Floored

When we bought the house the basement floors were incomplete, severely water damaged from the frozen pipes bursting, and were buckled from improper installation. We would have had to replace the entire floor. Instead we ripped it out. Ground (grinded? neither sound right) off the glue and polished the float finished concrete smooth as a dolphin with a concrete grinder. I failed to get a picture of this step, but it involved a lot of sore knees and dust.

We then acid stained the polished concrete and finished with a wet look stain.  I purchased my stain from Direct Colors and used three different colors, Cola, Coffee Brown, and Mayan Buff. I used a plastic garden sprayer and sprayed the floor to suit my designer's eye, (very serious art was happening, don't try this at home) starting with the lightest color.

The variation hides the flaws in the concrete and the industrial quality and random marbly effect adds a touch of modernity to our rustic style house. It is also more energy efficient, as the radiant does not have to heat a layer of sub floor and floor before heating the space.

I reused some of the better pieces of flooring as the ceiling and floor in the straw bale coop.  It is quite luxurious.

Truthfully they hated the floor. It was too slippery. I had to rough it up with sandpaper. Those bitches clucky hens are demanding clients.

I was not paid or perked for this post. Direct colors has never heard of me nor has any knowledge of this post. 

Conclusion to the Straw Bale Coop

Now that we are down to one lonely old hen and thinking about more chickens and building a bigger coop in the spring,  I figured it was time I updated you on the straw bale coop.  I left off with it in need of some finish work and a proper framed roof.

Truth Time. It did get some finishes, but it never received a proper roof or all the cosmetic touches I planned on adding. The chickens never complained.

The triangle between the roof and straw get insulation and a piece of plywood to further insulate the structure for winter. The front is a piece of corrugated plastic that provides protection from the wind and lets light in to help encourage egg production. The plywood box at the back is just a quick and dirty storage box that holds bedding and other chicken related items.

We do let our chickens free range, there is a little passage in the gate that allows them to go in and out of the enclosure as they please. We can close the opening if we want to contain them.

I finished the straw with a Quickcrete Surface Bonding Cement (Note: this is not the product you would use for a permanent structure). I didn't trim the straw bales as I wanted a super textured and rustic look. I used a black Quickcrete dye to get the gray color and red dye on the interior. I was going for a deep red, but it ended up more Boca Raton.

Ironically the straw bale coop currently uses wood chips as bedding. There was a straw shortage earlier in the summer due to last year's Tropical Storm Irene Flood, so wood chips were substituted. I will be switching back to straw for winter, as I think it gives more warmth.

Straw Bale Coop

When you live off the grid you are required to have chickens. It is a rule.

I wanted the coop to be super insulated, and with a small footprint so I would not have to provide a heating source. That is what I told C, but really I just have been itching to build something out of straw. I read a number of books on the subject and then ignored almost all advice, as all good almost architects should do. I only found two books that gave enough information and details to actually be able to build a structure. I highly recommend them if you are planning to undertake such an adventure.

We cut a platform from a deck that had collapsed the year before we bought the house. The previous owner had left it in the woods.

Then we stacked the bales. Sounds easy right. It wasn't. Despite getting all our bales from the same place there was a length difference ranging up to about 6 inches. After about two hours and one un-baled bale, we ended up stacking the last two bales end to end. As you can see from the photo, they didn't compress the same and we had to do a little blocking to get the roof level. It still looks off in the photo but it is just the angle.

LOOK CHICKENS!!!
I almost did an entire post about a chicken coop with out a single picture of our chickens. They watched (Read: were in the way) the entire time their new house was being constructed.