Written by: Jake

As Sarah has mentioned I love to use my tools and what better way to use them than for a Christmas gift. Sarah, in my opinion, is pretty hard to shop for. She would rather have something small and meaningful than the next big fad gift. So when Sarah finally picked and bought her house I thought of the perfect gift, a matching birdhouse. Sarah’s grandparents have a highly detailed birdhouse that matches their house and she raves about it. So the plan was set.

I immediately started my sketches and material worksheet. I measured the house and all of its dimensions so that my project was to scale. After deciding on materials and design I began to build The Little Yellow Birdhouse.

I decided on using an exterior osb sheathing to build the frame and layout of the birdhouse, the basic four walls and roof. Since the material isn’t your typical structural lumber regular screws and nails would split the wood. I used wood glue, brad nails and finishing nails to fasten the pieces together. For the outside and detailed pieces of the house I used exterior plywood sheathing for a smoother more finished look. To make the siding I ripped strips at about an inch wide. After the siding was glued on and nailed, starting at the bottom and working up, I marked the holes for the bird entrance. Very carefully with a finish hammer and a chisel I removed the siding in the spot for the bird entrance. I then drilled a hole through the osb.

Another detailed touch I added was to add a real glass window to the house. I started the same way as the entrance by chipping away the siding. I drilled a hole in the corner of the osb and used a jigsaw to cut out the window. I took a piece of glass from an old picture frame and cut it using a small glass cutter to a size 1 inch x 1 inch larger than the window hole so that I could have a surface for the glue to adhere to that would be hidden. I used Loctite extreme conditions super glue around the outside of the glass. From the inside of the birdhouse I applied the glass to the osb plywood and I let it sit for about 24 hours.

The final steps were to paint this house. My mindset for this was the more paint the better. As I layered and layered, this mindset held true. I started by taping off the walls of the house and garage. I used Granite colored textured Krylon spray paint to get the grey shingle look of the roof. I used close to 10 layers of paint to get a deep, textured and an even finish.  After the drying process was complete, I taped the roof off and the window. I started the walls of the house with a white paint/primer spray paint as a base coat. I applied about 3 layers of white with the goal being I could no longer see the natural color of the wood. I then switched to an all-weather light yellow spray paint. I applied about 5 layers of the yellow paint until I got a vibrant, clean, and even finish. To finish off the paint I sprayed the whole house (excluding the window and hinges) with a flat exterior protective clear coat using an additional 5 layers. I let the house sit for 48 hours with a fan blowing on it. Once the drying process was complete I felt around the house to confirm the paint was not tacky and that it dried to my desired effect.

The Little Yellow Birdhouse was complete. Now, all I had to do was execute the delivery of the gift. Easier said than done. I ALMOST blew the surprise. In my excitement and admiration of my custom made gift, I decided to send some final pictures to my family. Of course, the first person that comes to my mind when I want to show something off is Sarah. I literally sent Sarah a picture of her surprise Christmas gift 2 days before Christmas. Fortunately, Sarah is not a slave to her phone and I was able to send multiple “wait” “stop” “caution” “don’t look” texts to move the picture up in our conversation thread. And luckily for me her sister was able be to delete it before Sarah could see.

I felt it went over very well. Sarah unwrapped the gift, opened the box and said “awe! It’s my house!” and then “It’s just like Gram’s!”.

There are a few key things to keep in mind when attempting a project like this. Be sure to leave yourself plenty of time to accomplish your desired amount of detail. I feel like with another day or two I could have made the outside even better. Another thing to keep in mind is to design and think it through as much as you can before you even start. Think it through and try to visualize your cuts. Lastly, make sure to decide on decisions like will it be accessible to clean or will it stay closed in windy weather.

So remember, plenty of time and a little bit of thought can make for a very nice gift and also a very good reason to use some tools.