Remodeling our old chicken coop in to a bridal suite for my wife to use on our wedding day!

This project started as my wife and I decided to get married on our property. We held the ceremony in our yard, dinner was under a tent, and the wedding dance in our hayloft. While in the planning process we realized that our chicken coop would be the perfect place for my wife and the bridal party to get ready on the morning of. The chickens had all moved out about 30 years ago, so the coop was ready for a complete overhaul. Fortunately our groomsmen, which included my brother and a few of my best friends, spent countless hours helping me to get this project completed in time for the big day!

Interior before photo - The first step in the process was to disconnect the power and start demolition. We assumed the ceiling boards would come off fairly easily with how rotten they had become. Surprisingly, that was not the case. We used sledge hammers, crowbars and a sawzall to complete most of the demolition.

Interior before photo - The chicken platform had to come out. We ended up cutting this in to smaller pieces with a sawzall and hauling it out the door. We saved a few of the windows to reuse as interior decorations and were able to salvage some cedar planks to make new barn style doors.

Interior before photo - Some of the interior and exterior wood had started rot and a few of the windows had broken pains. We used a pry bar and a sawzall to remove the interior paneling and windows. The wall panels were removed with a hammer and a pry bar. Behind the main wall panels was a layer of thick tar paper that was stapled to the studs. We cut though that with a skill blade and removed the staples with a pliers.

Interior progress photo - We found that the wood underneath was still really solid and in pretty good shape, but was in desperate need of a washing. The plan from here for the interior was to clean up the walls and concrete floor, cut back the rafters, raise the ceiling height a few feet, cut in new window and door openings, install lighting and outlets, seal the wood walls, then stain and seal the concrete floors.

Interior progress photo - Sprayed a few panels with the pressure washer and let them dry to make sure the wood was going to look decent before I continuing.

Interior progress photo - Five tanks of gas later and it was starting to look pretty nice!

We cut the opening in for the new doors and windows and also got started on the framing of the front porch. We attached the ledger board to the foundation with a ramset and framed it in from there. A few buddies stopped by to help my brother and I, which made this part go incredibly quick. At this point we were planning to salvage the siding but that changed fairly quickly as we realized we wouldn’t have enough and patching it in with new siding would have been pretty noticeable. My original plan was to build a 6’x22’ porch with an awning style roof over the deck, which would have been a pretty big test of my skill level. My brother came over that morning to help get things going and made the suggestion to do a 10’x25’ porch with a gable roof. We went that route and I am incredibly glad we did.

Screwed in the treated decking and got started on the front porch gable, which was held together with 12” lag bolts.

We finished up the sheeting on the roof and prepared for paper and shingles. This part was a huge learning experience for me. My brother is an unreal carpenter and he showed me a lot of tricks for figuring out the angles of the gable. What would have taken me days or weeks to figure out, he was able to help complete in a just few hours.

Windows installed, chandeliers hung, wiring complete, rustic tin installed, barn doors completed and mounted. For the most part the project was complete. We had to finish staining the deck, staining and sealing the concrete floor, the. Get it decorated for the big day. My wife’s family came over the week before the wedding and put on the finishing touches with the paint and stain.

Finished Product - Wedding Day

Decorated for Christmas