Building a Birdhouse from Scrap Cedar

$10
3.5 Hours
Medium
OK, so I built a birdhouse ... my first. It was a super fun project for me and, first, here's why.

The Back Story: Early on, on Twitter (say about 2010) when I was trying to figure out what my blog / my business should be, the suggestion was made that I should just quit home improvement and go into making birdhouses. So ... in a way, this project was chance to make a sorta prototype. ha!

This birdhouse was also made as a gift, which Hometalker Megan V (Our Pinteresting Family) received (graciously). It was made at a community DIY Workshop (Beth's DIY Workshop) with owner/proprietor Beth. And hey, I really don't get a chance to do creative (purely for the heck of it) projects like this. Period.

The Project: I have a good bit of scrap cedar left over from the cuts on the arches of our cedar fence. Cedar is a near ideal exterior wood, plus it looks and smells ... glorious. (I have also used similar scraps, once treated with wood preservative, for garden bed edging ... in an alternating V pattern.) I had some left over cedar shakes that I used for the roof.

Really just improvising, I (okay, working with a friend and using another birdhouse as inspiration) built this birdhouse in 5 steps.
* Prep the Stock
* Build a Box (which is set on a diagonal)
* Add the front and the back
* Drill a Doorway and a hole for a Perch
* Install a Roof

I think it found a happy home with Megan and I hope it ends up being a happy home (eventually) for some birdies.
To read more, I'll link below.
finished cedar birdhouse
making a rabbet cut in planed cedar
glued and nailed weaved box
scribing for front cut on 45s
door way and perch
installing cedar shakes for the roof
Building Moxie
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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