Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Hi Well, I too was quite dismayed at the lack of originality on the web for cat climbers/homes/playsets..whatever. This is something I plan on doing, and have already begun gathering supplies. Thus, I have not yet begun to build but have a layout in mind which I don't mind sharing. The first thing I did was begin to notice the type of things my cat enjoys to be on, in, and play with. So, she loves batting at cardboard and letting it come back, which kinda makes it look like she is fanning herself. I also noticed how far and high she likes to jump. Free scraps of wood at lumber yards, Home Depot, etc. but for some of the stuff like the tunnel..you'll have to actually purchase. Btw, you can get free scraps of carpet at local design/carpeting centers..or at least I can. Take what they'll give you. The last item that is a must for Hush, is a bathroom sink. She loves sitting in it..the curve of it or the coolness..I dunno but it just drives me up the wall. When I get the sink (hopefully free like the other stuff) I'll begin construction. My idea is for a corner unit with at least 8 tiers. Ofcourse any wood used must be sanded and I'm going to paint mine a color(s) yet to be determined. Working with an 8 foot wall I plan on having 2 corner shelves. The piece of wood being a square and imo, at least 12in X 12in. Fasten the wood to the wall using L-brackets and a stud finder so you know where to drive in the nails. There SHOULD be wood beams behind the wall to the left and right of the corner. If you don't want to be driving nails into your wall you could basically construct something similar to a very wide and tall book shelf with the tiers and play things inside. I was just thinking that for purposes of jumping and leaping, directly securing to the wall would be better. I'm gonna place the bottom corner shelf 3 ft from the floor and the top one 2 feet from the ceiling. I want to place the sink on the left side of the corner roughly 3ft away ..depending on the sink...with its pedastle or on another little shelf/tier w/ a hole cut out for the sink about 2.5 ft from bottom. Then I'm gonna randomly place and space out the tiers around the corner shelves, mainly being determined by the location of the wooden beams behind the wall and ideally making sure that 2 tiers are at least a ft apart but no more than 5 ft apart. One tier will be about 2 ft long so that I can secure with a pushpin or two a 6in X 6 in box in the middle, so she can fan herself on either side of the shelf. One of the upper tiers will be wrapped in carpet and secured either by crafter's glue or staple gun. One of the bottom tiers will be covered with a cut up old bath mat via the same method. Now for the fun stuff...the tunnel. It'd be neat to have a circular one, but I'm just gonna take 4 long planks of wood at least 4 ft long and somewhere around 10 in wide, ofcourse the width may need to be adjusted if you have some large cats. I was going to line all sides with carpet. Measure the long parts first and then cut the carpet to fit each side. Using a super- holding craft glue, secure to the wood and let completely dry. Repeat for all sides of the wood. Then you're just going to make a little tunnel by attaching the 4 pieces of wood together long ways. You could use nails to attach each side or wood glue..this ugly yellow color stuff. I'm gonna place the tunnel with one end pretty much on the floor and make it's incline 30 degrees from the floor. My cat was found declawed, but if yours have claws the incline could be increased. I'm gonna have the other end of the tunnel come out onto a tier. Secure the tunnel to the wall where there are wooden beams behind the wall. wow, this was long. Hope your were thinking of a corner or wall unit! Maybe I haven't forgotten anything, but who knows it's late. If something I stated isn't quite clear, then pls feel free to ask for clarification. I have no idea whether or not the rest of the group members are interested in this topic, so if you wanna exchange ideas privately, pls feel free to contact me directly. Anyhow, good luck!! karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 If you ever get this monstrous skyscraper up, please send us some pictures. My guess...architecture is your forte. I bet that will look great and your cats will have a field day. Thanks for giving us the ideas. Cheers, Shawn " I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything that I hoped it could be. " Peter Gibbons - Office Space " It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care. " Peter Gibbons - Office Space ----Original Message Follows---- " bluetulipz <bluetulipz " <bluetulipz OT: cat climber Wed, 19 Feb 2003 07:55:56 -0000 Hi Well, I too was quite dismayed at the lack of originality on the web for cat climbers/homes/playsets..whatever. This is something I plan on doing, and have already begun gathering supplies. Thus, I have not yet begun to build but have a layout in mind which I don't mind sharing. The first thing I did was begin to notice the type of things my cat enjoys to be on, in, and play with. So, she loves batting at cardboard and letting it come back, which kinda makes it look like she is fanning herself. I also noticed how far and high she likes to jump. Free scraps of wood at lumber yards, Home Depot, etc. but for some of the stuff like the tunnel..you'll have to actually purchase. Btw, you can get free scraps of carpet at local design/carpeting centers..or at least I can. Take what they'll give you. The last item that is a must for Hush, is a bathroom sink. She loves sitting in it..the curve of it or the coolness..I dunno but it just drives me up the wall. When I get the sink (hopefully free like the other stuff) I'll begin construction. My idea is for a corner unit with at least 8 tiers. Ofcourse any wood used must be sanded and I'm going to paint mine a color(s) yet to be determined. Working with an 8 foot wall I plan on having 2 corner shelves. The piece of wood being a square and imo, at least 12in X 12in. Fasten the wood to the wall using L-brackets and a stud finder so you know where to drive in the nails. There SHOULD be wood beams behind the wall to the left and right of the corner. If you don't want to be driving nails into your wall you could basically construct something similar to a very wide and tall book shelf with the tiers and play things inside. I was just thinking that for purposes of jumping and leaping, directly securing to the wall would be better. I'm gonna place the bottom corner shelf 3 ft from the floor and the top one 2 feet from the ceiling. I want to place the sink on the left side of the corner roughly 3ft away ..depending on the sink...with its pedastle or on another little shelf/tier w/ a hole cut out for the sink about 2.5 ft from bottom. Then I'm gonna randomly place and space out the tiers around the corner shelves, mainly being determined by the location of the wooden beams behind the wall and ideally making sure that 2 tiers are at least a ft apart but no more than 5 ft apart. One tier will be about 2 ft long so that I can secure with a pushpin or two a 6in X 6 in box in the middle, so she can fan herself on either side of the shelf. One of the upper tiers will be wrapped in carpet and secured either by crafter's glue or staple gun. One of the bottom tiers will be covered with a cut up old bath mat via the same method. Now for the fun stuff...the tunnel. It'd be neat to have a circular one, but I'm just gonna take 4 long planks of wood at least 4 ft long and somewhere around 10 in wide, ofcourse the width may need to be adjusted if you have some large cats. I was going to line all sides with carpet. Measure the long parts first and then cut the carpet to fit each side. Using a super- holding craft glue, secure to the wood and let completely dry. Repeat for all sides of the wood. Then you're just going to make a little tunnel by attaching the 4 pieces of wood together long ways. You could use nails to attach each side or wood glue..this ugly yellow color stuff. I'm gonna place the tunnel with one end pretty much on the floor and make it's incline 30 degrees from the floor. My cat was found declawed, but if yours have claws the incline could be increased. I'm gonna have the other end of the tunnel come out onto a tier. Secure the tunnel to the wall where there are wooden beams behind the wall. wow, this was long. Hope your were thinking of a corner or wall unit! Maybe I haven't forgotten anything, but who knows it's late. If something I stated isn't quite clear, then pls feel free to ask for clarification. I have no idea whether or not the rest of the group members are interested in this topic, so if you wanna exchange ideas privately, pls feel free to contact me directly. Anyhow, good luck!! karen _______________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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