It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to share any progress on the coop.

For me, a big part of a project is often figuring it out. I sometimes need time to think about how I want to do things or how best to do things. The coop has been that for me.

We took down the old coop. We cleared the old foundation. But then what?

I had a big hole in the side of the barn and a vision for how I wanted the finished coop to look and function. But how was I going to get from the hole to the vision?

Back in January, I had the contractor who worked on our garage come out and take a look at the coop. The barn had been open for more than a year, and I was making no progress on rebuilding the wall. I was considering hiring out the project just to get it done.

In the end, talking through the project with the contractor was enough. He went over some of the options, and I came out of the meeting feeling like I knew what I wanted to do… and, even better, that I could do it myself.

My major stumbling block was the ground outside the coop was too high. Removing the old foundation last spring included scraping down the grade, but our landscapers didn’t go quite far enough. Going down further would create its own issues with how the ground is sloping around that corner of the barn, so regrading that area was not something I wanted to do.

So I decided to raise the coop. Step one was building a small block wall. This would be a foundation that could be up against the exterior dirt. It would also support the new wood wall that would finally close the hole in the barn.

I called our mason, and he agreed that a wall was an easy solution. I cleaned up the opening and a few weeks ago he spent the afternoon laying two rows of block. While he was here, I was able to ask lots of questions and he talked me through a lot of other details of the project.

Then Matt’s Dad dropped his trailer off at the farm and said, “Figure out what you need for the coop and go get your lumber.” So I did.

Now I have a foundation. I have lumber. I have a plan.

I don’t have a schedule yet of when I’ll actually put the lumber to use and construct the wall (or the floor or the stalls), but I feel like I’m making progress.

Who else needs thinking time when you’re working on a project? Anyone else feel like you’re making progress on a project at your house? Anyone else feel stuck?