Coop framing

Last weekend I once again had the pleasure of working with my Dad on the chicken coop.  We made great progress, and like the previous week, completed everything I hoped we would, which in my experience, rarely happens.  We finished the remaining three walls, and the outline of the two gable ends. The South wall (on the right in the picture) has two rough openings for windows, and the West wall (on the left) has a rough opening for a person door.  The chicken door will be cut out of the siding on the back and finished with trim boards.  I didn't bother framing out the opening.

I don't know the terminology for the way I framed the gables, but I opted to do that instead of continuing the studs all the way up to the roof line, mainly because it was easier, and this way I will have something to nail the siding boards to along the top edge.  I had been planning to make the roof a 10/12 pitch, but even with my engineer Dad, we could not figure out how to cut the angles correctly and gave up.  The 12/12 pitch was much easier to cut with a 45 degree angle on both ends!  And the bonus is that I have more head room inside.

Last night I cut out the ridge board and rafters which will rest on top of the gable ends.  I won't make notches in the rafters since they will sit on the outside corner of the wall top plate.  I will cut little right triangles off the ends of a 2x4 to go between the top plate and the rafter.  Pictures to follow.

Now here are the little puff balls that will eventually inhabit this structure.  They are only 1 day old here.