February 5, 2009: Birdhouses Revisited

Back in September I took up the hobby of building birdhouses (It's for the Birds and Birdhouses Continued). It's not an all consuming hobby, just something to do when I get bored.

I'm bored.

I bought the lumber a month ago and it's been languishing in the carport, warping and cupping as lumber does these days, so I figured I had better hurry and do something with it. Half an hour later, my face and hair covered with sawdust, I had enough pieces cut for five birdhouses, minus the perches, roofs and bases which will come later.

I got out my electric brad nailer (I HEART my nailer!), and the exterior wood glue, and proceeded to construct the little houses.




The next day they got two coats of white primer, with a light sanding between coats.




After the primer had dried, and a final sanding had been done, the first two were given two coats of acrylic paint. These were done in Antique White, my background of choice for the patterns I had picked out to paint on them.



It was warm and lovely outside, so I put my supplies out on the patio table. I used the lid of my plastic paint box for a palette and as protection for the table from the paint. It's easy to clean up, and provides a good painting area.

The houses were given another light sanding between coats of paint.



I have all the patterns on my computer, so it's quite simple to pick out what I want to paint, size it to fit the birdhouse, then print it out for tracing onto the project. Unfortunately, my almost NEW Kodak printer isn't working. *Note to Kodak: Please stick with making cameras and leave the printers to the pros. So I made a rough sketch of the pattern, then transferred it onto the birdhouse #1 using graphite paper. It's a simple pattern, as the main attraction on this house will be the roof.

To be continued.....

9 comments:

  1. Bored, huh? Well, it looks like you did something constructive. You like building those birdhouses! I may have to make something like that myself, especially since we don't have an outside cat anymore. Keep up the good work Granny!

    EG

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  2. Those are so cute. I've never made a bird house before but it would be a great project. You will have to show them to us when you are finished.

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  3. Talk about putting your spare time to good use. These are too cute. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

    P.S.-I HEART my power tools too. I get all kinds of you-gotta-be-kidding looks when I ask for power tools for presents.

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  4. EG, I might even graduate to seed starting chambers some day!

    Daphne, Mr. H just reminded me I shouldn't have nailed all of them together. Where will we find the room to transport them home next month?

    Cheryl, I bought my first electric miter saw about 18 years ago, now I have two...one for WA and one for AZ! Followed with a jigsaw, battery powered drill, and battery powered hand saw. I seldom use the jigsaw, but could not survive without the others...and my brad nailer! I also have my own tool box, and Mr. H is not allowed near it.

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  5. Lumber does seem to warp very easily now. I just did some of my "handy work" on the closet in the basement, it probably was built in the 70's and the 2x4's were straight as an arrow. If you pick up 2X4's now, if they are not warped from the store they soon will be once you get them home.

    Nice bird houses, I will await part two. I just built a suet feeder out of a log, I keep forgetting to do a post on it.

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  6. Dan, I've been wondering if I should build bee boxes, in hopes they would bring bees in for pollinating the garden. I guess all you have to do is drill a bunch of holes in a 2x4 and hang it up.

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  7. Yeah I have seen those too, they would be a fast project. We have lots of small holes in our houses brick and I quite often see the little wild bee's building nests in them. They are fascinating to watch.

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  8. Dan, bees were almost non-existent in my garden last year. It was really odd not to see them in the numbers we've had in previous years, and I want them back! I'm definitely planting more flowers this year, and a bee box or two might help, too.

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  9. I only saw a couple honey bees last year too which was very odd. Asides from the honey bee hive I found on a tree limb. That was even odder, not sure if you saw that, I posted it a while back in the fall. I did see a good amount of the tiny native bees & bumble bees though. Lets hope the honey bees do better this year.

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