A couple of months ago my wife and I rescued a couple of kittens. We'd never had pets in our 18 years of marriage, though we'd been discussing what type of dog to get since we got together 19 years ago.
Anyhow, we've got these kittens and apparently we've gone super stupid for them. So one day my wife finds plans for a "cat condo" on the Internet and asks "can you build this?" Of course my answer is "sure, why not." I'm a crappy carpenter but I can operate tools without chopping off my fingers so here's my project.

The base is 2'x2' and the uprights are 5' tall.


The larger shelves are at 24" and 48". The smaller shelf is at 38" I think. I used a roto-saw to cut out the hole in the center and to notch the shelves.


With the top cubbyhole attached.


Essentially complete before carpeting. I didn't have the top of the box on because I needed to be able to cut the carpet out for the door.


Carpeting progress. The carpet was a remnant from when we recarpeted our house 2 years ago, so it matches the carpets in the rest of the house.





There's 130' of rope wrapping the 2x4.


Ready to go inside.


In place in the family room.



Acceptance inspection.

Looks like the kittens love it.  How much time and $$$ to build it?  

Nice project!

Wait, your house has green carpets?

The condo looks great, though.  The cats will love it.

The kittens think it is great. They run up the rope wrapping like it's a ladder.

I put about 12-14 hours into it over 4 days. My nephew was visiting so he helped with the initial cutting and assembly and my wife helped with the rope wrapping. I did all the carpeting myself.
Total cost was around $100 for the wood, rope, screws, staples and replacement staple gun. (I killed one halfway through the carpeting phase.)

Yes, the carpet is green. It's actually 2 greens and looks like moss. Most of the time in the natural lighting of the house it looks more brown and earthy.

what did you use to secure the carpet?

A crapload of 3/8" staples. I'd make a hole through the carpet fibers with my fingers to get right next to the backing then shoot the staple in. Then you give it a little rub and the staple disappears under the rug pile. I made sure to tack it everywhere so there aren't any loose spots. Which turned out to be a really good idea since the cats are using the carpet to climb over the entire exterior.

Nice.  Did the same thing with all parts coming from the garage including scrap carpet, chair legs, closet rod, mailbox, pvc pipe, rope, and my pos SW 40VE.  Sent it to SW because it couldn't shoot straight, came back "fixed" and even in a vice it was on/off paper from 10 yards.

Wow, good job....that looks really neat, and if you bought something like that it'd cost several times over what you spent on it.

My dad made a free standing window perch for my cat, 6 or 7 years ago...nothing as elaborate as what you made...but she loves it, and still uses it a good bit.

Thanks. My wife priced a few that were similar for about $300-$400. Now that I've done one I could bring the materials price down some. I'm planning a window perch with some scrap I've got left in the garage, but the kittens really have no interest in what's outside at the moment. They'll sprawl in the sunlight coming in through the kitchen doors and they'll get up on the windowsill in the dining room but they don't look out to see what's going on.

Looks like there will be many years of fun with that.  Kittens are wonderful things.

Very cool.  Nice job. http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/grinser/grinning-smiley-003.gif

Very cool.

You can buy something like that for about $200.  Was the work worth saving $100?




I have a similar cat:

Cute kitty.

I think I saved more than $100 and I have the satisfaction of having done it myself. But would I make another one for someone else? No.

Yeah... I was thinking of doing one myself.  I would probably make one that's a lot less involved.  The rope wound post is a good idea, though.  My cat loves to climb trees.

I hope you have some ironclad contracts with your tenants.

You will only have yourself to blame if they start subletting to a family of possums.

Kiss your property values goodbye when the possums arrive!

I just used a bunch of Ikea shelves screwed into the wall next to my book case.

The cat fucking loves it.

HAHAHaa I love the cat toy.

For the love of God I hope my wife NEVER finds out about plans like this on the 'net. That is just the ammo she needs for me to actually use all the tools I bought and to put all the (s)crap I accumulated in the garage to good use.

Good job BTW OP...

Awesome job OP.

BADASS.  

Cool project!


Looks like a giant chia pet.