Bought the farm and a $64,000 chicken coop. LOL

Okay, new thread for those brave enough to follow me on this journey. Buying this place, has been the hardest, craziest, weirdest experience in all my life. The papers are signed and I own the house now.

My insurance company called two days ago saying they need pictures of all the outbuildings OR they need to go out for an inspection. Hubby told them we would be there and would get pictures. For some reason, he had to throw in a remark about how we might take out some of the buildings so they were questioning the amount of coverage we would need. The original amount they told me for outbuildings was $26,ooo which I thought was fine. I guess because of the number of buildings, they decided that was not enough coverage. What did they think would be more appropriate? They wanted my outside buildings at $90,ooo coverage! Heck, I could rebuild the house for that!

So, after sending all the pics and descriptions, they decided they would keep the coverage as is but one building would have to go. They want the chicken coop torn down?? Now, I agree it looks awful. I think the walls look like dumpster finds. I have no idea how old the thing is, but let's face it. It is a building for chickens! LOL What I know about chickens-they taste good! Do they not fling feathers all over and walk in their own poop? Last night in chat, it was referred to as my $64k chicken coop. I figure this is a good place to start the new thread! I have 30 days to tear it down, so no need to landscape it!

This thread is continued from: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/545581/

I guess you may as well see the back of this fine piece of architecture.

Aww man, can't ya just add a few extra nails, slap some paint on it and dress it up a bit?!

Stupid bank people. Can't they see potential?!!

(Not my image)

This message was edited Sep 21, 2005 12:03 PM

That is really nice Sue! I love the colors!

This is actually the insurance company. They are not use to dealing with rural properties. Oddly enough, I CAN build a new and it will be covered? Hmmm.

I may strip it down to the frame and see if that is any good. If not, the whole things goes to Rumpke and I start over. When the girl told me it had to be torn down, I asked where I will put my chickens. ROTFLOL

She asked if I could have it down in 30 days and I told her I had a sledge hammer and I was sure I could. Geesh!

Yup that $64K chicken coop is a wonder.

I've been waiting for you to start a new thread before I posted. I checked your diary, wow, I'm soooooo impressed. I had no idea how many plants you were talking about. I had a rough est. of the daylilies involved, but the rest? *thud*

*me falling off my chair! I dub thee "Super~Duper~Trooper~Extra~Wonderful~Woman"!!!

Now I need to figure out why I didn't get notified you had updated your diary. I had it watched, so??

I sit in awe of your gumption and staminia.

mg

dang board ate the second half of my post??

Diary? Diary? Dare I go over and look at that Chele? I always just thought you had a black hat and a magic wand that you waved over the hat and waaalaaah, plants for Molly.

Okay, how cruel. We have homeless people, homeless dogs and cats and now they want to throw your chickens out in the cold cruel world?
Oh wait, you don't have any chickens, do you?

I remember now it was Ely said you needed some chicky poo to make your "Ears" grow big and strong. I reckon you will need that coop.

I am going to set aside some time and go nose around in your diary. Maybe it will inspire me to getting back to making entries in my our journal.

:^))))
Molly

Whoa chele :) Just a tad busy here and when I looked at the title my mind saw: $64,000 chicken co-op !!!

Now that would be one major oven stuffer roaster :)

I was thinking along the lines of The $64,000 Question!

Hey, Chele - if you offer the shed's wood up on Freecycle, I bet someone will come out and tear it down for you. Save yourself the labor. ;)

Why does the Ins. Co. care if you tear it down?
We have numerous outbuildings & only insure the ones we want to.
You chicken coop looks good compared to a couple of our buildings.
The next thing they will be out there telling you what direction your flowers rows have to go!
Sue, is that a potty shed or a potting shed you have ? I like it, especially the plants on the roof.
Bernie

I think it probably depends on how sturdy the structure is. If the insurance company is insisting you tear it down, they obviously feel that it's a liability.

Your only recourse if you want to keep it might be to have a structural engineer come out & give you an idea as to its structural integrity before you make a decision. You yourself can't make this decision. You can then have your insurance come back out & take a look based on his findings.

Keep in mind that if you don't have the building inspected further & do decide to keep it against your insurance company's wishes & - God forbid - someone were to become injured in its vicinity, I doubt you'd be covered.

Just food for thought. . .

Bernie, as noted above, it's not my image. There was a daylily garden tour somewhere back east and the photographer posted the image and I saved it because I thought it so charming. It's a potting shed.

Sue,

I love that shed and all the things you have growing on and around it. I think I see something familiar.

:^)))
Molly

Well I thought I saw some familiar things in there.

:^)))

LOL, Molly, someday I will have room for something like this.

I doubt that the wood on it is any good. The best I can tell, it is just plywood that is cracked, peeling and not in good shape. My plan is still to give it a couple of whacks with an 8 pound sledge and see if it budges. Did you guys know that is my deep dark secret? I LOVE to tear stuff apart! LOL I love to tear down walls, knock out studs, bash holes in drywall....in the name of renovation only, I promise! I'll check out the framing and see if it is any good. If it is good, I will recover it with suitable materials and buy some chickens. :) If it is not in good shape, I'll get a tarp and see how much of that fine chicken doo I can excavate. Ha!

I was more suprised they did not have a fit after seeing a three sided thing built on the property with a rabbit hatch type thing hanging off the rear. When my hubby says that is scary, you better believe it is scary! I believe the corner posts are telephone poles and I have no idea what the other stuff is. It looks like more scraps of aluminum, wood and whatever else was handy.

I did call today and price renting a tilling/bush hog/tractor package as well as a bobcat. It looks like I can do the beds and the fields in a day, unless they use those 8 hour days. LOL

I still want to talk to one of those nice old farmers down the road. :)

'chele, longeterm you may want to find an insurance company that is accustomed to writing farm policies. Your agent will have a lot better idea of what stuff is worth, and give you better advice.

One thing you'll get to experience now is the joy of having a bonfire/weenie/marshmallow roast whenever you want - you'll probably have plenty of burn-able stuff as you tear down. We have a large brush pile that's been growing over the summer, just waiting for fall to get here. There are times we gather around a bonfire late at night when the sky's clear. Even though the thermometer is at or near freezing, if you stay close to the fire, you're nice and toasty. Makes for a fun hour of stargazing and storytelling ;o)

Just found the original thread and followed along. What an adventure you are having!!! I was still at work when I read about the "fine architecture" of the chicken coop so had to read about it to my business partner - she was laughing out loud too. Back to the red kitchen - now you could collect something. I have three friends with red kitchens who collect coca-cola stuff and they are very cheerful. My kitchen is kind of red just because of the tile that was already in there when we bought the house - more of a brick red on the floors and cabinet tops, and the people who lived here before us laid the tile with concrete. Can you imagine??? It is here to stay. Took me a month to get up a 3 X 3 square foot area of tile in the entry hall where they had put tile right smack in the middle. Never did figure that out. Anyway, am anxiously awaiting your next post.

Molly, are you the professional painter? We are buying a house and will completely repaint the entire interior... and it appears to us that current paint is semi-gloss. Some people have told us that we should NOT keep interior in semi-gloss, but I don't have a clue? What's the problem with that paint... and if we DO change to flat, will it stick to semi-gloss? Guess I could have paint store here........ thanks, sr

Stownes, our bathroom's tile was set in concrete, too! When the contractor went to take out a 3" strip where the new shower was deeper than the old tub, he had a heck of a time. It took him the better part of a day. Each little 1x1" piece of tile had about 2" of concrete stuck to its bottom. If we re-do our bathroom floor, it'll be working upward, not replacing it, LOL!

You definitely gotta get a local agent. The worst they'll do is exclude an outbuilding, but they won't insist you tear it down.



This message was edited Sep 22, 2005 10:06 PM

teateacher,

Yep, that would be me. Semi-gloss is good for bathrooms, kitchens around the sink and childrens room and of course baseboard, doors and frames. Also in rental apartments. But for the home, living room etc, I think it looks rather cheesy. (That's just my opinion of course)

You can paint over it with flat, but first, to be sure it sticks, put on a coat of Kilz2 at home depot, $11.88 a gallon, acrylic primer. Your flat paint will now stick and look good.

Glad to help you any time, just ask.

Molly
:^)))

Good morning!

I did check with a few agencies out by the property first. One didn't call back, one was all in a tizzy over how close the house was to a fire hydrant and the third was $400 higher. I have had my company and agents for around ten years and never had a problem. They were $400 less than the one quote I had and didn't need anything other than a check since we have a long history together. Honestly, I was feeling so stressed and closed in that I just didn't want to deal with anything else like that. Hubby took next week off work and we are going to go up there and get a bunch done. I'll poke around on that coop and see if it stays or goes.

I have to admit I don't care for semi-gloss either. I do use it for the wall behind the stove here but that is it. I steer away when I can and go for satin or one of the washable flat paints. People tell me I have to have semi with kids but I prefer to paint every year or so. The walls at the other house have lots of little nail holes, patched areas, etc. I am going to have to skimcoat all the walls before I use any paint but I think any hint of gloss is going to show every imperfection!

Terry, I can't tell you how I look forward to a big fire pit and also a bbq pit! I do have to be careful to keep Lillie away from it though. There has never been any proof that smoke bothers her condition but who wants to prove that theory either way? LOL So far as we have ever seen, it is only viruses that bring on her asthma. My whole life, we had a fireplace and at my apartment I had one. I love the smell of wood burning and being able to leave the windows open and have a fire. An outside fire will be just as good! Heck, I like to turn the heat on in the car and leave the windows open when it is crips. :)

stownes, it is very nice to meet you! I'm glad you are enjoying reading along. I have to say this has been a truly crazy experience. When hubby found the house for sale, I thought about our bills, where we are in life, and thought there was no way we could do this right now. Our house is not really ready to sell. We did plan on moving next summer anyway. The price was too good to pass up and this place is in an excellent school system! Now we have the motivation to fet done and get out of here. LOL

I am off to order pond liner, check prices with a few people to see if they can bush hog my fields for what I could rent equipment for then headed out to destroy a few more beds. What fun!

Congrats 'chele! And - uh - it's just lovely???? LOL!

If you can't save the uhhhh building......the location will be a great spot for a garden bed. I grew my biggest and best tomatoes on the site of a demolished chicken coop!

Oh good morning to everyone! This thread has me giggling.

If you don't want to tear it down right away, I believe the way around having to do so might be to respectfully request of your insurance carrier to exclude the structure from the policy and do so in writing. The underwriters at the company might be able to add a restrictive endorsement listing this structure and that's it. It's done all the time where I come from. And if you tear it down and remove it, they remove the restrictive endorsement.

Me and my kids would get a bang out of taking a sledge hammer to a structure like yours (or like ours) and an even bigger bang burning it... they are all pyros here.

The one problem is the chickens. Seems to me as if it would be nice to have a place for the chickens that is out of the elements where you can lock them up at night until you get around to building a new coop. It's a convenience thing. There's nothing wrong with that structure for now and it buys you time.

We have a structure excluded right now on a summer property. I'll go and try to find a photo of it and post if for you. My photo will make your photo look like a mighty find chicken coop. The kids like ours though. The insurance company found it and told us to tear it down unless we had a structural engineer approve it. How insulting but I was polite and told her that no P.E. would ever certify such a structure and that it was silly of her to even suggest such a thing. She indicated she was just offering up a possible solution and otherwise it would have to go. Guess what, my husband is a structural engineer and he about bust a gut over that one. His solution, move it to where they couldn't see it so the kids could use it which is what we did. We enlisted the help of neighbors and had a tractor drag it on its side up a little hill so it could be a "look out" for the kids. We then told the insurance company it was no longer a concern to them and they could come and take a look. They came it was gone but... then they spotted it up on the little hill. Can we say busted. That was when I told them it wasn't a concern to them and to add an exclusion to our policy or we were changing insurance carriers. About 10 days later we received the exclusion, signed it, and returned it in the provided envelope.

We changed insurance companies to Farmers Insurance Group this year and the agent laughed about the situation. We now have a policy that is not excluding the structure but were told the deductible we had would preclude us from ever claiming it anyway. Touche!

Why, I'd say that's a mighty fine structure, and fit for the most exotic breed of chicken, bar none! That's a pretty cute kid you keep in there too.....bet that costs more than a little chicken feed!! LOL

Chele, keep that in mind for when your brood gets out of hand...much better than sending them to their room!!

We call that one the Asian Persuasion Chicken but we have other exotic chickens running around here. The Asian Persuasion Chicken is one of the more affordable varieties. He prefers playing the piano and reading to going outside and being a kid. I never have to send him to his room because he never does anything wrong but I do have to push his happy rear out the door to go and get dirty and at least pretend to be a kid. Not exactly a risk taker like one. The chicken coop is actually for him. He walks up the little hill and goes in there and reads. That's why we refused to get rid of it.

I'm thinking that next summer I may give them all paint brushes and paint and let them express themselves. I'm thinking a camoflauge theme might be nice. Suppose we should try to re-attach the door that came off when we dragged it up the hill and maybe some new screen to keep the skeeters out. Only the best for our chickens!

I had a couple of chickens like that, never had to wonder what they were up to, nose in a book, just like when I was a kid. I'll take one of those any day! He sure is a cutie.

LOL, when I was just out of high school, my mother rented an apt. for us, one of 4 units, 2 up and 2 down. There was a shed building out back. Some weeks later, the neighbor (in a real house next door) came over and gave me an 8x10 he had taken of me on the shed roof, reading a book, totally unaware of my surroundings.

Sure wish I still had that photo, got lost in moving a zillion times I guess.

Readers will be readers!

Darius, like you, it was my escape then, and still is,
Old Readers never die, they just go on to the next chapter......

Chele,
I'm looking at the coop and thinking of a certain asthma sufferer you have............
I have a dear friend w/ cronic Allergic Alveolitis.................

I think I'd knock it down and start afresh.
Better safe.

Ric

Her asthma is only triggered by viral illness. I haven't decided what to do with it yet. We plan to spend most of next week out there. That will give me time to look it over. I imagine if the outside looks like that, the studs may not look much better. I'm only worried about salvaging the poop. :)

Only a diehard gardener would worry about "salvaging the poop". My husband just read this and reminded me that I scraped up the 6" off the chicken coop floor and dug up all the ground around the old chicken coop and put it in wheelbarrels and carted it over to amke a big pile so that our neighbors could have it for their vegetable gardens. That poop went fast. Everybody loves chicken and duck poop.

Ha! See! I am normal (for a gardener...)!

Chele, I don't want to be a party pooper but since you have a young one with sensitive lungs you might want to check into histoplasmosis. A friend of my mother's developed after keeping chickens all her life; she is now blind from it. This CDC site has some basic info on it:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/histoplasmosis_g.htm

Thank you.

Thank you for that link. Sort of puts a damper on the fun based on the information contained therein.

There seem to be certain areas of the country where it is a problem, mainly the midwest and southeastern states. I don't know why it is not a problem in chicken manure in other parts of the country. For instance in western Washington you can buy composted chicken manure for gardens and it is great stuff. I wish it were available here; I am assuming it is not sold around here because of the histoplasmosis risk. Your daughter's doctor can probably give you more information.

Okay. Point taken. Information appreciated.

Can this go back to a fun garden thread now? Please.