Home tweet home: Birds of all feathers flock to these creations

Originally published Saturday, March 14, 1998

By JON HAHN  
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

There's a home builder just outside Marysville whose custom units have prospective occupants flocking to her door even before she has her morning coffee.

Rebecca Seay is the president, chief executive officer, chairman, treasurer, secretary, designer, framer, roofer, painter and janitor of her very own firm: Pacific Northwest Bird House Co.

From her rural acreage overlooking the various sloughs and Possession Sound to the west, Rebecca is turning out bird feeders, single and multiple-unit houses and even custom houses almost as fast as the customers pull into her driveway.

She's not hard to find: just follow the yellow-and-black roadside signs spotted at various intersections south and east of Marysville. Her quaint home and workshop are at the end of a long gravel drive, surrounded by giant firs and cedars and a half-dozen gnarled old apple trees.

And lots of birds, busy at any of the dozen or so feeders and watering stations scattered about the property. This is, according to the official posted sign, a state certified bird and wildlife sanctuary.

"This place, with all of its birds, sort of inspired me," explained Rebecca, whose full-time sales and marketing job is at Flower Signatures in Redmond. "It all started about three years ago, when I wanted a feeder for the blue jays. I designed one -- it's that big one out there -- and my husband built it," she said.

"Then I wanted a second feeder -- we've got lots of birds here -- and I decided: Why not put some out by the road and see if anyone's interested?"

Well, that first, rather functional fly-through feeder is a bunch of sticks compared to the custom cedar houses they build now. Coming off a slow winter season, Rebecca has "only" 50 or 60 gaily painted birdhouses and feeders and other outside decorative items ready for the drive-up market. But production is gearing up.

"April through June is our busy time. We'll probably sell 150 or more houses just from people driving out on the weekends," said the Lynnwood native. "And others will call and order custom jobs.

"One woman brought her own old barn wood, which she said was from the old family farm back in Connecticut. She wanted birdhouses made out of that wood for her and her brothers and sisters, as a reminder of their original place back East. She was just delighted with the houses."

Rebecca still gets help from husband Carl Zaretzke, an auto mechanic and logging trucker and noted stock car racer in Snohomish County, as well as from her 14-year-old daughter, Leah. Matter of fact, as we talked in the sun-porch-turned-shop of her rural home, Leah came through, paintbrush in hand, displaying a Picasso sort of paint job on a wren house.

"We either work with old barn wood or cedar, which holds up well in the wet weather," Rebecca said. "And we use acrylic paints for the same reason."

These are not ordinary tract homes painted in committee-approved colors. Some of Rebecca's custom houses are chickadee-size firehouses. Some others have little "Gone Fishing" signs tacked on one side. She might get a bug in her ear about a theme and turn out a dozen or so "restaurant" birdhouses. Or flower-shop birdhouses. Some have bird-shaped entrance holes; others have two- and three-flat entrance holes and perches. They range in price from $17.50 to "about $150," she said.

Judging by the feathered occupants of the feeders and houses around her property, these are well-used units. "And there's really no problems with the squirrels, who seem to come in and eat their fill of sunflower seeds and then leave," Rebecca said. "After them, come the jays, and then the little birds."

"Yeah, we've got finches and chickadees and woodpeckers and hoot owls and hawks. And even eagles," added Leah. And weekend customers sometimes parked five and six deep in the driveway out front.

"I wasn't into all this for the money; I just wanted to make people happy with the houses and feeders. And, of course, to promote the state's wildlife program."

Her company -- licensed and registered with local and state authorities -- is wherever she does the work. In the winter, it's in the detached garage workroom, filled with various electric saws and workbenches and heated with an oil-drum wood stove. During the rest of the year, she said, "it could be outside, or here in the kitchen or out on the porch."

On weekends this time of year, you'll usually find her building or painting birdhouses within sight of her driveway at 3424 71st Ave N.E. That's two miles east on the main Marysville exit off Interstate 5, then south on 67th Avenue Northeast and follow the yellow-and-black "Bird House" signs.

And for information on turning your own property into a bird and wildlife refuge, write to: Backyard Wildlife Refuge Program, State Fish & Wildlife Dept., 16018 Mill Creek Blvd., Mill Creek, WA 98012.

Jon Hahn is a staff columnist who writes three times a week in the P-I.