My wife Ellen was looking through the Southern Living magazine when she saw this beautiful antebellum birdhouse. She informed me that she wanted this birdhouse to be a show piece in her garden. Well I really didn't think much about it until the next day when I got on line and priced the birdhouse. Three hundred and ninety-eight dollars... you have to be kidding me right?

Well at this time, I'm in sticker shock and saying not on my retirement budget, as I need a new Epson 1800 wide format printer. After a while I began to think with all my experience in the metal building industry, this is just a small building for birds...right? So the wheels in my mind began to turn. After thinking a while I surveyed the scrap materials I had in my shop. Plenty of 12 inch white pine shelving board, some ¾ inch and ¼ inch exterior plywood and a 4x4 pressure treated post. Hey, I realized I already had this birdhouse in my shop just waiting to be assembled.

Not having any measurements on the original birdhouse, I decided to make my own birdhouse designed around the materials on hand. So I started cutting the material using only the ideas in my mind. I laid out one side of the birdhouse and then duplicated it four times, so the house would be symmetrical. After assembling the four symmetrical sides, I had a basic layout of what the birdhouse was going to look like. At this point I could now make the bottom floor of the birdhouse.

After cutting the birdhouse floor, it was screwed and glued into place using standard dry wall screws. I now had a basic birdhouse layout. All I had to do now was figure out how I was going to make the required housing compartments for the birds wanting to live in this house. So after thinking long and hard, it was determined that it was only feasible to make four nest units for birds. The other four dummy entrances are for show only.

The roof was something that was still blowing my mind, so after putting much thought into this, I decided that I would have to use cardboard. I would then make a template and use the pattern to determine how to cut the ¼ inch plywood for the gable roof. This method worked like a charm, and the roof was constructed without a problem.

After all of the wood was constructed, the rest of the birdhouse was just show and dress up. The birdhouse was painted an antebellum antique yellow, and the roof was constructed using standard asphalt shingles cut to fit the scale size. With the birdhouse now complete, it was now time to make the decision of placement in the garden. Nestled in the corner of the garden among the many hydrangeas, it makes for a stunning view as you walk anywhere in the garden.

So let your ideas run wild and get out and construct your own special birdhouse. I assure you... you will be rewarded with a special place in your backyard garden.

Total cost of this project was $60.00 and a world of fun providing a nesting place for our feathered friends.

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