52 Projects Wk 10 – Bird House Pt 1

This week’s project is a Bird House for the block!  We have 400 acres of bushland a couple of hours drive away, in the middle of nowhere, filled with wombats, kangaroos, emus, foxes, the most beautiful geckos and a multitude of birdlife.  The kangas, wombies and birds we see regularly.  It is always a thrill when the emus and foxes turn up as well! 

The last few times we have been there, we have specifically tried to capture photographs of the birds and are fascinated by how they fly in and out of holes in the tree.  A few months ago, one of the other owners saw near our campsite, baby birds poking their heads out of one of the tree holes while Mum and Dad flew in and out feeding them.

So, when we saw this project kit at Bunnings, it was just meant to be.  We are going to hang it in one of the trees near the campsite and see what happens!

 

 

 

Part 1, building the house, was a joint project with D and I working on it together.  I needed his expertise with tools and building!  And so, on this cold, wintry, rainy, don’t go anywhere day, we began…

 

  

The above picture shows my outside area where I work on messier projects like this and painting.  You can see at the bottom of the picture, part of D’s drawing of “Dog” from Footrot Flats.  Yes, this is M’s kennel that I work on, covered with perspex to protect it and make painting and cleaning up much easier!  “Dog” was a project of D’s some time ago. He draw two pictures of him – on the front and side of M’s kennel.  I love them!  (you can see the front in the next photo)

I discovered through this project, that I hate sawing wood!  It was the one part of the project that I didn’t enjoy and therefore didn’t do as good a job on.  I used some sandpaper and a file to try and rectify some of the bad sawing.  I didn’t mind doing that, but if I never have to saw again that will be great!!!

D took a photo of the me sawing.  Eeekk!  You can also see the front of M’s kennel in this one. 

And finally, the finish of Part 1 of this project is in the next two photos.  I haven’t joined the house to the bottom yet or the bits of the fence together either, because I want to paint it first (Part 2).   But I placed it all together to show you the end result of all those loose bits and pieces of wood.

I’m going to paint it in c0lours that mostly blend in to the trees.   I’m not good with colours, so would love some suggestions!  I thought I would stick with the white picket fence and green shrubbery around the house.  But am not sure of the house itself – possibly different shades of brown to blend in with the trees?  Or maybe brown walls and a different shade of green for the roof, maybe darker than the shubbery?