The Chicks Love It

BackyardChickens.com is featuring this unique chicken coop, designed and built by a couple in Nova Scotia. The design is based on a drawing by Cezanne (the painter, who knew?) and is built to house six hens.
As you can imagine, that roof caused no end of hassles, but the result is worth it. The website has more photos (finished and in progress) and some information on how the swooped roof was constructed.

New Pergola from Workbench

A couple of years ago, Workbench magazine offered plans for a Sun-Filtering Pergola, a decorative grid that covers a deck or patio. It's been a popular plan at PlansNOW too. So I was happy to see them offer a variation on the pergola concept in the current issue. It's called the Eyebrow Pergola. It looks terrific, and it's not difficult to build. No special tools or skills required. This one's worth checking out.
You can find the August, 2008 issue of Workbench on the newsstand for the next couple of weeks. Or, the plan alone is available at PlansNOW.com.