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You all know I have a spoiled rotten African Grey. Well, she's about to get spoiled even more. Let this be a long running thread, cause I'm going to post photos as this progresses. First the background: - my wife went back to work last year around December. Before that my birds had the run of the house and their outside aviary. Wifey was home to watch them for three years. When she went back to work I was forced to lock them up in their cages, in their bird room. I know this is probably what most people do, but I can't handle that. I watch them from my camera while I'm at work and it's heart breaking to see a Grey, who is normally so playful and full of life, just sit there slumped on a perch for 8-10 hours just waiting for one of us to come home. - my maternal Grandmother, just before she died, sat me down and had a talk with me. Something I was never expecting, she gave me a sizeable amount of money and asked me to use it for a car. I think she felt bad because I had bought her old car a few years prior and it was always giving us trouble, to this day I'm constantly tearing something out of it and fixing it. It's about to hit the 20 year mark and nearly a quarter million miles. I told her that I didn't want the money because I hate spending money on cars as they depreciate to nothing in 10-15 years. To me, a car is the worst way to spend money. She asked me to take the money anyway and do something special with it. - I have always been very frugal. When I was in the Marines and 17 years old, it took me over three years to save my first thousand dollars. This was a time when my breakfast before heading to base was 1 bowl of the $0.60 box of corn flakes we could buy at the commissary. We could barely buy anything but I was still trying to save and when I got that first thousand dollars I wanted to bury it in the front yard of my base housing unit. Sounds a little crazy but that's me and I'd never had any money before. So around a year ago, it just came to me what I should do with that cash that Grandma gave me...I'm going to build that addition onto the house for my babies. And should both of us pass on unexpectedly, it's something my daughter can easily take over and my birds won't have to get tossed into the wind. Something that has bothered me ever since I got GreycieMae. I've gone through four contractors who I had out to look at what I wanted. We've NEVER had any luck with contractors for other jobs that I don't have the time to do myself. Without getting into the details, they never do what they say they will or what you pay them to. And it usually involves people who pretend not to understand English. So out of the blue my wife asks me to contact this other guy she knows about. I don't know where the hell she found him but he is the REAL DEAL. He sat down and told me what I wanted and I was lapping it right up. He is semi-retired and only does "small jobs". He has apparently been involved in very large projects but I'm not sure how large. A few interesting notes about this contractor: - he's a very religious man. He told me prior to bidding the job that he would not be able to work on Wednesdays as he uses that day to perform his church duties. He's always fasting. And he uses no crew except his home-schooled grandson on Mondays and Fridays. I could not believe the day he showed up to start trenching and he pulled a bunch of digging tools out of his truck and just started ripping ground - manually. He's 66 years old. Can you believe that? I am still dumbfounded every day when I see him show up and start laboring away. He reminds me of my Dad who is near 80 years old and is THE hardest working man I've ever seen. They are both apparently cut from the same generational cloth. The purpose behind this new addition is, I'm hoping I can keep them inside in it, separated from each other and they won't have to live their daily life in a cage. My wife hates it that we can never go anywhere or do anything anymore because I feel 100% neglectful asking my birds to stay in lockup while we go have fun. That isn't fun for me. All I ever do is worry about them. It will have cameras and lights, just like their bird room and I'll be able to monitor them while we're out - at work, at play, whatever. So I'll use this thread to post photos as we go along. Let's hope this doesn't turn into a disaster. You never know how a project will go!

Seeing as it's that time of year- I figured I'd ask how you're all planning to spend Christmas this year. I'm doing my usual - Christmas Eve is spent with my housemate. Christmas day I'm visiting my sister and nephew in the morning and then going back to my parents house for the rest of the day. I'm staying there overnight and spending the day with them on boxing day. I think some of my dad's family is visiting on boxing day too. Then a couple of days later my mum's side of the family is visiting. I typically help my mum in the kitchen over the few days that I spend with them. If Alfie wants to come with me then he will do. Last year he opted to stay at home. I tried my best to coerce him into his travel cage but he wasn't having any of it and took himself back to his cage. He can't come with me to my sisters house because their dog would probably try and eat him, so I'll come back home to pick him up and then go to my parents. I love Christmas. For me it's all about spending time with family. We exchange gifts as well but my favourite part is just spending time with them all.

Wishing all of your and your flocks/families a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Amazing! I'm very jealous! (and so is Alfie!)

Wonderful job!! Just love it!

Looks great!

I don't know about your area, but most of the carpet installers in my area are independents and work for whoever. What I mean is that if your area is like this one, you can probably find an installer easily, or I would hope so.

Spending Christmas at my older daughter's home with other family members. Merry Christmas all!

We will spend a quiet X Mass at home with all our critters and son as my wife has been very ill for over the past year or so. I hope all of my Grey Forums friends have a safe, healthy and happy Holiday.

Construction is finished and the paint is dry!!! Looks better with all the tools and stuff gone! We're not sure about the paint color though. I'm thinking of two-toning the wall the darker grey in a strip near the bottom. I still need to wire some lights and cameras into the soffits. We're totally in love with it. The birds - well Rio hates it. GreycieMae and Toby are exploring. Rio thinks his place is in the kitchen and it drives him bonkers that he can hear momma in the kitchen and he's not in the middle of it. Now I need to outfit it with safety screens and hang some toys/perches/ropes plant some safe plants, grow some rye grass... The double sliding glass door and walling in the existing porch was the smartest thing we did. Those weren't originally in the plans. We love it. GreycieMae's sunroom/aviary is now open for business!

Is it a bad thing that I'm having fun (starting yesterday!) spending time with my birds and wife? I guess technically I'm spending time with my family!

My 2 kids with their spouses and the 3 grandkids will celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. I will fix a grand dinner for us all then we gather round the tree and exchange gifts, afterwards we eat cookies, eggnog and fruit salad while we sit around watching a Christmas movie. Its a tradition we started long before the kids grew up, its family time together and then they have their own Christmas at their houses the next morning. My hubby and I will go to their house to see what the grandchildren received from Santa.

It will be different Christmas for us this year celebrating Christmas Eve this time due to sharing our grown daughter with the fiances family. One of our sons will be visiting in laws out of state with his wife. Our youngest son has to work Christmas Day. I will be volunteering at the sanctuary Christmas eve morning until noon thirty or so therefore it will not be a big home cooked meal either. Cold front will have arrived so chilly weather will seem a bit Christmassy. Family time,sharing memories and gift exchange along with a more simple meal. The birds should get fresh birdy bread if I get that done in time, bought treats for the dogs and cats. Wishing you all a safe warm and Merry Christmas, hope your Hanukka was lovely. Haapy Winter Holiday to the rest.

Great progress so far! Keep the photos coming, this is an awesome project!

That really looks great!

Walls and roof are fully enclosed on the 'littles' room as I call it. It's trimmed out on the inside but still needs some finishing on the outside. Also waiting for the tiling tie-in and then it can be painted and the door put on. Inside: Outside: And the Greybie GreycieMae's room. Did I mention that working with insulation is an itchy job?

I believe it is a Pride of Barbados. I was hoping it could stay because it would really appreciate the warmer enclosure during the winter and wouldn't die back to the ground every year. I've seen pics where they start to look like small trees. SHooot. I need to find some safe jungle style plants for GreycieMae to sit in and proclaim herself Queen of the African savannah sunroom.

If the one near the wall is a Rose that is a safe plant not certain if the other is Pride of Barbados the seeds are toxic a form of hydrocyanic acid and the pods containing the seeds are heavy in tannins.

Like Acappella said, I can't believe how fast you are getting it done! Looks great.

Not sure if the plants currently there are even safe to be around birds. I hate to remove them as one is planted above our beloved Raven that we lost four years ago and the other is planted above Pickles, the bird my daughter lost. We may have to find something else to plant above our lost babies. It is what love looks like. I've been hanging on looking for something special to spend it on and it just dropped in our lap. Imagine a car would probably have lost half the value already on it's way to valueless.

It looks great. I think it's going up pretty quickly, though it must feel like it's dragging on for you. I think it's a fine use of the money you inherited, and I know the birds will agree. This is what love looks like. Lucky fids.

Wonder if the plants will need to be a low light variety? Looking very nice so far!!

This happens to be one of my absolutely favorite photos. My wife and I both noticed that with the roof on and the windows installed, it feels kind of like being in the Colorado mountains for some reason?!? Whatever, it feels different in the 'room' now and Miss GreycieMae is going to love it! She's going to have her own personal little jungle!

So jealous!. It's gonna be beautiful!

I said it before, Ill say it again, that is dedication. Just WOW

Its gonna be an amazing place for the birdies to play and you all to enjoy, can't wait for the finish.

OMG, I am impressed, and I am not easily impressed.

Looks amazing!

Roof cedars are nearly complete. When I was designing this I considered a completely opaque roof on part of the long section to allow for some shade. But the roof cedars are providing so much shade I think I'm going with the 'solar grey' all the way across as it is partially opaque and the cedars are blocking a lot. I don't want to create a completely dark area. Once the cedar beams are complete we can get a professional roofer in here to tie in the roof to our house. We don't want to screw that part up and create a leaking problem into the house.

Wonderful design change allowing you to spend some time with them out there.

That's gonna be great! It's going so fast!

90% framed out. Cedars are sitting in my parking lot drying from the stain job. They're going on next. Windows are ordered and should be in next week. We had a change of direction on the middle section which we love much better: we're going with a full glass double slider. It's a 12ft beast and will be delivered on the back of a large truck but it will allow us to open the up the veranda and use it when the birds aren't in the middle section. They could literally be on both ends while were doing our thing in the middle!

Yeah, this is designed so that I can leave them in it while at work. The walls are house-grade, sitting on a poured concrete curbing with rebar and piers. The walls will be made from hardie board (a concrete slab made to look like a board and paintable). The windows are tempered glass and will be reinforced on the outside with wire panels similar to what is on my current aviary, probably smaller holes though. The roof is being made with cedar similar to a deck but will be topped with 15year hail proof corrugated panels. We're still trying to decide if we want some sun to come through. THinking of making part of the long run partially blocked from the sky with full opaque panels and the rest in solar grey (75% blockage). So during the day when we're not there the thing will be sealed and locked up tight, dogs in the yard and a camera feed on my other monitor at work. Oh...and the great thing, when I'm tired of their b.s., I can toss them out of any one of three windows or the back door and get some sanity back for a bit. I designed the doors to open flat and allow a channel through the whole unit so it's kind of like a 18'x100' aviary with the interior doors open.

Omg! I'm so jealous. Yes, I had an aviary built for my birds. I've had it for 4 years, my Amazon LOVES it! She will spend hours out there. I won't leave her there while I'm at work , but I will let her spend the day on the weekends When I run errands or am working in the yard. My greys....well, they will only go out on me if I am there....they want nothing to do with it. I can leave the door and window wide open, but they have no desire to go there unless I take them out, even then, they will quickly fly back into the house. I love how you have 3 seperate rooms! Looking forward to following the progress!

Sounds like a fantastic project! I have recently ripped out and re-created by back garden. Well I say I... it was actually my dad who did all the work. I just pointed at things, explained what I wanted and made sure he had a steady supply of tea and snacks! I have included an area at the back of the garden for an aviary. It's going to be 12ft long, 6ft wide and 6ft high. It will be multi-use: for my two bengal cats and also for Alfie to use (though not at the same time for obvious reasons!). I haven't bought it yet because I used a lot of my savings on the garden itself. With the weather getting colder and Christmas looming I'm holding off on buying the aviary until early next year. But I'm super excited for Alfie to finally have a safe place to play outside! I'll be following this thread with interest!

These are 5.5"x4" rebar'd curb sitting on 18" concrete piers every 4'. You can just barely see the anchor bolts in the pour. When we put up the forms, I thought it looked way to small to be building on. Concrete crew very hard at work here! I guess the white hen is the inspector Stamp of approval or maybe just her signature int he wet concrete

You know, sometimes, greys will test you out after changes made. They will let you know if they like it or not. I suspect that just the shear exposure, and Grey's inquisitive nature will make it a hit. There is a misnomer in the grey community that they hate change, but they like humans, will make a judgment when its all done I suspect that after the initial shock, yours will settle in fine, and realize you love and return the love.

I think the new addition to be used as a bird room is an excellent idea, much better than a car purchase and will give you much enjoyment for many years to come, and as long as it makes you happy then grandma can't fault you for that, she would be very proud of you for spending that money wisely. Of course you know you have to show us some pictures when you have some progress made and I can't wait to see the final results, you will have some very lucky birdies.

My son and daughter-in-law built my birdies' aviary off their birdroom window. I can leave the window open and they can go in and out on nice days. So I'm all for your aviary. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Wow, sounds like a great project! Looking forward to seeing progress as things move along