Starting My Enclosure

cut for dog yard as well.......


These two are for the gate and the front portion..... He put a piece of one in my post hole to make sure the hole was the correct size and that it would sit flat and it did both.... thank god.......


I think husband is concreting them in the yard next Tuesday...

The foundation is laid........ ahhh

Husband also said we are NOT stripping the wood. He wants to keep it the way it is. He said the cats will really enjoy the bark.. and he is right. So, I have one less job to do...

Jenn and the crew.

Jenn, this is so exciting for you!! I can't wait to see how it progresses!

Thank you Tiggy and kitty lover....... We are nearly ready to actually begin construction of it.. Probably sometime next week......

I have been working so hard today. I am ready to get the house finished so we can start the enclosure. I put the posts in the holes today to just look at them.

But I got the bedroom finished....... All we have to do is lay carpet through out the house.

The wood trim the installation of the windows and door will come after we live there. So this room is finished except for laying carpet in order to be livable....




This is our carpet. We just have to get everything done so we can live there.

I textured the bathroom today also. Tomorrow I am painting that. Then all we have left in the house portion to make it livable is hook the kitchen sink up, hook the commode up and lay the bathroom floor.

This is our carpet.... and bathroom floor. Kitchen floor is already done and is exactly like the bathroom floor except it is a larger pattern. All the wood trim we are leaving natural. The enclosure and dog yard is only a couple weeks away..




I also painted the inside of "kitty door #1" so it will be ready to be installed. Oh I can't wait!!!



Nite all...........I am exhauted.....

Here's some comparison pics....

The house was a wreck. We gutted most of it.

This was what the bedroom looked like after I put plastic on it so I could walk through there. The dust was horrible. We ended up ripping all the old insulation out and ripping the closet out and gutting everything and starting fresh.....


We are so glad we butted it because the person who started this project had no idea what he was doing. The old insulation prior to me putting plastic over it was hanging down from the ceiling and you can see the black dust and gross stuff. The people used candles for lighting and they had no running water or restroom facilites so we had to add those. It was a fishing cabin.

But it has been our project house!! We are so glad we bought it. This was the realty picture. And this is where we will live the rest of our lives... It is shaped like an L so you can't see the whole house. It is a 800-900 square feet ONE BEDROOM. The room are very large.. We love it! Husband was not crazy about it at first but I fell in love with it. He thought I was a fruitloop for wanting to buy a wrecked house, but it is brand new now. Portion one of the kitty enclosure is to the left of the house.


This is the back before anything was done. I had only picked up the 5 trailers of trash at this point. It was absolutely filthy.


This was the cleanest room in the house when we bought it and so you get the general jist of things. I could see the possibilites of us living there. It is 250 yards from the lake.


And now my dream is coming true.

Nite.........Jenn

We have our plans made. This is our final enclosure plans.

Husband altered it to make it taller to compensate for taking off part of it. We had to make the bed area slightly smaller because we have not bought windows yet and dont' plan to until we are living in our house. And also if we ever have to dig up water pipes, this would be the location. So common sense pervails. So to access the enclosure, cats will have a ramp going to the enclosure from the cat door. Covered roof/water proof area is 10 x 10 and will be 8 feet on one side and 10 feet on the other. The other side is 10x20 with outside portion being 8 feet tall and the interior 10 feet with a wire top. So the sides with the new plan are two feet taller and the middle is four feet taller to compensate for the area of the entire enclosure. But this is room ones plans. When we clear land we can make this larger. The work should be starting on this pretty soon. Within a week or two tops. It is L shaped. Did this make sense. 10 feet in middle and 8 feet on sides. Both sides sloping down like a roof.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...sureLshape.jpg

Alsol I have tossed around plans for putting ramps in our house for the cats. I found a site that explains perfectly what I have in mind... I am putting two links here and what I want is a combo of both of these.

http://www.brushyland.com/cats/catwalk.htm
http://home.nc.rr.com/box/cat_world.html

But the two above I really like and am very impressed by them. It's hard to find stuff written about interior cat ramps. I don't think many people have them but we are.

And for something outrageous.......check this out. I like it but it's a little too much upkeep for my tastes.
http://www.thecatshouse.com/html/cathouse/ch_cav_01.htm

One day soon, some real cat enclosure pics will be sitting in this thread..... And in the not too distant future.

Husband measured today and enclosing the other portion of the 20x20 will not intefere with the plumbing or anything. so as soon as the window is in, that 10x10 portion will be enclosed and then the entire thing will have a 10' pitch in the center. He said he is putting drain gutters on the sides when he makes the roof permanent.

I am finishing he dumb bathroom Sat and Sun. I need to paint it but don't have the money for paint until Friday after work....... And a week or so after that [another payday], we can start building.....

We live payday to payday. If we can get it all done, that will change. Thank god.......

Wow what a great house in a lovely spot--I'm envious!

Thank you Vic..... We are working so hard on it that it is just killing us. We have permanent back aches.. hehe

Husband got all closet shelves built today and put sub flooring down so Sat I can lay the floor in the laundry room and restroom....... Yeah!!! Nothing like looking forward to working on my days off. But I really mean that. The work we are doing is so darn hard but we are enjoying it.

It's that "fruits of the labor thing".........

Next Monday I'll have more pictures of my progress. I know this is my cat enclosure thread but since I have to finish the human house first, I'm posting those picture as well.

Soon................ and it can't come quick enough for me and my husband.

Jenn and the gang.

Jen, I can definitely see the potential in the realty pics.....and you've done a great job with everything so far. Can't wait to see the finished pics!!!

Tomorrow after work, since it's Friday, I am heading out there and painting the shelves in two closets and then Saturday and Sunday am laying the flooring in the restroom and laundry room.

After that all we have left to move is lay the carpet in the rest of the house and hook the commode up and fence everything....

It's moving along.

After we get in, we will start our second 20x20 room for the cats. The grey area in the photo is the portion that will be waterproofed. That way they can go out and use their "facilities" without getting wet. In the winter, we will have to put litter boxes back in the house.

Sunday I'll have new house pics...... And I think Tues, Wed and Thur, husband is putting all the posts in the ground....

We have started paying our rent two weeks at a time now because the time for moving is so so so close....

The deck and the front porch will also be done AFTER we live there. We just want the initial enclosure and dog yard and the house livable for us all.... Poor husband worked the last three days so hard out there.

After our window is in and we close off the other little area, and are living there, we are going to start working toward increasing the enclosure to this.

Eventually we want to fence the entire property and then we can drastically increase the sizes of the cat areas and the dog areas, but land will have to be cleared first.

SOOO much work your are doing......you may have a sore back, but I'll bet it's fun!

YA, IT IS FUN...... ............. Tonight I am finishing the last of the paint.......yeah...... and then the floor in the laundry room will be done. Should be a piece of cake.. at least I hope so.

Got the laundry room floor done this weekend and the restroom. Need to tile the walls and put commode in and baseboards.

Husband is laying the carpet in the bedroom on his days off.

It's coming along.

Well, I was working on the house today and have revised my plan. After the enclosure and dog yard is finished, we are getting some two feet tall wire that has 1/4 inch holes and lining it around the entire perimeter of both animal yards to keep snakes out.

This is why. I was weedeating today and right by the front porch I killed a rattle snake.

Here is my first picture. He was coiled and ready.


I pulled him out with my garden hoe and hit him. He slithered to a rock and tried to recoil on me attacking the hoe.


So I hit him on the head and knocked him out and put him on a rock.




Then chopped his little head off to make sure he was dead.


I am going to skin him and keep the skin. If I can get enough I plan on making a snakeskin lampshade. They are very pretty.

Right now I have him in a baggy in my fridge. I am going to skin him in a bit. I buried the had in a covered dish so no animal will get ahold of it and get venom on them.


So the enclosure is going to be more secure around the perimether than just 2 x4 inch wire. I want tiny wire around the bottom. Or even possible 1 x 12's Not sure yet. But a plan is in motion.... I have to do something or the cats and dogs will be bit or a snake could come through the cat door.

There is a vaccine against rattlesnakes for animals that vets suggest giving a month before snake season starts. I am going to look into that for next spring.

Some people might think that it's impossible to keep snakes out of my yard but I am going to try. I grew up with rattlesnakes on a Texas farm and we grew much bigger rattlers than this... He had quite a few rattlers but he was not a large large snake, but that is neither here nor there. They are all deadly. We kept grass very very short.

The rock gardens the previous owner has put in will be history this winter. All plants around the perimeter of the house are coming up. I want no hiding places.. I want no large rocks around the house. They look cute and native but it's not worth it to me. I would be a idiot to get in the rock garden and plant stuff out there. Ha! I want grass. Nice flat grass where I can see the ground. Where this guy was at, was the exact place the kitty front porch is going to be. So this area will be cleared soon after moving in.

I'm glad you can be "calm" about that snake. If it was me, I'm sure both coasts and maybe Australia would have heard me scream!

Saw you have the link to www.thecatshouse.com. Ain't it a hoot?

You are very brave Jenn.
It is to bad that the snakes have to go but you cannot risk having them around.
I have been told that the babies are as dangerous as adults.