If you aren’t on social media and rarely watch stories, you would have no clue about the progress on how we are converting our shed into chicken coop.  Remember when we got an old shed from my cousin?  I shared it all in this post where you can see the before pictures.  A few weeks later, we found some items that we may be able to use in the coop… to remodel it the way we want it to look.  Well, over the weekend of July 4, we decided to start working on turning that old shed in the coop.  

Our plans include:

• Make the shed 2 feet bigger so that it will be 8′ x 8′
• Make the extra 2′ into a storage area in the front of the structure
• Re-roof it with leftover shingles from the house
• Add a window to each of the sides
• Insulate the structure – it gets SO COLD here in the winter
• Cover the insulated walls
• Tighten the entire structure – it was pretty rickity after we moved it
• Add a hen box
• Install a chicken coop door for them to get outside and into the run
• Add an old door to the outside that we had in storage
• Make the chickens a run on the left side
• Decorate and landscape the area – 😍 My favorite part

Update on Converting a Shed into Chicken Coop

I am not going to make this a tutorial post because we truly don’t know what we are doing.  😂   I kept saying that over on social media and people would say, “I really think you do.”  Well, we don’t.  We guessed.  After we removed all of the old siding, we realized there was no plywood on the walls.  So the only thing keeping it together was the plastic-y siding and the roof.  I don’t know how it didn’t completely fall apart.  We have flipped several houses and are now building, so we know enough to try projects like this.

Anyway, after removing the siding, we tightened all of the joints and then created a wall to add the extra 2′.  We then added the plywood on the outside and wrapped it in house wrap.  And then it was on to the roof – tar paper and shingles.  To be honest, there were several times we took a walk up to the house to see how the professionals did it.  😂 And we ended up figuring it out.  It took us so long to get to this point.  I believe we worked on it, up to this point, off and on for 3 days.

Now….  I thought I would answer some of the regular questions we keep getting asked.

• Why didn’t you start from scratch?  It seems like you are re-doing everything?

When we originally started talking about adding a coop to the property, that is what we had planned.  Deb bought the plans for the coop and priced out the lumber.  It was going to cost around $2,200 to build.  That was the plan… until we saw a new one listed on the Facebook Marketplace for around $3,000 that we checked out.  We would of had to get on our knees inside the coop to clean it out.  NOPE

• Why didn’t you just buy a new one? 

We went to look at a brand new one that we saw online and wasn’t interested.  So the place had actual sheds that we looked at.   It was going to cost $3,400 for the structure.  And then we would have had several more hundred to convert it into a coop:  adding a hen door and an egg box.  We were fully planning on this idea… because a little more money for a little work… until my cousin text me and said they had a shed that they wanted to get rid of.  Price – FREE.   We decided we wanted to tackle converting this tiny shed into a chicken coop.

• Why don’t you have Jake (Squatter’s Camp) or  YOUR amish crew build it?

First off…. Jake has a lot of other plans during the summer months that don’t include projects for his aunts next door.  Secondly, the Amish crew that built our house isn’t OURS.  I’m unsure you have checked into getting contractors to your house recently, but they are all backed up for MONTHS, probably YEARS.  NO ONE who does any type of home renovations or building are sitting around waiting on work.  😂  Ask anyone…  it’s always a miracle when you can get someone to show up these days.  Thank God our builder has great crews and they all show up.

• Is this even going to be worth it with the amount of money you are putting into this?  I hope they lay golden eggs.

You and I both know that having your own coop isn’t a money maker.  It is a way to be self sufficient in one area for years to come.  We have had them before and really enjoyed them and decided this is what we wanted to do for ourselves.  With that being said, we have used A LOT of leftover material from the house therefore saving lots of money on this project, thus far.  

So far, it has been a fun project simply because we are learning new things.  We always joke around and say, “Now we can add roofing to our resumes.”   Our coop will definitely be a one-of-a-kind and add value and fun to our property.  We will evaluate at the end if we would ever do this again.  But, I’m thinking the answer will be…. NO.    😂   This will be a one and done like lots of other projects we tackled during our house flipping years.  

But… think of the stories we have to tell about it!

*** Note:  See the wooden deck looking section to the left of the coop?  That was given to us this past week.  We have lots of things in mind for it, so stay tuned for that project as well.  

Converting a Shed into Chicken Coop – See the BEFORE pictures here.