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.....