Go Back   Pet forum for dogs cats and humans - Pets.ca > Discussion Groups - mainly cats and dogs > General Forum for cats and dogs

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old April 23rd, 2011, 03:40 PM
FurryMom's Avatar
FurryMom FurryMom is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 63
Building a kitty room

I am going to make my cats room more fun. I am going to build a cat tree/condo for my kitties. The thing will be HUGE, 6 feet tall and about 5 1/2 feet wide. There will be 2 tall posts wrapped in sisal with 2 smaller posts wrapped in carpet. The whole thing will be carpeted (except the sisal rope posts) and have 2 high perches. In all there will be 4 "rooms" and one of them will have 2 levels. I also plan on putting carpeted kitty shelves on the walls. I have already bought some plywood and strong brackets for the shelves. I have some left over carpet from when our house was built. Too bad I didn't have this idea when we were ripping the new carpet out to lay down hardwood, oh well. Any suggestions for stabilizing the hugemongous cat tree/condo would be great! I don't want it to be wobbly. No sense building it if they could get hurt or are scared of using it! I will post pictures as I go. I'm really excited about this project!!
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old April 23rd, 2011, 03:47 PM
chico2's Avatar
chico2 chico2 is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Oakville Ontario
Posts: 26,591
Furrymom,that sounds great,I am sure the kitties will love it
It's difficult to say,without seeing it what you can use,if the base is big enough,it probably would not fall over.
We have a heavy metal base on one tree,but the other is just a wooden larger base and the tree does not fall.
__________________
"The cruelest animal is the Human animal"
3 kitties,Rocky(r.i.p my boy),Chico,Vinnie
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old April 23rd, 2011, 04:11 PM
pattymac pattymac is offline
Pro Poop Scooper!
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Sunniest City In Canada!
Posts: 1,496
Lucky kitties!! My cats would love a cat tree but don't really have room for it right now! Noella (kitten) uses the curtains for climbing! Little stinker, she likes sitting on the curtain rod...her Granma isn't too impressed though!!
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old April 23rd, 2011, 06:21 PM
14+kitties's Avatar
14+kitties 14+kitties is offline
150% PRO S/N
Starcastle Champion, V:force Champion, UFO Shoot Out Champion, Parachute Panic Champion, Mission To Mars Champion, Disc Dash Champion, Crazy Closet Champion, Railway Line Champion, Penguin Pass Champion
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: MYOB
Posts: 15,408
Can you fasten the whole thing to a wall or do you not want to make that much of a commitment?
__________________
Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me.

We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD!
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old April 23rd, 2011, 09:10 PM
Dee-O-Gee's Avatar
Dee-O-Gee Dee-O-Gee is offline
You can call me DOG!
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Niagara, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 5,645
Sound like quite the project FurryMom. Make sure you take before, during and after pictures. v

They're so much fun to look at!
__________________
A dog wags his tail with his heart
Dogs have Masters--Cats have Staff

Rest in Peace Bailey: 12/10/95-1/9/09 (Golden Retriever)
Rest in Peace Kitty: 7/1/2000 - 10/7/2013
Rest in Peace Gryphon (sounds like Griffin): 10/15/2004 - 11/18/2017 (English Springer Spaniel)
Bella: 3/09/2005 LHD Cat adopted by/from Child
Mollie: 6/2/2009 (English Setter)
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old April 23rd, 2011, 10:34 PM
Tundra_Queen's Avatar
Tundra_Queen Tundra_Queen is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Northern Ontario
Posts: 5,603
Hi

We built one a couple of years ago. 7ft tall by almost 4ft I think. On the bottom we used a 3/4 inch piece of plywood with 4X4 metal post holders that are screwed into the plywood and also screwed into the 4 X 4 posts.

We also built a house on the bottom section to help with the tipping. I'll try to find the old thread if I can.
__________________
~Friendship is like a bank account. You can't continue to draw on it without making deposits~


~Tegan 9 year old yellow lab~
~Wilbur 9 year old LH cat~
~Mirabelle 18 mos dsh~
~O'Shawnnessey 18 mos dsh~
~Darby 1 year old dsh~
~Mindy 7 yr old shih tzu~
~Dexter 10yr old Salmon (large goldfish)
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old April 23rd, 2011, 10:41 PM
Tundra_Queen's Avatar
Tundra_Queen Tundra_Queen is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Northern Ontario
Posts: 5,603
here is the link

http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread....light=cat+tree
__________________
~Friendship is like a bank account. You can't continue to draw on it without making deposits~


~Tegan 9 year old yellow lab~
~Wilbur 9 year old LH cat~
~Mirabelle 18 mos dsh~
~O'Shawnnessey 18 mos dsh~
~Darby 1 year old dsh~
~Mindy 7 yr old shih tzu~
~Dexter 10yr old Salmon (large goldfish)
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old April 25th, 2011, 11:35 AM
ownedbycats's Avatar
ownedbycats ownedbycats is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Ontario
Posts: 854
If you are still looking for ideas this might help:
http://www.thecatshouse.com/catshouse/tour.htm
You can click on the room and then click on the orange cat in the corner to see more pictures, some from duirng construction might help. Not everyone likes neon colors, but the structures they built might give you some ideas, and its just fun to look at.
__________________
Dr. Seuss~DLH (brother's cat)~June 2007-
Misty~DSH (my cat & Mooby's mom)-?- Sept. 15, 2014
MooBoots(Mooby) ~ DMH(Mom's cat)~July 21, 2008-
Sunshine~ Golden retriever X white german sheperd (Dad's dog)~October 24, 2008-
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old April 26th, 2011, 06:11 PM
FurryMom's Avatar
FurryMom FurryMom is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 63
Thanks everyone! I will definitely take before and after pictures. I will probably paint their room this weekend and hang the carpet covered "shelves". I have 4 covered with carpet, but only 3 have brackets. The hardware store didn't have all that I needed at the time. I want to have 8 (maybe 10) around the room for their "looking down on the humans" pleasure.

The cat tree will hopefully look something like this http://www.playtimeworkshop.com/park_place.htm.
I made some modifications to my sketch and my neighbor has wood working tools that I'm sure he is itching to use. The best modification, in my opinion is, there will be two long posts from the smallest bottom "room" to the top perches. Nice and tall for long stretched out scratching. I also am only going to have 2 perches and not 3. I feel there are plenty of high perches with the "shelves" they will have all over the room. I'm really excited to get this built and their room complete. I am also planning on making a window perch. It's really funny to see 2 13lb cats and a 10 lb cat try to all fit on the window ledge. I also saw some carpeted wood, kind of like frames, hung on the walls for scratching. I may try to make some of those as well.

Wish me luck!! This is a very ambitious project for someone who has no wood working skills and injures herself every time she picks up a tool, or knife for that matter! Although I am pretty handy! The only problem will be finding studs in the places I need them!

Amanda
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old April 26th, 2011, 06:12 PM
FurryMom's Avatar
FurryMom FurryMom is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 63
Tundra Queen, your cat tree is awesome and your kitties are adorable!!
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old April 26th, 2011, 06:29 PM
dmc123's Avatar
dmc123 dmc123 is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: North Carolina, USA
Posts: 1,609
furrymom -

I envy that you have a room to fix up for your cats! We don't have extra room so the cat tree is right here in the living room! But they and we don't mind sharing LOL

Good luck with your project.

Diane
__________________
A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.
-Josh Billings
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old April 26th, 2011, 06:48 PM
FurryMom's Avatar
FurryMom FurryMom is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 63
Thanks Diane. A kitty room is a must!! We would have nowhere to put all those litter boxes, toys, beds, pillows, scratching posts, jungle gyms, houses and bowls. They really have a lot of stuff!! Their room is full and definitely a must since we got a puppy!! All cats but one hate the new addition. They don't know that he just wants to play. He's a dachshund, so they are the same size, if not bigger, than he is!
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Forum Terms of Use

  • All Bulletin Board Posts are for personal/non-commercial use only.
  • Self-promotion and/or promotion in general is prohibited.
  • Debate is healthy but profane and deliberately rude posts will be deleted.
  • Posters not following the rules will be banned at the Admins' discretion.
  • Read the Full Forum Rules

Forum Details

  • Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
    Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
    vBulletin Optimisation by vB Optimise (Reduced on this page: MySQL 0%).
  • All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:38 PM.