Birdhouse

There was an old junky shelf in our basement that was pieced together with a 1×12 and a 1×8 screwed together. I hated to just burn it up but wasn’t sure what to do with it. Isaac and Abigail had a visit at their Summer camp program from the Three Rivers Avian Center where they learned about bird habitats and their bird rescue program. The kids were so interested that they suggested we make some birdhouses out of the wood. We’ve had a house wren pair that have nested in an existing house the last three years and hatched 2 sets of eggs per year. That leaves us with a lot of house wrens around. I found some plans online for a house wren’s house and our wood measured out sufficient to make 3 houses. That should hopefully help our wren-friends. I ripped the boards to width and the kids sawed them to length by hand. They did a marvelous job on the first house. Abigail primed the wood and painted it in a rainbow motif. She assured me that the birds will like it and never go to the wrong house. She also thought the bees would enjoy the colors. It is really a beautiful paint job. We’ll probbaly work on the other two houses next weekend.

Unscrewing the old shelf

Unscrewing the old shelf

Hand sawing the board
Hand sawing the board
Sawdust nose?

Needs more paint!

Priming the house

Abigail was a tremendous painter through it all. She applied several coats of primer to both the house and her legs. She waited patiently for each coat to dry…at least 10 minutes or so between coats. The best part was her work with colors. She was incredibly excited with her creation…with good reason!

The nearly finished product

She has not yet announced her design thoughts for the next houses.  She is opinionated about everything though so I am sure she will let us know!

7 thoughts on “Birdhouse

  1. What a beautiful birdhouse Abigail. I’m sure the birds will be so proud of their new home. Maybe the next one needs a picture of a flower on it. What do you think? Love you, Grandma

  2. Isaac you are so good with tools. Maybe when you visit you and grandpa could come up with a project? Love you, Grandma

  3. We surely had a lot of fun making the bird house. Thanks so much for all of your visits. I’d sort of like to expand into a few bat houses too but I need to do a lot more convincing before that happens! I wonder if a bat will sleep in a rainbow colored house?!

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