The cats were super sad without their fun houses. We went to Ikea and got a $6 hut. Looks like a devil and matches our apartment’s color scheme. But only one house was not enough for the 2 cats so I had to do something about it and decided to add a “Kicking Cat House” to my list of projects.

A week ago, I started writing specifications for the new cat house and making some designs. I started with crazy ideas, not easily doable and ended up with a simple design using cardboard boxes. Cara manages a farmer’s market in the city and last Saturday we asked for Tierra Farm‘s boxes. They gave me 2 big boxes, a smaller cubic one and some flat pieces of cardboard. Then the produce people from Migliorelli Farm had some empty plastic paper rolls, made of tough cardboard. I took 6 from them.

I had a design which would have made the house pretty vertical. But while pre-setting up and puzzling the boxes together, I turned it around to create something more horizontal and stable.

All of the photos below were taken by Cara Reynolds & Marine Boudeau. Since the credits are not specific to each photo, you can simply assume the best photos are by Cara Reynolds. ;)

Me puzzling the boxes

Once the design was definitive, I started working on the rolls which would have 2 benefits: 1) Add weight to the house. 2) Allow Jefferson and Zohara to do their nails. I cut them all into pieces and then tingled heavy natural rope (bought at Home Depot) around them. Cutting them into 2 pieces each was a tough one. It was so strong I had to use the hand saw.

Rolls with and without the rope and the design goal

The rope is attached to the rolls thank to Cara’s staple gun. That was fun to use. But dangerous!

The next step was to prepare some papier mache to decorate the rolls that did not have any rope around as well as the base of what these rolls would be attached to.

To make papier mache, do the following (it is not the fastest recipe but it probably is the best; it also only requires natural ingredients):

1. Mix one cup of cold water with one cup of flour until it looks homogeneous
2. Boil 5 cups of water
3. Add salt (this will allow the papier mache mixture not to get moldy)
4. Verse the mixture into the boiling water
5. Cook for 3 minutes
6. Let cool down

Below how the small box look. I sliced waves in the cardboard and behind added one transparent plastic layer and a blue transparent layer so light could come through. The same concept would be used for the other boxes, each representing different nature elements.

The small box finished with papier mache, rolls, rope and waves

Using the same tools and principles, I built the rest of the house. You can see the evolution below.

Now you can see the trees and clouds are showing in transparency with the light

Jefferson commenting on the work done

In order to add more comfort to the house, I built 2 pillows with a zipper for easy cleaning. The inside is filled with polyester.

One of the two pillows

The two pillows being tested by Zohara

The house finished below:

Front

Back

Inside waves

Inside corridor

Inhabited house

Jefferson on first floor (outside)

Zoe on first floor (inside)

Zoe on ground floor and Jefferson on top

Cara told me she saw Jefferson doing his nails on the ropes today. So mission accomplished. The next steps will be to incorporate a few toys hanging from the top of each floor.