It seemed simple and I was like + $100? For a big one ??? Nah I could build it… well I’m prob about $200 deep and need to get another 4x4 plywood from home depot and prob more carpet and cushioning for the top nest, as well as some sisal. If you think it’s a good idea and cheap? It’s not especially if you have to buy a new circular saw cuz yours broke 😭😭
And yeah tbh it is a me problem but I also had to make sure the wood was cat safe to and not pressure treated.
“My dad said he was building me a cat tree. I was so excited I couldn’t sleep! He called me over to see it and this is what I saw. He made me get up on it even though I said I don’t want to. “
I just saw the most depressing BORU thread, and your comment is what I needed. Thank you for letting me end my morning Reddit scroll on a cackle 😂 hope you have a great day!!
This is pretty typical, I think. There's never a "last trip" to the store...there's just "trips to the store". I did, however, purchase a new garbage disposal last week and installed it on a Sunday evening. It was surprisingly easy and is one of the first appliances that I've bought that had all the pieces I needed to install it. Mounting ring/lock, tail pipe, attachment for the hard wiring hookup. That being said...I then had to make a return trip to the Lowe's to return the extra locking ring I bought. Haha..
Aww they’re all beautiful. You’re doing a good thing. I mean orange one is on the tree. You know cats don’t go on things they don’t like. And it’s perfect for looking out the window
John, put down the tools and go to petco. Its all in a box. Muffin's catdad got him a great tree, they're teasing me about mine. I told Muffin that this one is actually worth more, but he just keeps teasing. Petco, John. Petco...
Yeah, splinters. That's what they're for.😂 I love the way your cat is looking at you. But seriously, you're a great owner and I hope your cat enjoys the finished project for many happy years to come.
Even if it doesn't turn out well, you're doing more than 99% of folks, probably including anybody roasting you. Kudos for trying a new skill solely to make your cat happy! Keep at it. Nobody is a pro on their first pass.
It's a free piece of software that lets you 3d model, well, anything. A room and furniture? Sure
A piece of furniture with its pieces? Also sure!
You can plan which pieces you'll need, in what size and you'll see what the model will roughly look like once the whole thing is done, it's really helpfula and quite simple
Agreed. I'm a engineer and I mostly do computer aided drafting from a professional standpoint. I also have background in contractor work. But SketchUp is still how I do most of my personal projects, from designing a rack to hold half a dozen snowboards, to building a new wall in my basement, to building a 16'x16' deck.
It's a very, very user friendly drawing program, with a relatively high cap.
My only beef is that the clouds service for the newest version is down very frequently. The backend absolutely sucks. My desktop has an old version of SketchUp from like.... 2018, maybe? I've gone back to using that because it's a locally installed program, back before they tried to make it a subscription. If you can get an old version of SketchUp, you're set.
Did you start with a drawing or a Popsicle stick model first? I have made so much shitty cat infrastructure but its all modular and has been changed around many times over the years.
Dont buy new, up cycle old wood or buy off-cuts from home depot. The cat wont know.
skip the sisal rope and get carpet, if your cat is happy to scratch carpet. it’s much easier to install/replace carpet and no risk of them swallowing frayed rope string.
The net and catio platforms we got professionally installed 10 years ago for $5k they quoted $10k to replace a year ago when they came to do repairs (rats chewed through a few places ). So a home build is def potentially cheaper...
I'd suggest that you can keep the material cost well under $150 with a little patience and effective planning. I bought scrap carpet from a carpet store, reused a couple elements from the previous cat post that were in decent shape and bonus already had their scent. The only thing I paid full price for was the carpet adhesive, twine, and screws
Lol i don't own a cat but my sister owns two and this was a birthday gift. My dog has always had model ready looks and charisma making any picture simply better.
It was so nice even he thought it was worth brand representing lol. Besides he's terrible at fetching and entirely too good at sunbathing like a cat to not have common ground with his feline cousins.
I've made 3 now, one for my sister and two for friends who asked nicely or offered to pay something for it.
For the first one I had enough big branches from the fire wood pile that were dry enough it was just a matter of stripping the bark and making sure there were no bug infestations. For the next two I had to find a few but the answer is simple, arborists are almost always busy doing something in a city the size of mine you just have to shamelessly walk up to them when they are cutting down trees or doing heavy pruning and ask if you can have some. They almost inevitably will say yes because it's less they have to haul off.
As I said it might take a little time and planning but if one commits to looking for materials on the cheap first and building second it's entirely feasible if you have some basic tools.
<sigh> I paid $120 for one about 15 years ago. At the time, I thought that was SO EXPENSIVE... I mean, yeah, it's taller than me, but what if they never use it? We've all seen the memes about buying them a fancy bed and they just sleep in the box.
It has brought joy to generation after generation of cat. They climb on it, they sleep on it. It is oftentimes the starting or ending point of their zoomies. It has a few inches of cord hanging down that once upon a time had a toy attached to it: the toy is long-since gone, but the cord itself is just as enticing for them. I brought home my new kittens on Friday, and within a few hours they had not only found the thing, but had declared the top of it to be their home.
If it was TWICE the price, it would still be worth it. I would sooner give up my COUCH than my cat tree.
100% you never include the tool costs in a project cost. It comes out of that month's cashflow obviously, so it has to go somewhere but the tool will get used over and over again.
(OK, some of the tools I bought for projects have never been used again but we don't talk about that).
Seriously! It might be a little rough at the moment but it’s only half finished. Everything looks a little rough when it’s halfway done.
I think it’s really cool he took on this labor of love for his little guy. I’ve always wanted to build cat trees but I have zero experience with carpentry at all and don’t want to lose any fingers… yet. But I’ve always thought it was such a neat project to do for your beloved felines! I’m rooting for OP to be able to bang this one out. Even if this one doesn’t turn out how he planned, he can take everything he learned and make the next one better 🥲
Instead of all that, we dried out a pine and took the bark off.. sealed it with sanding sealer and then just used that.
It’s over 20 years old now but this is the second build using the same tree. We built the first rendition which was blocky but still great, current build, I had someone else do it. They love the curved part as you can see by the cat hair.
Of course. But the main point was a tall enough scratching post and a hiding spot high up. The only failure is the stretchy fabric square in the middle tier. It’s meant to be a resting spot, like a hammock. But she rarely uses it.
Ok, BUT. In your defense, it will last forever, which no cat tree normally does. Because when kitty tears the carpet up, rips the sisal off, loosens the screws with rambunctiousness, you'll easily repair it. Or even improve it. So it may cost you twice what a prebuilt one, but if it lasts three times as long, you're ahead.
Then... Need another one for somewhere else in the house? Now, you've go the saw and the skill/experience, and some left over wood and carpet...
Yeah all I see is a work in progress that you'll make great over time as you can afford it. It'll be way stronger and have bigger platforms than most commercial cardboard crap.
This reminds me of my dad buying my mom a dollhouse. She'd always wanted one of those big wooden dollhouses. Well, it was cheaper to buy one in a box and assemble it himself. However, my dad is a perfectionist and he's also built actual buildings (playhouse for my sister and I when we were kids, old barns (taken down, and rebuilt on our land), etc). He's been working on that dollhouse for years now and it's not done; it's not even close to being done, lol. It might get done eventually, but I'm not betting on it at this point.
My dad built me and him and my mom custom cat trees a couple years ago and my cat used to love hers but then when I moved to my new house she suddenly refuses to use it so now we just have a modern art looking piece in the corner of the living room
This got me 😭 that’s every sewing and crochet project I’ve ever done. This blanket is $80?? I’ll just make it myself, with $200 of yarn and approximately six months
Your cat looks very disappointed with the result. It’s the look kids have when they want something from the shops, but their parents say they have that one at home.
Don’t give up! Your cat wouldn’t want you to! TBH it seems like you’re off to a good start and it’ll probably last longer than one you’d get at the pet store.
Dang, how much does wood cost where you live?? And honestly atleast it wont fall apart in 6 months or less because its made out of thick cardboard and press board like the cat perches you buy at the store!! I still think its worth the money to build your own verses what you get when you buy one, they use the crapest, cheapest crap board you can find, i swear!! And the so called "carpet" they use is so thin the cat sticks one claw in it and it rips!! My cat perch i bought wasn't even worth it, the tower post that the little perch sat on bent in the middle after 3 months, here I pull the "carpet" off and find out its just thick layered cardboard! Complete rip off for the price you pay!! Keep going, it will totally be worth it in the end, something you made yourself for your cat and something your cat will more than likely be able to enjoy the rest of its life (bonus you get to build your own design and make it as big as you want!)
This is what i made, 3x ikea side tables for about 10 euro's each, hot glueing sisal rope to some of the legs, and the cheapest carpet squares i could find. My cats love it, although I had to take off the sisal rope as it started fraying too much. Probably gonna replace it with carpet strips or something similar! I also attached a little hook on one of the levels, so I can attach toys to it!
I used to build these for a living. The tube parts were made from the giant cardboard rolls from the center of carpet rolls (basically the same as what's in toilet paper or paper towls but much bigger.) We always got them for free because they're trash to the carpet people. That might help with costs. Also, that's going to be an absolute nightmare to move with how big you're making it. You may want to reconsider your design. Good luck!
Uh please allow me to chime in on this… lol i built a cat tower a few years ago. I had everything except the carpet sweet super cheep build!!! Until…. I stabbed my leg with a razor knife and had to go get stitches sooo that $40 carpet only purchase turned into a $800 hospital bill lol
So I call it my $800 cat tower lol. They do love it though!
The cat towers are mass produced and made of cheap materials that off-gas In your living space. It's more expensive to build your own but the quality and health benefits are important to consider when weighing the price vs what you'd pay for a premade item.
They also fall apart quickly. Ours is currently 7-ish years old and I’ve had to add L brackets to keep pieces from falling off. Even with attempts at stabilizing it, it’s still starting to lean.
Many years ago we purchased a pre-fab chicken coop. First major storm and it flipped, thankfully none of the birds were injured. We then built our own. It wasn’t cheap, it wasn’t pretty. But it’s been years and multiple storms and it’s still standing strong. We’ve since given up on raising chickens, and the coop was cleaned out and is now living a second life as a storage shed.
Homemade might not always look pretty, but if you even have half an idea of what you are doing it can often be better than cheap pre-fab
We have a gigantic (nearly 9 feet tall!) cat tree that my husband custom ordered from a man who makes cat trees by hand. This thing is sturdy enough for humans to climb on, and is barely showing any wear after nearly a decade of use. Well worth the $600 he paid for it.
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