Building an Aviary in the Great White North

Abstract

We're moving. We cannot wait. We'll finally have space for all of our "stuff" and our hobbies. The only thing to haggle about is where to keep the birds. This new house does not have an outbuilding we can insulate and heat like the detached garage at our other house. What to do? The basement is huge, they would fit there. Jeff reminds me about the noise factor and the dust factor and also, just where is he going to do his woodworking projects? Jeff decides that the best thing to do is to construct a building just for the birds. Who am I to argue?

Of course, the haggling starts all over again. How big to build, where will it go on the property, how to keep it secure, who will build it, what 'size cages and on and on and on.

It takes us about a month to iron out most of the details. Now to find someone to build it. This is where it really becomes fun----only if you are into pain, though. We were scheduled to move into our house on July 1st, 1996. We decided on a builder in mid May, signed the contract in June and were told a start date of late July to early August. HA1 A contractor's sense of time is different. It is appropriate, perhaps, only for the Procrastinators Club.

Jeff and I staked out where we wanted the building, got the building permit, dug the trenches for both water lines and drain lines and installed all the pipes. We also installed conduit pipe and ran the wiring for telephone and video cameras. Now we wait for the concrete to be poured. This is the most expensive part. Concrete accounted for better than one third of the total cost of the building. We're waiting ...

In late August we started calling the contractor. His wife probably hates us. He, I hope, was getting tired of coming home to hear that the Clarks had called again. Know this ahead of time, contractors are always too busy and always take on one or two jobs too many. It's part of their training.

September 18th and we now have a concrete pad. I thought, not too bad, only a month and a half late. We could still get this done by November and beat the really cold weather. The birds are all in the attached garage. It's going to get interesting just trying to keep them warm enough if construction is delayed later than that. We shall see.

September 21 was a beautiful, sunny day and, amazing as it sounds, the contractor showed up with help to start framing. On a Saturday, no less. September 26th sees them back again to put the roof trusses up. The trusses are huge. As an aside, the building we decided on is 30ft. by 40ft. with a 10 foot ceiling. I had them put four foot overhangs on the roof eaves since eventually we're going to build flights outside also. The overhang will give some shelter from the weather.

September 28th and 29th, more perfect weather and here they are again to put the roof on. Since they had been so consistently here working, I made lunch for them. Of course, I was thinking that if they didn't get the chance to go out to eat, then they couldn't find a reason to not come back. Just my way of trying keep them in a sort of hostage situation.

October 5th through 12th the steel siding and soffits went up. Now it really looks like a building. October 13th the heating guy came out to install all the ductwork and place the forced air furnace where it will stay. It is an 80,000 BTU propane furnace. October 22nd and 23rd the electrician installs all the wiring and the circuit box. October 30th and all the wall insulation is in. We opted for R-19 in the walls and 12 inches of blown in up in the attic.

 

 

PDF