After spending a bunch of time improving my house, then taking a much needed sabbatical to enjoy the holidays, I have momentarily turned my attention to another kind of "home improvement". I scored this doghouse from a fellow FREEcycle-er about a month ago, when the cold snap occurred..... being the "cat lady" I am, I was concerned for the well-being of the stray cats I take care of during this extreme cold. When I got it, it was woefully evident that it was in very rough shape, but it had potential.....a "fixer-upper", if you will. :-)
So, I set about it.... I realized that the first thing this cat house needed was a decent roof.... the one it had was hardly ideal. I scored some FREE shingles from my boyfriend's mom, who had just had her roof repaired from storm damage a few months ago. After some cutting, nailing and gluing, it is looking more and more like a respectable home, especially after removing the astro-turf flap that stood in as a makeshift door; although, what the astro-turf was covering wasn't really THAT much better. @@In the process of roofing, I also learned just how badly the wood sides needed replacing. The boards are so rotted that you could just about poke your finger all the way through them, completely scrapping my prior plans for covering them up with something pretty, like polished river stone, mosaic, or cat house-sized siding. Thank goodness for my pile-o-scrap wood! This week, I cut new side boards and make a template for a new front, to fit the cat door I bought.
(Okay....so it's not EXACTLY "free", anymore....I am into this project by about $30.00 so far, including the cat door, roofing materials, and the cute little birdhouse I bought with the same roofline, and I haven't even started to make it pretty, yet; but sometimes, a girl just has to create! And, to prove just how crazy I am, I have included a picture of one of the beautiful kitties I am laboring so hard for, who is already beginning to take to her new digs:
