Tow Behind Camper Bird House

Here are two bird houses that I have made recently. They are constructed by layering plywood that has been cut out to the profile and then gluing them together. The smaller birdhouse was made out to the plywood cut from making a hollow in the larger birdhouse. A band saw was extremely helpful in cutting out the profiles of the body. The bottom was made removable for cleaning and is held on by four drywall screws. The window and door trim are from thinly ripped pieces of pine that is glued on after being cut to size. For the window and door screen I used drywall fiberglass tape and then smeared a layer of wood glue on top to make sure it will not peel off. To finish the birdhouse I cut some roofing flashing to size for the roof, I did this partly for decorative reasons and also because I was afraid that the plywood would delaminate after a few years in the weather. The roofing was attached with aluminum siding nails.

To begin painting I covered the entire bird house, minus the roofing, with white exterior paint. I ended up with two coats of white paint. The detail painting was finished with acrylic paint and lots of patients. If I ever make more of these I will be sure to come up with a better paint scheme, the blue is a little "bright." I would also make sure the bottom had more clearance so that after I painted I would be still able to remove it; the current bottoms are wedged in place. I will have to see if the weather will still delaminate the plywood even after covering the ends with roofing flashing, it might have been a better ideal to use pine boards but the plywood was from the scrap bin so there is no real loss.