Cat update.

Sentinel was in the way as I stripped the sheets for washing, so I constructed a tent for him.  He enjoyed it.

Antares says hello too.  He's taking a break from his heated pad, which is where he spends all his time.

Sentinel and shoes

I must report that Sentinel is really into feet smells.  This causes him to spend a lot of time rubbing up against shoes.

He particularly loves stinky summer sandals.

Cat report

Someone gave us a pomegranate in a pot and I put it on the back porch to see if it would live.  One day when I had the catio up, I watered it and Sentinel ran--actually lept off the bed and ran--to drink the water out of the dirty lid that is catching the excess water.  Because I want him to drink more water, I tried filling a baking dish with water and putting in it one of the pots I keep potting soil in.  He was not at all fooled and didn't drink any of this water.

Antares still loves his heated mat.  Even in the middle of the summer.

First Friday of summer schedule. Project: Cat Litter Box Area Upgrade

Usually in May I get a surge of energy and suddenly think of a ton of super awesome projects that, when completed, will make my life much better.  Sadly, that energy doesn't stay around forever, so many are put on a list and may or may not be gotten around to.

This cat litter box update was one of those May ideas.  Happily, it came to pass rather quickly. 

Before.  Back when we had Organics to You Deliver produce to us, I used the leftover boxes which perfectly fit this area.  Three lined the sides, one per side and one on the bottom.  My cats are very good about actually respecting the boundaries of the box, but every once in a while, one of them (I suspect Antares) will spray the wall.  When that happened, I simply switched out the boxes for new ones and life happily went on.  Eventually we stopped having produce delivered to us and my box supply dried up.  I would then cobble together some boxes that didn't quite fit, as in the example below.  Then, I never wanted to change them because where would I get more boxes?  This project solves this problem.

After making a paper mock-up to test if my spacial relations were correct, I bought my supplies:  two tarps, anchors, and hooks.  We already had duct tape. 

Here, I measure my area using the tarp.

  I placed three anchors/hooks on each wall so the tarp could hang from them. The tarp grommets didn't occur often enough, so I made my own by placing two layers of duct tape along the edge of the tarp and cut squares into the tape.

I then measured the length of my tarp and cut it to size.  The shorter pieces are the sides, which are long enough to fold over each other, covering the bottom from each side..  The long piece is the back, which will drop down over the side pieces and make a smooth surface along the bottom.

Sentinel came to help me prep the second tarp.

Here's the second tarp, fashioned by using the first tarp as a pattern.  I used clothespins to hold the top layers evenly together because I needed my homemade grommets to line up precisely.  I also reinforced the folding corners with duct tape.  I had thoughts of wrapping all the cut edges in duct tape, but decided it wasn't necessary.

How it all came together.

This is a picture of the top piece elevated, so you can see how the sides overlap.

The new setup with litter boxes.

Now I can brush the kicked litter back into the pans more easily. When it's time to change everything out, I can fold up all the bits of litter I can't sweep up into my tarp and take it outside to hose off.  While it is drying, I can put my second tarp back in so the interruption in service is minimal.

I am quite pleased with this project.  Total time was less than three hours. Total cost around $25.00.  It could have probably been cheaper as the tarps seemed quite expensive, but I wasn't willing to go to another store.

New bookcases. Or: Billy attempts to defeat me.

Here is our "before" shot.  Since we moved in this has been a storage area with the white dresser holding a mish-mash of things, and the two orange stands holding books and music items.  There used to be a stereo system with large speakers there too.

I never like how the white dresser was the first thing people saw when they came in the door. So it's (finally) time for a change.

I bought these two stands in Somerville.  At the time, downtown Somerville had an unfinished furniture place. I bought this one first, and it was my computer desk for the iMac I briefly owned.  That was the iMac that taught me I'm not an Apple person.  I bought the second one to hold my TV/VCR combo and all my VHS movies.  They've been good little soldiers, but it is time for them to find new homes.

What I found when I moved the shelves.  A lot of dirt and the resting place for Antares' mice.

Now that I've moved everything out and scrubbed the floor, it's time to assemble the three Billy bookcases I purchased from Ikea.

And look!  One is nearly done.  

But alas, it is about 5/8th inch too high for where it needs to go.  I swear I measured.  But I guess not very well.

I set aside that problem and Sentinel came to help me assemble the Kallax shelving unit.

That went together quite nicely.  I dislike the cubes we choose to fill the Kallax shelving unit.  They remind me of a set of plastic end tables from my early 80s childhood.  Also, they seem quite fragile.  But they will work for now.

I returned to the problem of the Billy Bookshelves and measured out a solution.  The clear ruler I bought for my pattern manipulation class came in handy as I drew the line for the cuts I needed to make.

Taking another break, I filled some of the Kallax shelving unit's drawers.  Look what fits!  Albums!  I'm pretty sure some Ikea designer must have a big record collection.  Thank goodness s/he designed some furniture to hold them.

I am now the owner of a mid-range jigsaw.

All set up and ready to cut.

Stay tuned!

Recovering the new chair.

I stopped at an estate sale and fell for this chair.  After paying my $32.50, I went home, got the car and then convinced the chair and the car that they did want to come together so the chair could have a new home.  Sentinel is a fan of the new chair, though he wants it to face the other way so he can look out the window.

Sentinel continues to model the damage to the cushion.  The clever estate sale people flipped the cushion the other way so I couldn't see how bad this was.  Which is fine, I had to change the color anyway.

Antares also wanted to model.

I bought a twin sheet at Fred Meyer and used part of it to cover the bottom cushion.  Then I used the rest to drape around the back.  The whole thing came together in 15 minutes and will probably be fine until years go by and I get around to doing something official.

I bought a second sheet to drape over the official sheet, so I can easily wash away all the cat hair.  

Snoozing on the Catio.

Ignore the detritus that has accumulated on the catio. Focus instead on how cute the cats look sleeping in the sun.

And how cute they look when they wake up because I took their picture.

New fun thing for kitties.

The Thermo-Kitty Mat by K&H Pet Products is a pad with a heating element in it.  When the cat lays down on the pad, heat radiates from the heating element.  When the cat leaves, the heating element ceases to heat.  It's rather nifty.  The cats are big fans, as Sentinel can attest here.

And then there were none! Curtains: the finale

The shade was in a not-done state for many days because I needed to purchase the correct screws that actually wanted to go into the door, instead of weakly grasping at the edges of the hole.  Then, even after I obtained said screws, I put off doing this project.  But today is the day for finishing.  So the shade has been properly reinstalled.

Here you can see the newly installed shade cord, and the leather ties.  I used a button from an old, adored jacket as a stopper.

The shade in its raised position.

Oh yes, I installed a cleat too.  That also took no time at all.

Antares watched the whole operation carefully.

Sentinel just slept.

Before I could hang the curtains, I needed to patch the holes from where I installed the curtain rod incorrectly.  I purchased some cool stuff that sprays texture on your walls.  Here I test it on a different part of the wall where the texture rubbed away.  It was trickier than I thought it would be.  I needed the "fine" setting (not medium as I guessed from the picture) and it didn't really go on in the way I thought it would.  There were a couple of re-dos.

Here it is covering the holes.  I waited for it to dry and then painted over it.

And then I could finally install the curtains.

And they are a little short.  They don't quite cover the entire window when closed.  Which is why one should just make one's own curtains.  I'll probably get a roller shade.  I love roller shades.  But I will leave the curtains up.

Here they are in the open position.

I used this book a lot when eliminating all the blinds from the house.  It has a variety of window treatments you can utilize, the instructions are clear and I think I bought this for about $2.00.

Seven and a half years after we started, we can now consider the project of replacing all blinds complete.  Hooray!

New TV stand and New (to us) TV

And so it begins.

And so it is completed in its very basic format.  And it would be completed further if I didn't have to leave right this moment to see a movie with a friend.  

And now it is later and it has shelves and a door.  But only one door because we bought too large of doors for the other side.

And so our old TV stand and old TV are sitting to the side of the living room. 

(I put the TV stand on the curb and it was gone in 12 hours.)

And so Matt must repackage the wrong doors to return to Ikea

And so Sentinel must explore the new furniture. 

And so we must check the new TV.

And so the cat must explore the other side of the new furniture.

And so it is cute.

So very, very cute.

Thanks Mom for the new TV!  It's much larger than the old one.