GreycieMae's Sunroom-Aviary

[SRSeedBurners]

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!

Edited October 4, 2017 by SterlingSL

[Timbersmom]

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

[Luvparrots]

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.

[judygram]

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.

[KevinD]

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.

[SRSeedBurners]

Of course I didn't get a pic of the 'before'. But this one is close, Day 1. Tools and crap everywhere already but...

 

 

This thing is going to be three 'rooms'. What you're looking at here are room #1 where the blue cooler is sitting and room #2 is the covered porch area.

 

Here you can see room #3 on the other side of the covered porch. This is after we trenched and have the concrete curb forms set ready to pour.

 

Room #1 overhead

 

Room #3 overhead

[SRSeedBurners]

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

[neoow]

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!

[Talon]

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!

[SRSeedBurners]

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.

Edited October 11, 2017 by SterlingSL

[SRSeedBurners]

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2017 by SterlingSL

[Talon]

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

[Greywings]

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

[SRSeedBurners]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[neoow]

Looks amazing!

[KevinD]

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

[judygram]

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

[SRSeedBurners]

Roof ramping to complete the tie-in between the house and the aviary is almost complete.   We're looking at a couple samples of the the corrugated paneling we are going to use.  This stuff is called 'SunTuf' and has a 15 year hail damage warranty.  So it should standup to some abuse.   We have clear (90% light transmission) and a solar grey (35% light transmission).   We're thinking of going with the solar grey because of the brutal summers here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a nice closeup of how we're doing the tie-in:

 

 

 

 

[KevinD]

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

[Talon]

So jealous!.  It's gonna be beautiful!

[SRSeedBurners]

At the rate I'm going, I should be done by NEXT Christmas! 

 

The tie-in for the roof is done on both sections, this was a very difficult piece and has taken for dang'd ever.  Now the professional roofer can come in and do the easy-peasy part, shingle it.   Shingleing onto the panels will be tricky but he says he knows how to do it so I'm not worrying about that part.   You can also see we have all but two of the 'Solar Grey' panels installed.  We need some parts before we can do the ends so that's on hold for now.   Remember, a GreybieGrey needs Solar Grey panels 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SRSeedBurners]

Windows are installed!    The 12ft sliding glass door is going to be one of the last things we put on.  Don't want to bust that thing moving stuff in and out.  That would suck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SRSeedBurners]

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!

 

[Greywings]

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

[Acappella]

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.