Update: Kitty Condo Open House

Update 2/8/14: the kitties are using the condo! We have eyewitness accounts of both kitties hopping out of the condo, so that means they were IN the condo. For how long, we don't know. Do they sleep in there all night? Just go in for a quick snack? These are the burning questions of the day. Perhaps mounting a game camera to the garage will provide the answers. Stay tuned!

Original post:
The Kitty Condo is done. Perhaps I should say it's inhabitable. Bruce still needs to put up trim, install drip edge under the roof, and hang various decorations, but the inside is done and ready for Shadow and Sera to move in.

As of today, they're still sleeping on the front porch glider (at least, they're there when we go to bed at night). Cats have a hard time changing their routine. They're very cautious. It may take them a few weeks or months to figure out the condo is theirs, but in the meantime, they also have the log deck, the woodshed and the front porch from which to choose to snooze.

Bruce started building the condo inside the garage. To ensure the kitties were safe from coyotes, he built it on a four foot high base. He then added casters so he could move it around.

Oops. He soon realized that it was now too tall to move out of the garage. After disassembling it (which he was going to do anyway to insulate and caulk the inside),

he moved it just outside the garage under the eave to finish the construction.










He added insulation and caulked all of the seams. This condo is going to be toasty warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Wow, hardwood floors! If you know Bruce, you know he doesn't do anything halfway. This condo is a mansion.

It got colder and colder, but Bruce kept gearing up and going outside just about every day to work on the condo.

Finally, the roof is on! That's an access door on the backside, so we can reach in to refill their heated water bowl and food dish, and do some light housekeeping.

There's snow on the ground now, but Bruce just puts on more layers.














So are you ready for the Open House Tour? Here's the front, complete with kitty door entryway and custom window.

The step is to make it easier for them to jump into the carpeted entryway, but still difficult (we hope) for other critters, like raccoons, to get in.













They can sit in their loft and look out the cat head window.

You can see through the open kitty door the carpet Bruce installed on the wall. They can stretch and sharpen their claws before having a snack and getting a little shuteye.











Let's go inside, shall we? We'll take the roof off so we have a better view :-)

Here we are looking down from the loft into the eating/play area. You can see the entryway peeping out under the loft at the bottom of the photo. The wall carpet is on the left, and the access door is at the far end on the left. Our picture is above the heated water bowl.

The access door is barely visible in the camouflage. That's Shadow and Sera in the picture next to the carpet.

Now the access door is open. Yes, the "wallpaper" is kind of Duck Dynasty, isn't it?












Looking from the access door side toward the loft, where the window allows them to see what's happening outside. And there's a photo of Cody and Sera, to make them feel safe.











The food dish and water bowl are within easy reach of the housekeeper's access door.

Bruce custom fit some rubber mats over the flooring so we can easily clean up any accidents.

From the kitties' point of view, looking up toward the loft...

















And the finishing touch - Bruce added the heated kitty bed onto the loft after the roof was installed. Cozy!

Let's exit through the access door. We hope Shadow and Sera like their new condo and make themselves at home soon. Bruce put his heart into building it and did a fantastic job (in my humble opinion).

I'll post some updated pictures after the trim and decorations go up. Hopefully, we'll have some permanent tenants by then. Thanks for stopping by!