Birds keep their junk in their trunk, so you could easily raise 6-8 chicks thinking you'll end up with a thriving neighborhood egg business only to discover that 7 of them are roosters in the end (news flash: roosters don't lay eggs). This isn't such a big deal if you live on a farm or want to breed the birds, but if 4 out of my 4 chicks turn out to be roosters I am back at square one and in desperate need of someone to take 4 roosters off my hands!

Build or Buy?
 So I need both a coop and a run. A lot of folks can get away with just a coop if they live on a farm or in a community that allows free range birds. I, however, live on a busy street (in the last two years of home ownership we have seen at least two cars end up in neighbors front yards due to accidents) without a fully fenced in yard with neighbors that make losing their pets look like a profession (every time I'm on NextDoor there are at least 4 cats and 3 dogs declared missing).

So I need a sturdy coop and run. 

A quick Google search opened my eyes to the sham that is overpriced chicken coops. It seems you have to dump at least $500 for something that doesn't resemble a Fisher Price doll house. I saw a few for around $150-200, but they looked pretty shoddy. A quick cry for help on my new favorite website confirmed my suspicions: the cheap prefabricated chicken coops are as shoddy as they look.

So I have decided to build my own. I'm determined to try and build a decent coop and run for the cost of a cheap prefab. So far my obsessive scouring of Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and Nextdoor has payed off. I'm hoping to start building after Christmas. Stay tuned for that, it should be hilarious.

Is it Worth It?
 I'm definitely not going to be "saving money" by raising chickens for eggs. Organic pasture raised eggs are expensive, but raising chickens will likely cost more than my monthly egg budget. But cost isn't my main motivator. I'm excited to have chickens for a lot of reasons.

1. I love birds and I love my backyard, so having domesticated bird pets in my backyard that plop out food every so often seems like a win-win.
2. Home layed eggs give me a chance to be a little less reliant on our fuel-guzzling fake food economy.
3. Chickens could be an awesome addition to my little backyard ecosystem. I've already decreased our household waste a lot by recycling and composting, but chickens could take it to the next level! Shredded cardboard and paper can be used in place of straw for coop bedding. They eat table scraps that are non compostable (i.e. meat, dairy, bread, and cooked foods). Chicken poop is an incredibly rich addition to any garden soil - so all that shredded paper goes straight into the compost on cleaning day and feeds my veggies once it's all decomposed! Also, did you know that eggshells are incredibly good for your garden?

But seriously, I get stoked when I think about my paper and table scraps ending up in my garden all thanks to the power of chickens. That alone would be reason enough as a gardener to keep them around. Add eggs into the mix and it's a win all around!

The Kitchen Part 1 - An Introduction

This is one of our few *mostly* completed projects and was one of our first and biggest. We knew when we moved in that we could not handle the kitchen in its current condition.

We could handle the bedrooms, avoid the basement, and even tolerate the scuzzy bathrooms, but we love to cook and eat and this space was not going to cut it. So we spent most of our weekends and weeknights from June through until move-in in early September working on this. We did it as cheaply as possible (closing costs are a b!&$#) and employed the free help of a few loving friends.

Yummy, am I right?

The process included the following:

1) removing range and stovetop

2) removing awkward cabinet above range

3) removing lovely wavey wood piece above sink window

4) removing cabinet below stovetop to make way for oven

5) moving fridge to another wall to make way for dishwasher

6) sanding and painting all cabinets

7) removing current countertop and installing new one

8) painting insides of cabinets

9) installing backsplash

10) installing shelves for help with storage

Supplies we purchased/used and costs:

- antique wood for shelves (free from dad)

- white oil paint for cabinets (free from FreeCycle)
- dark blue paint for interior cabinets (less than $10 from Craigslist)

- sander (borrowed from friend)

- reciprocating saw (borrowed from friend)

- circular saw (bought Ryobi from Home Depot - $40)

- jigsaw (bought Ryobi from Home Depot - $60)

- drill (already owned)

- crowbars (already owned)

- paintbrush and rollers (already owned)

- tile for backsplash (bought from Habitat Restore - $55)

- Grout for backsplash (bought from Habitat Restore - $5 for a bag)

- Countertops (bought from Ikea - $140 before tax and shipping)

- New pulls for cabinet doors (bought from Craigslist - $10)

- Dishwasher (bought from Home Depot)

- Oven  (bought from Home Depot)

So join us if you will, for a trip down memory lane during our three month clueless kitchen DIY.

The Kitchen - Table of Contents

• The Kitchen Part 2 - You're Tearing Me Apart
• The Kitchen Part 3 - Sanding and Painting
• The Kitchen Part 4 - Kitchen Appliances, Unite!
• The Kitchen Part 5 - Countertop Purgatory

The Kitchen Part 2 - You're Tearing Me Apart

Taking things apart is so much easier than putting things together, so this part was downright fun.

We knew the oven and stovetop had to go. Both worked but the oven must have been a DIY install because it stuck out several inches from the cabinets above and below it and just looked super wonky. The stovetop was a coil unit, and I was so over coils. So, they had to go. Opting for a solid oven with range (which is what we wanted) meant that we had to get rid of the cabinets under the vent as well. 

Additionally, there was no dishwasher. Now, hear me out. I compost, I recycle, I bring my cloth bags to Kroger, and I let my yellow mellow but I hate not having a dishwasher. Sorry, I'm not perfect. The problem with our kitchen though is that the fridge was currently using the only extra water hookup next to the sink. Instead of dumping some major cash on plumbing, we decided to stop using the icemaker in the fridge, move it to the far wall (there was already an outlet there), and put the dishwasher where the fridge used to be. This plan worked out well because we could then extend our future counter to the left overtop the dishwasher for more countertop space (which we desperately wanted). We would also get more countertop space by getting rid of the oven and extending the counter to the right.

So here's what we tackled first:

1) removing range and stovetop

2) removing awkward cabinet above range

3) removing lovely wavey piece above sink window

4) removing cabinet below stovetop to make way for oven

5) moving fridge to another wall to make way for dishwasher

6) sanding and painting all cabinets

7) removing current countertop and installing new one

8) painting insides of cabinets

9) installing backsplash

10) installing shelves for help with storage

Countertop, sink, range, and stove removed and fridge moved to the far wall.

I then started removing the doors and hinges so I could sand them in prep for painting.

We had to cut away at the cabinet space under the vent to make room for our future oven. We did this mostly with a reciprocating saw but had to be careful to not damage the floor or hit any wiring left over from the stovetop.

One problem we ran into was spacing. With the oven gone, the cabinet underneath it was lower than the rest of the cabinets. Bobby did a good job installing some scrap wood to elevate it to the same height. Once painted it looked much better.

We eventually tore down that lovely wavey piece above the sink window as well. Voila! A slightly messier room!

Stay tuned for The Kitchen Part 3!

Basement Part 3 - Floors, Finally!

This part has been by far the least agonizing and most enjoyable, probably because it brought on the most drastic visual transformation to our ugly little downstairs. As a refresher, here's where we were on out To-Do List:

1. Remove nasty old black baseboard trim and carpet remnants
2. Remove old rusty carpet staples and nails from the stairs
3. Paint walls with white primer
4. Install new baseboards and trim
5. Remove old paint from masonry wall
6. Paint masonry wall with Drylock
7. Install Flooring
8. Paint walls their final color
9. Redo stairs
10. Replace door and windows

IT'S FLOOR TIME!!!

We did a fair amount of research and cost comparison for floors. We knew this would be the most expensive part of our basement make-over, so we wanted to do the right thing. We ordered samples from some online suppliers and checked out Home Depot, Lowes, and Buy Floors Direct. We didn't want something too dark since the room itself doesn't get a whole lot of light, but we didn't want something too light either. Lighter floors seemed too hip for our house vibes. After all, we are barely cool enough for Nashville. We evetually opted for a red-ish click-lock by Shaw that we found at Lowes.

Handsome man modeling Shaw's 

We read that vinyl is best for basements since it is 100% plastic so no issue with moisture retention. Even though we felt confident that we had solved our water issues, we wanted to be mindful that this was still a basement in middle Tennessee and we get tons of rain here - better safe than sorry!

We debated for a few weeks whether to use leveler on our floor. After a few youtube videos and very scientific leveling test (i.e. lying on our backs in the basement) we determined that we were too lazy for leveler and our floor was flat enough for our liking.

A friend who recently installed adhesive flooring advised us to use click-lock. Her reasoning was that if you made a mistake or damage a board during installation it was much easier to correct said-error with click-lock boards vs adhesive boards. Read more on the different installation types of vinyl flooring here.

We had a few tricky obstacles to navigate, the first being this pole. Fortunately, it did not fall smack in the middle of a board, so we were able to measure and make a circular cut-out with our jigsaw out of the pieces close by:

Bobby and I found a good rhythm of me measuring and cutting and him placing the boards. An X-Acto blade or box cutter is all that is needed for the cuts. I used a square to ensure all cuts were straight. There were a limited number of repeating patterns to the floor boards so I also made sure we weren't noticeably placing the same patterned boards too close together. We staggered from the corner in thirds: first panel down was a full panel, next one was 2/3 length, the third was 1/3 length, then back to a full panel. This way there weren't noticeable lines running across the room.

We watched several YouTube videos prior to installation which we found super helpful. We both took a 4 day weekend over Independence Day and knocked it out just the two of us. 

The stairwell was also tricky to navigate. It was slow going and required some carefully measured cuts, but we got it done. 

All in all it turned out well and it made our basement look like a real room! Malu even worked up the courage to come downstairs after all was said and done!

The basement is still a work in progress, stay tuned for Basement Part 4 for the paint and furniture - it's gonna be a room!

Basement Part 2 - To Grind or Not To Grind

Prior to this project, our basement To-Do list looked like this:

1. Remove nasty old black baseboard trim and carpet remnants
2. Remove old rusty carpet staples and nails from the stairs
3. Paint walls with white primer
4. Install new baseboards and trim
5. Remove old paint from masonry wall
6. Paint masonry wall with Drylock
7. Install Flooring
8. Paint walls their final color
9. Redo stairs
10. Replace door and windows

Time for Projects #5 and #6!

This is a time I will say without a doubt, "Bobby was right. I was wrong."

When we began discussing how best to remove the old paint from the maisonry he suggested a paint remover. I was wary of fumes, especially since we had just adopted a lil kitty cat, so I wanted to physically remove the paint. I had seen some videos online of people grinding paint off similar surfaces with a hand grinder so I thought this would be a good option.

Well...

It may be a good option if you:

1.  Have incredible upper body strength
2.  Are familiar/comfortable with grinders
3.  Don't care about saving money
4.  Don't care about spreading paint dust EVERYWHERE
5.  Don't care about projects taking forever

So...

The reasons we needed to remove paint from the walls in the first place was:

1. The paint was hideous, stained, and flaking off from previous water intrusion
2. DryLock needs to have direct contact with a surface in order to do its water sealing magic

This is the wall we would be working on. Most of the past water intrusion was towards the bottom and in the far left corner (it appears like the previous owner had tried bleaching or painting over that area, cute).

At least we were somewhat prepared for the air quality concerns we were about to create! We wore long sleeves, gloves, bandanas, goggles, and lead-paint quality respirators.

After some moderate grinding

After A LOT of grinding

 We realized fairly quickly that this was going to be slow going and not a one-day job. Bobby is much stronger than I am, but despite that he was having a hard time gripping and keeping control over the grinder with all the friction that it created. Plus we were creating an indoor dust-storm with sparks flying at eye-level from the friction - all quite unnerving if you're not used to it! Our basement looked like a scene from Pompei after a few hours (yes, that's a dinky bedroom fan - we had the basement door open as well).

We decided in the end to concentrate on the areas with the worst water intrusion since drylock would only work its magic if it had direct paint-to-surface contact. So we got the corner done and called it quits. 

Can't wait to clean this!

We ended up renting the grinder for two days from Home Depot. We bought 3 different attachments, including the diamond grinder which we ended up having to use. The other two were vastly cheaper than the diamond one, so our hope was to try the two out and return the diamond if either cheaper on worked. They worked, but oh-so slowly. It would have taken weeks using them. In the end we used the diamond grinder which was close to $80 and we couldn't return the other two since they were used. So much for cost savings...

We also bought a shop vac, because dust.

The flip side of all of this though is THAT IT WORKED!! The wall looks fantastic and we have had several heavy rains that have flooded areas of Nashville (and our garage at times) but not a drop has made it into our basement.

So was it worth it? Ehhhh... my mind has a creative way of quickly blocking out back memories. We love our basement wall, but if there were were a cheaper, quicker, easier, and less messy way of doing this I would certainly opt for it if we had to do it over again!

Basement Part 1 - An introduction

Oh, the basement. Not our first project, but one of our more recent ones (so easier to find chronological photos!). Peruse, if you dare, the chilling photos of when we first laid eyes on the half-finished lower level of our new home:

 I like to refer to that fake grey/blue wood grain on the walls as "70s Murder Vibes." Aside from some brave and loving friends who kindly filled this room for a Halloween party, we avoided it most of the time.

So, obviously this room needed a face-lift and we tackled it (and continue to tackle it) quite gradually. It has been low on our priority list for the last year since it is an easily avoidable room. People don't need to walk through it (unless they're doing our laundry).

We decided on the following basement projects in the following order:

1. Remove nasty old black baseboard trim and carpet remnants
2. Remove old rusty carpet staples and nails from the stairs
3. Paint walls with white primer
4. Install new baseboards and trim
5. Remove old paint from masonry wall
6. Paint masonry wall with Drylock
7. Install Flooring
8. Paint walls their final color
9. Redo stairs
10. Replace door and windows

Here is our work-in progress after we had removed baseboards and painted the walls with primer:

We bought baseboards and trim from Home Depot. We don't own a miter saw (yet) so instead of cutting the corners with perfect angles to fit, we attempted this method with our jigsaw which worked alright (also, I love this YouTube channel). 

We bought a brad nailer from Home Depot to install the baseboard and trim (Bobby did most of the cutting and installing in this project cuz he's great like that). Ryobi has served us well so far, and it's nice having all the same chargers for all the same batteries so I think we're sticking with it!

Again, we had a ton of paint from a Freecycle pick-up, so we employed the help of some friends and covered the walls with two coats of white to hide the 70s Murder Vibes as best as possible.

Check out Part 2 for our favorite (NOT) part of this project, removing old paint from masonry walls!

Welcome!

Hey, folks.

If you're in the mood for bad grammar, poorly constructed sentences, slightly out-of-focus photos, and posts about mistakes then good news - YOU'RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE!

This will not be that pretty, that polished, or that inspiring - promise.

The Story:
My husband and I bought a house about a year and a half ago. It had sat mostly abandoned for about 7-8 yrs (per our friendly neighbor). It had good bones, but was in desperate need of love and TLC. Being young and on a tight budget we thought, "the price is right - how hard can this be?" We had no experience in renovating, handiwork, or even minor landscaping (I used a lawn mower for the first time this year). YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs have been our tutors and now a year and a half later we have many more tools, skills, and finished products - but we still suck at a lot of things.

I start this blog as a means of giving back to the plethora of info we have obtained from the internet. I often read posts like "Renovate Your Bathroom in a Weekend!" or "DIY on the Cheap" or "Grow All You Can Eat in 12 Easy Steps" and halfway through the article realize Mr. Bathroom Renovator is a full-time contractor, or Miss DIY works from home because she blogs for a living and Home Depot pays for all her products, or Mrs. Garden is a stay-at-home mom with 4 school age children that help her out. None of those are bad, but none of those are me. I live in a city with high cost of living, I work full-time as does my husband, and I have little-to-no DIY, construction, or gardening experience.

I'm not an expert, so feel free to correct me. I'm not a grammar buff, I'm a full-time nurse and luckily for my patients I am a lot better at medicine than I am at the English language (I mean, come on, have you ever LOOKED in a medical record? We can't even spell let alone complete full sentences...). I skimp on quality products, because I have to feed myself and pay mortgage. So, keep your expectations low and your judgements to yourself ;)

All you fellow DIY boneheads out there, dive in and make yourself at home :)