What would you do with 160 square feet?

[GunPilot]

Ok, I'm posting this for all the do-more-with-less design geniuses that contribute here.  Here is my dilemma.  I have a birdcage.  Actually it's the former owner's bird cage. I have never had a bird in it.  Anyway, it is out in the back yard, and it measures 16x10.  I want to make something useful out of it, like a ramada-zebo sort of thing.  

The floor is dirt and the roof is OSB. It was rather amateur-built with 2x4 framing and 2x6 roof joists. Nothing really on center. The back wall of it is actually the back wall of the yard, of block. The bottom plates sit on concrete blocks set more or less level around the perimeter.  

I've thought about using pavers for the floor inside but I need to keep this low-budget.  The wifey suggested a ply floor which would be quicker and cheaper.  Out here in the west we like to set up those outdoor firepits and chairs and things which is sort of the idea here.

Any input, ideas, anything?

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Heck, I'd use it as a chicken house.

[MountainDon]

When you mentioned fire pit I automatically thought the only floor suitable would be non-combustible. Or at least non-combustible over combustible.  :-/

Any recycled sources, bricks, etc.?

We built the PT wood floored gazebo and used 16" square patio paver blocks. Enough to cover the area under and around the chiminea. Yes, they were a few bucks... approx $4 each.

[glenn kangiser]

How about a thin coat of concrete  about 1" with coloring and worked out as flagstones by hand randomly with a trowel.  Add color if desired.  Chicken wire for reinforcement - do it right on grade.  Get sacks of mix and do it in a hand mixer or mixing tub with a hoe.

Should take about 1/2 yard.  You could make it look like the concrete under the tub here - it is 1" thick with jute landscape netting reinforcement over about 1/2 inch of sand.

[desdawg]

I am in the process of hand mixing concrete for a small footing. I am using sand and gravel from the Vekol Wash which was free so basically I m only in it for the $12.00/bag portland. Of course the Vekol Wash is out here and you aren't but if there is a wash where you can load up in the Casa Grande area that may be an option. Did I mention that everything I do is labor intensive?  8-)

[GunPilot]

Heck, I'd use it as a chicken house.

That's what I wanted to do, but Sweet Pea wants no chickens. I've wanted them in the yard forever to keep the scorpions at bay but no. There's more to that story and it all starts with a GFI.

Don, I do have some pavers I can press into service on top of a wood floor.  They are the little siesta dude leaning on the cactus which I guess is politically incorrect these days... but they were free.

Glenn... hmm. That puts me in mind of Tom Elpel's Terra Tiles. Basically he pours a floor of dirt mixed with a little cement, and cookie-cuts the tiles out of that, and then grouts them.  Hm. I'm just a hop from the Vekol wash but I'd probably go salvage something over by CG mountain.  That would be a perfect solution and cheap.  Plus I've been dying for an excuse to get one of those little electric cement mix-o's from Wang Chung tools.

[desdawg]

I have to confess. I already had the mixer.

[Redoverfarm]

Well  if it were back east it would already be filled with firewood or rough sawn lumber.  But you probably don't have much demand for firewood there.  

[jb52761]

Well, my two cents....I'm lookin at that block wall, in and around the structure, and I'm seeing some paint, drawing pencils, a little imagination, and  wa-laaa- a real nice southwestern mural across the whole damn thing....good-bye bland blocks..... 8-)

[desdawg]

Actually I do have a fireplace and I use it every winter. This year it stayed warm late into the year and I was wondering if I would even get to light it this year at all. It's mid November and finally cooling down. Watching the weather report in the mountains I see the temps are now dropping into the teens and twenties up there.

[tjm73]

Heck, I'd use it as a chicken house.

That's what I wanted to do, but Sweet Pea wants no chickens. I've wanted them in the yard forever to keep the scorpions at bay but no. There's more to that story and it all starts with a GFI.  

Chickens keep scorpions at bay?  :-? Living in the northeast we don't have scorpions. Do chickens eat them or something?

[glenn kangiser]

What would you do with 160 square feet?

Find a cobbler from the old country. :-?

He could make a bunch of cute little square shoes.

[GunPilot]

Well, it's done. I built a wood floor using 2x6 joists and OSB. I made a rail and added the wicker front.  I replaced all the roofing and painted the whole rig. I even added some solar lights inside (HD, $20)  Total cost was about $300.  I did get to buy a new Wagner Paint Crew painting outfit. It worked awesome.

This was the first time I ever built something like this - seems simple but I learned a lot - mainly, start it off plumb, level, and square and use standard dimensions as much as possible.  The original builder didn't get any of that.

I still don't know what it is though.  A ramada something or other.

[MountainDon]

Level and Plumb. Two excellent words all carpenters should live by. Everything else will fall neatly into place.

Looks better.

[desdawg]

Looks like you got lucky. Chickens will never stay in there.  Good thing you ran out of lattice before you had them fenced in. 

[glenn kangiser]

My sister had a hot tub enclosure that looked like that.

[desdawg]

Looks like a detached AZ room. Good place for a picnic table. Anyplace out of the sun with a breeze is always welcome

[littledog]

You could screen it in and put in a chiminea (sp?).  There was someone on this site that attached a chimney pipe to a chininea and put it through the roof.  It could be a little BBQ spot.  Craft shed?  Play house.  Green house?  Just my thoughts, for what their worth. 

[MountainDon]

There was someone on this site that attached a chimney pipe to a chiminea and put it through the roof. 

That was I.
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