Return to THE HUMMIN' BIRD CAFE!

This weekend, I took on a "rehab" project that has been bugging me for a while.  My "Hummin' Bird Cafe" was in need of some "curb appeal".  The blistering summers had melted the hot glue holding everything together.  And the cold winter and rains just beat up the shingles. Not that I minded the "weathered" look...it was just a bit too much.  And the round side feeder lost all the shingles that kept the seed in, so in the cold winter, I had stapled on a temporary fix made from sandpaper.

Everything has wood screws holding it on to the "tree post".  I took everything down to my basement so I could peel off all the nasty stuff.  The frogs fell apart, too, and I had to re-glue them.  I had not even noticed that the little frog that used to sit on the roof of the front porch was now missing.  Perhaps a bird or squirrel got him! I might have to make another froggy.

I decided to cut up a bunch of little sticks to use for the railing around the side deck.  That's the platform that holds the hummingbird feeder, but also can hold seed in the winter. I drilled out the holes a bit larger, to allow water to drain better.

I put on a whole new roof for the front porch.  I want to give a big shoutout to my nearby SHERWIN WILLIAMS paint store!!!  I had the idea of using stir sticks this time for the shingles, instead of gluing each on one at a time.  The guy was kind enough to give me about 50 stir sticks for this project!!  I then used my band saw to cut grooves into the length of wood.

It was pretty time consuming to custom cut each row of shingles...but much faster than gluing the single shingles.

Below, the Cafe is ready for paint!

I decided to paint the roof blue this time, since I had used that color on the trim of the door and windows the first time around.  Then I "aged" the color by giving it a wash of brown, very watered down.  I dabbed it all with a paper towel as I went.

The final results worked out pretty well.  And by painting a good coat of blue, I figure that it will hold up better in the harsh weather.

So here's how it looks today.  I also filled up the hummingbird feeders with sugar water.  Now all I need are some birds who know how to hum!!   :)