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Here's the finished product. WIP here: https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/88136-blzeebub-builds-another-bird-boxbegin/&tab=comments#comment-1870132 I made this as a wedding gift for some friends. I think they'll dig it and maybe you will too. More moss! I added a stained bottom for easy attachment to a post. I also decided to enrich the wood of the door and slapped some wood stain on it for depth of color. The metal I roughed up a bit with sandpaper and sprayed with a solution of salt, hydrogen peroxide, and vinegar to speed oxidation. Though the ridge cap is galvanized steel and the chimney is aluminum, so who knows what that oxidation will actually look like! Questions, comments, critiques always welcome!

So...gonna make this a WIP though it's technically done as of yesterday. At the risk of becoming the "birdhouse guy" I opted to skip the registry of household (comm)oddities and make a bluebird nesting box for my friends' wedding. I think they'll appreciate it. I wanted a kind of whimsical, cottage style--the crazy roof being the focus. After much perusing of images of "fairy house," "magic cottage," and the like I settled on a basic design. I used a jigsaw to cut out the front and back walls from 1/2" plywood. Side walls are similarly non-square. Wood glue and finishing nails later and I had a frame. While that dried I soaked some 5mm (1/4") plywood in hot water long enough to soften it and bent it slowly onto the frame, clamped it for a day, and glued and nailed. Repeated for the other side. The two sides of ply were differently happy to take a curve so I acquiesced to the wood. Some peeling of the outer ply occurred, but later I scraped that off. For the rocks, I took some "river pebbles" from the local big box hardware store, rinsed off the dust and began applying with heavy duty landscaping adhesive (might have actually been Liquid Nails brand--I've used it before for the same effect). Let these cure and catch up with other life for a few days then on to the other sides!