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Every woodworker has made at least a few birdhouses, but probably nothing like these.
When you think of a birdhouse, you think of a square wooden box with a hole in the front. Birds don’t ask for much more. People, on the other hand, sometimes like things a bit fancier in their birdhouses. And if the birds still like them, everybody wins.
That’s the whole point of “Trusty Rusty Birdhouses,” a hobby business run by Sally Manthei of Racine, Wis. Rather than nailing together a few boards, Manthei collects rusty, chipped bits and pieces of history – discarded hardware, door fittings, cigar boxes, lanterns, lamp parts, hinges and anything else old and interesting – then combines the pieces that work best together to form each house. The results are fascinating, and no two are alike.
“I love the hunt for treasures and that was probably the main reason I started doing this” she says, adding that at first she made them just for her own yard. “And then I wanted to keep using up ‘treasures’ which led to more birdhouses, and more estate sales.”
People started noticing, and asking to buy her birdhouses, which led to her making a lot more houses. She’s been making them for about two year and recently completed her 400th house. Currently, her houses are for sale (for about $75 each) at consignment shops in Wisconsin and nearby Illinois. She’s also donated about 160 houses to Habitat for Humanity ReStores. In return, they provide scrap metal from their rehab projects, which find their way into more birdhouses. Plumbing fixtures and door parts – many of which make great entry holes for her houses – are her favorites.
Manthei notes that almost all of her houses are intended for actual use, with fewer than a dozen being made simply to be ornamental. She includes a description with each house of the materials used, as well as suggestions on proper use.
Trusty Rusty Birdhouses probably won’t be a Fortune 500 business anytime soon, but Manthei enjoys the process of collecting, designing and building so much that she doesn’t plan to slow down. “It’s a fun cycle that’s kept me happily busy for a couple years,” she says. “My husband works at home, so we are together in our Racine lake house all day. He supports my hobby business and has not complained about my chaotic basement workshop as of yet. That’s a win.”
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