Saturday, December 10, 2005

I Built a Cat Tree

After three weeks, the beast is complete. My first major wood-working project is a SUCCESS! This five-level cat tree, complete with two perches and a hole in the third level, gets a 5-star rating from our resident furballs.

Building the wooden frame actually wasn't that hard. Once I borrowed Tim's miter saw, the cuts were easy. I had some difficulties screwing 3-inch drywall screws into stud-grade 2x4s with my wimpy drill, but I overcame them. The frame building process took only a few hours.

The carpeting stage was a BEAR. I used left-over carpeting from our bedroom so that the finished product would color-coordinate with our decor. Unfortunately, I ran out of carpet, so I had to wrap five of the six posts with sisal rope. (The directions only call for the post supporting the top perch to be wrapped in sisal.) The cats enjoy the extra scratching surfaces, so the carpet shortage turned out to be a blessing.

I used the Mistoffolees Castle plan from cattreeplans.com. I recommend the plans (which are mailed on a CD) to any beginner. The directions were easy to follow and fully illustrated. The total cost of the materials (somewhat of an estimate due to my spotty receipt tracking) was roughly $70 (not including carpeting). As the Castle turned out to be MUCH larger than I anticipated, I'll probably be building a smaller tree soon to take its place in the living room.

View more cat tree pictures here.

12 Comments:

Blogger SmilingJudy said...

Awesome! I like the look of the extra sisal. I might have to attempt one myself since I have _finally_ taught the clawed kitty about the wonders of sisal. Looks great!

9:33 AM  
Blogger Joe said...

That looks really great! I've been wanting to do one of these for years. I keep buying cheap floor to ceiling trees from a big box store and they end up falling apart within months, which scares the heck out of the cats when they fall down! I just can't afford the heavy duty ones right now. If only I had a few hours to spare to give it a try! I've keep the posts from the broken trees, so it might be easier than I think to put something togeter. Thanks for sharing! Kim @ the Dirty House

12:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Way to go! Kitty looks very happy.

9:03 AM  
Blogger Deb said...

what a great job you did! and look how big your mr. tibbs has gotten!!!

3:20 PM  
Blogger andrea said...

That's rad. Schnoopette would love it. Do you take orders?

4:06 PM  
Blogger Kasmira said...

I suspect I'm too slow to build cat trees as anything other than a hobby!
I would consider trading my cat-tree-building labor for carpet scraps, though...

5:06 AM  
Blogger Rachel said...

What a cool thing to do for your cats! Great job you did. Looks like they are enjoying it!

7:09 PM  
Blogger K said...

Wow, I'm impressed! I won't show this pic to my kitties or they might look at me with those big orange eyes as if to say, "Mommy, where's my tree?"

8:55 AM  
Blogger Sylvana said...

Great job! It looks so plush and decadent!

11:03 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Well done ! I've adopted a kitten recently and want to make similar. Can you email me the plans ?

7:16 AM  
Blogger Kasmira said...

Hi Peter - it really wouldn't be right for me to send you the plans. You can purchase them, though, at cattreeplans.com

1:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a beautiful cat tree! I really like the contrast of the sisal rope on all the posts. I am looking for designs so that I may build my own... they are just too expensive to buy! You've inspired me!

3:02 PM  

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