Fancy Cottage Chicken Coop

This custom chicken coop was  fun to build.  The customer wanted a chicken coop that looked really nice, like a kid's playhouse. 

Fancy Cottage Chicken Coop

 They wanted something their neighbors would not complain about.  Chicken coops are notorious for looking run-down and dirty, aren't they?  So we decided to build one that dispells the myth that chicken coops have to look grungy.  We patterned it after our Cottage Playhouse: 

Cottage Playhouse



Chicken Run



Chicken Door



Our Fancy Cottage Chicken Coop turned out down right classy!  I love the wood shake shingles on the roof and the hand carved trim around the door and windows.  It has a cement floor which can be easily cleaned and a cute little door for the chickens leading out to the enclosed welded wire mesh chicken run.  Check this out:  We even buried the wire mesh 18" underground, curved outwards.  Why?  To surprise any enterprising dogs who try to dig under the coop...Ha!  I'd love to see the looks on their faces when they hit that chicken wire! 



Decorative Carvings



Shuttered Window



On the side there is a large window with a shutter that has decorative carvings on it.  Inside there is a wire screen covering the window which can also be lifted out of the way if needed. 



Cupboard, Roost, Happy Chickens



Nesting Box, Chicken Feeder



And of course we built nesting boxes (the top lifts up!), a sturdy chicken roost, a chicken feeder and a large cupboard on the inside.

Back to School Tips

Fall means study time

Oh, back to school. It means many things to many of families. Whether your kids are headed back to public school, or you're starting another year of homeschool, or if you're facing an empty nest and sending kids to college, fall is a time when family's usually hit the books in earnest. This can mean precious moments watching your children finally understand various principles and a lot of aggravating times chasing your kids around nagging them to study.

In honor of this universal family experience, I thought I would share a few tips we've used to make school work more productive and less stressful for everyone.

Make time for play. I've written before about how the decline of unstructured play has contributed to ADHD and behavioral problems, but this is where the rubber meets the road. It's easy to over program our families, shuttling from soccer to karate to dance, but just like those things are important, so is the chance for kids to be kids. Make sure that after homework, lessons, and chores, there is time each week for kids to let their imaginations roam and their bodies be active. Of course, we think one of our playhouses is the best for this, but just turning kids loose in the yard is a great start.

Create a special place for homework. It's so easy to be distracted by younger siblings, video games, and TV shows, so help your children focus and create a place where they can go to do their school work. Help them stay on task with necessary supplies: pens, pencils, erasers and if you have the space, you can even let them set up a small desk/chair. Show them that their studying is important. We can even help you build fanciful and playful furniture to create a place any child would look forward to hanging out in.

You are your kids most important teacher. Regardless of where your children go to school, moms and dads are children's first and most vital teacher. Measuring the ingredients for dinner can become an exercise in addition and subtraction. Weeding the garden can be a great discussion about Earth Science. Open your mind to the educational possibilities surrounding you.

Here's to a successful and happy 2010/2011 school year!

Brown's House: 40% off for Christmas Pre-Orders

The Brown's House

Fancy Builder is located in beautiful Payson, Utah a growing rural community in southern Utah County. Each Labor Day weekend, our community gathers for Golden Onion Days. This civic celebration includes a fantastic parade, a carnival, a vendor area, and lots of fun. This year our family not only got to enjoy the festivities, but show off one of our newest playhouses in the parade!

Fancy Builder's entry in the Golden Onion Days parade

The reason we were so excited to share this new playhouse design at Golden Onion Days (we call it The Brown's House), is that we developed it at the regular price of $3,500 but have decided to offer it to our friends and customers at over 40 percent off..... just $1,999!  This special Christmas price is available for a limited time. To receive this discount, your order must be placed by Saturday October 30, 2010.

You're probably thinking, "Well, that must be a just the beginnings of a cute playhouse." No way! This price includes:

Working peephole in the front door

• A footprint that is 7' wide x 10' deep (including the 2' front porch) and it is 11' tall.  A really nice, extra large playhouse.
• Features hand carved trim around the doors and windows and decorative hinges and latches.  
• Includes a darling heart shaped sliding peep hole in the door. 
• A loft inside. 
• The floor is sanded pine wood planks treated with Thompson's Water Sealant. 
• An entryway door and three windows of your choice of style (either opening shutters or plexiglass) 
• Your choice of colors for the main house and two accent colors. This is in addition to the white trim color. 
• Roof made of quality, durable corrugated PVC.
• Porch made of white vinyl, which is wonderfully low-maintenance. 
• Includes delivery and set-up anywhere in Utah.
• Extra windows can be added for $65 each. An extra door is $85. 

Get started on your Fancy Builder playhouse. Email us at info@fancybuilder.com  or give us a call at (801) 592-1153. We would love to help your family's Christmas wishes come true! 

Pocatello Farmer's Market Gets a New Barn

This week we made a trip to Pocatello to deliver a new 'office' for the Pocatello Farmer's Market.  The farmer's market is in a cute downtown area next to the railroad tracks called "Old Town."  It's been running for 20 years straight! 

The people at Swore Farms who run the farmer's market called me a couple of months ago with their requests.  They wanted a fancy, traditional red barn shed that could function as their office and storage area.  They wanted to be able to lock everything up tight for the night.  So we designed a lightweight awning that can fold down over the windows and be locked from the inside.  The middle window is made of 2 plexiglass panels that can slide apart when they are open for business.  It also has a customer service counter. 

The top half of the dutch door can also be opened to reveal another customer service counter.  And the back side of the door can be used to post announcements.  The final touch: a fancy copper rooster weathervane on top of a traditional barn cupola!

Our new friends at Swore Farms are very happy with their new office/barn/shed. And we are very happy to have discovered the quaint farmer's market in downtown, old town Pocatello!

Featured Project: Fancy Shed

Cuppola with weathervane

Last year a horse-loving local dentist called asking for help to solve a delimma.  He had just installed a huge metal building on his horse property in Mapleton.  The building was totally open, like an enormous carport where he keeps his tractor and hay for his horses.  But because he doesn't live very close to his little ranch and the structure is so wide open he just didn't feel comfortable leaving anything of value in his building.

The customer wanted to build a shed that would be a secure place where he could store tack and other valuables. He wanted it to be fairly large, strong enough to withstand the elements, and taller than a regular shed so it would blend well with his barn. For colors, he wanted a traditional red barn with white trim.  He wanted it to look really fancy with a cupola and weather vane on top as well as a loft inside.

Matching cupolas

The customer also requested that we help spruce up his big red metal building by putting a matching cupola on top of it too.  We were able to find an exact color match in the Behr Brand Premium Solid Color Deck, Fence and Siding Weatherproofing Wood Stain that we use for all of our sheds.

Special delivery!

In just a few weeks, Fancy Builder was able to solve this horseman's dilemma.  The shed was so tall we knew when we delivered it on our trailer, it wouldn't fit under the power cables. To get around this, Fancy Builder simply produced it in two parts.  When we finally put them together, they fit just like two puzzle pieces.

Our customer loved the shed so much he is even planning to insulate it later on so he will be able to camp out in it when the mares are foaling.  Here is a little from the last e-mail he sent to me:

"Just wanted to thank you for the shed.  I am very happy with it and look forward to putting it to use.  I love the cupulas on both the shed and barn.  Thanks again." -Horseman from Mapleton, UT

The perfect shed for this customer

Get Outside and Play! 6 Ideas to Enjoy Summer With the Kids.

Childhood is a magical and irreplaceable time for your kids, but it can be lots of fun for parents to let loose and laugh with their families. Playing with your kids helps create great memories as well as develop important social skills. Are you enjoying the long summer? Here's our family's top six ideas to play together while it's still warm outside.

Laughter is the best medicine,
preventative and otherwise. 

1) Are your kids lucky enough to have a playhouse? Go the fabric store and pick out fabric for curtains and ribbons for tie-backs. Use nails with large heads and let the kids help hang them.

Still waiting for your dream outbuilding? Any doorway, window, or opening can become playful when your kids hang fabric, stringed beads, weighted down ribbons (hot glue pretty glass 'rocks' to the ends or tie something on the ends like metal nuts or beads), or even paper chains from doorways.

2) Choose a shady area for a sand box. Spoons, garden implements, and plastic dinnerware can all be part of the fun. Don't forget the buried treasure!

3) Build or buy some kid-sized furniture. Giving kids a place to eat, sit for for tea-parties, or just hang out on a couch can spur creative make-believe and fun.

4) Teach your kids old-fashioned games, like "Off the Ground Tag." You can use cardboard boxes, blankets, or anything to make an area to play. If you step on the ground, you're it! "Freeze Tag" and "Ghost in the Graveyard" are two more fun choices.

5) Sleep outside (or in the playhouse) on a hot summer night.

6) Hang up a 'zip line' for transporting things from the play set, deck, or designated area on the ground.  Send secret messages to each other.

3 Ideas to Feed Your Family Healthier Foods

It seems like today's world is filled with news stories about unsafe food, movies about how food has become immoral and mechanized, economic hardship making it difficult to feed our families, and a confusing array of products that may or may not help any of these situations. Rather than navigate grocery store aisles deliberating between cage-free or organic eggs, locally grown, seasonal or year-round shipped produce, many people are taking their food into their own hands. From small-scale vegetable patches to backyard chickens, the options for growing and harvesting your own food has become an increasingly popular and smart way to take back your family's food.

Regardless if you have a tiny patio or acres of land, here are some ideas to get you thinking about ways to begin providing your very own food. 

Mmm... fresh peppers
for salsa and casseroles

Grow a vegetable garden. Often the afterthought of a landscape plan, vegetables can be beautiful and functional. Free plans from Better Homes and Gardens make it easy to plan and plant something that will feed your family healthy food and be a joy to look at. Since we've talked so much about the importance of play with your children, it shouldn't come as a surprise that there's even vegetable gardens are a great place to involve your kids. This plan offers a simple children's vegetable garden with plants that will continue to produce and require minimal upkeep. Think of the fun and lessons after an entire summer of growing and eating from your very own garden. 

Keep backyard chickens. Eggs from backyard chickens are different from the eggs you buy at the store. The fresh yolks are tastier and colored bright orange, thanks to the hens' access to greens and the bugs and other goodies they snatch up in their scratching. Needless to say, even when fenced out of the garden itself, they keep pest populations down. At season's end, you can turn your chickens loose in the garden for a time-honored solution to clean it your garden and prevent pests from overwintering. If you're concerned neighbors may not like chickens are much as you do, try ducks. Ducks lay delicious eggs without making such a ruckus. You do not, contrary to popular belief, need to provide them with a pond. Their manure is less conspicuous than that of a chicken's, sinking effectively into your increasingly green, well-fed lawn. Finally, your coop can serve double duty to enhance your landscape and house your egg-producing darlings. 

Grafting can make one apple tree
bear several varieties of fruit

Plant a fruit tree. While it will take a few years for your tree to bear fruit, you'll be rewarded with a remarkable supply of fruit for twenty to fifty years to come. Dwarf and semi-dwarf trees make it possible for anyone with an average-sized yard to grow fruit trees. Plant trees in the spring or fall and begin to enjoy the fruits of your labors in three to five years.

Visit www.fancybuilder.com for pictures and pricing on playful outbuildings to enhance your landscape including coops, gazebos, playhouses, and more.