We receive a lot of orders from Chewy. Their autoship options make it really easy to have on hand the items we need to keep our fur family happy. Shipments arrive just before needed, automatically and without extra thought. Ok, that’s the end of the Chewy commercial for this episode. Anyway, sometimes we end up with a bunch of Chewy boxes in need of being broken down and put in the recycling kerbie. In early November, I was breaking down some of these boxes and noticed that each of them had the following notice on it:
And then I thought about the upcoming stretch of holidays, including the week of Thanksgiving off. Hm…lots of chewy boxes, a decent amount of time off in a row, and an overflow of cooped-up creativity. I hit the internet, looking for something I could make, that would be cool and the nittens would enjoy. I found this delightful video on YouTube and was inspired. (Go look. It’s a sweet, fun, six minute video!😽) I lifted a shot from the video that became my inspiration picture:
Papa suggested that, since we have 2 Nittens, they need 2 sunrooms. And I decided that the stairs were cute, but a lot of work, especially when Nittens don’t need stairs! So, I deployed my mechanical drawing “skills” (from a 10th grade class!) and drew up a very rough plan. I don’t own the tools for mechanical drawing anymore, and no lines on my drawing are straight or square. It’s embarrassingly rough, but I did get the idea down in writing. I almost got sucked into making the drawing nice, but the smell of the cardboard was calling me!
First Work Session
To start, the supplies for cutting the pieces:
Yes, that’s the biggest bowl in my kitchen being a template. And, as a matter of fact, the size of the bowl determined the overall size of the castle!
Now, the base piece (40 inches long):
Then, the ceiling/roof:
The tabs will either tuck up or down for glueing, for added weight support on top.
It was difficult to figure out how to measure around the circumference of the sunrooms with only a flat tape measure. I couldn’t figure out how long a piece I needed for the sunroom walls. So, I grabbed a longish “scrap” piece and started preparing it as if it would be the wall. The way to make a round piece is to vertically score it. That piece turned out to be about 5 inches short, but another “scrap” piece allowed me to get a measurement. As it turns out now, the longish piece I prepared to get the wall measurement will serve very well as the barrel tunnel in the middle on top. So, that’s another completed piece:
Now, with measurement in hand, I was able to cut a sunroom wall piece:
That’s as far as I got the first work session. I needed to cut another sunroom wall and the walls (front and back) for the middle section. I was still percolating about how much architectural support I’d need on the 1st story to make the 2nd story useable space... I didn’t think I’d be able to figure that out until I began assembly. Depending on how much support I needed, I was thinking about using sturdy gift wrap tubes and wrapping them in jute to make mini-scratching posts. Maybe 3 of those...but I hated to take away floor space on the 1st story.
Second Work Session
When last we saw our heroine, there was still a sun room wall to cut. After the second wall was cut, I just had to do a partial assembly to get the measurements for the front and back walls, and to figure out some architectural stuff. Here’s the partial assembly:
Both Nittens approve.
I prototyped a pair of support columns to put in the center of the sunrooms:
Hm...the columns are okay-sturdy, and the nittens didn’t mind them being there. They didn’t even disturb them, even though they were not secured very well. Turns out that the jute I bought to wrap the columns is too small (I ordered it, so didn’t get to see or touch first.) and not nearly enough of it, either. It also turns out that I had no tubes strong or long enough for the support column I need in the center of the whole structure. A quick dash to the craft store and Office Depot fixed that problem:
More on the column securing later.
I cut the front wall:
I matched up the tab from the ceiling (at the top of the pic, above) and cut a slot in the top of the front wall to slide the ceiling/roof tab through. The tab would become an awning.
I cut the back wall:
The template for the center back window was the inside of a roll of masking tape. The template for the top of the arches was the outside of that same roll of tape. The big windows were hand drawn and eyeballed, not measured.
Now, about those columns... Taping just the circumference of the end of each column to the ceiling and floor was NOT secure and glue wouldn’t be much better. I decided that I would make brackets (for lack of a better word) to hold them in place:
As it turns out, I’ll need 2 “brackets” on each end, so that’s only half of what I need templated above. But I think that’s all the cutting I’ll need to do before assembling and using glue!
Third Work Session
A rather frustrating session which included a fitful glue gun on way too short a cord, burnt fingers, puddles of glue on the work table, glue in my hair(!), and lots of angry cursing happened next. That’s the basic summary, and the details have been censored, in consideration of our family audience. Much learning occurred! Success was a long series of problem solving. Here is the end result:
Final Assessment
It turns out that the nittens, especially Princess Violet, like the castle, but have requested the following improvements:
- The smaller supporting scratching posts are inadequate, both for scratching and for support. They should be replaced with duplicates of the center support post. The nittens also request that the ceiling in the eastern sunroom be repaired from where Griffin stuck his foot through from above.
- A better way to wrap the scratching posts would be to punch a hole near the end of the tube and thread the jute into the tube and knot it off. Then glue the wrap all the way up and thread it through another hole to be tied off. Leave enough bare tube on each end for the brackets, something like a half inch on each end.
- Two planned items were not done and it’s ok with the nittens if they aren’t done. They prefer to not have the barrel tunnel on the second floor. And each sunroom is missing it’s middle window transparency film (so I could #$*&-+! get in there to glue!), but those are now extra, private entrances.
- The silly round window in the middle of the back wall is blocked by the scratching post. Duh! This is what my Mom would call “a case of damn poor planning!” And that’s a bit disappointing, because I wanted to put some funny art there for photo ops. Stick your head through and Mama gets a hilarious pic!
- Were I to do this again, I would figure out a better ceiling/roof support system, and give them a better front awning.
- Disclaimer: all dimensions were determined by what I had on hand in the way of cardboard sizes, and oddball items to serve as templates.
- And, finally, after I finished this engineering marvel, I realized that all the Chewy logos were on the inside!
This is Part 7 of a multi-part series named Nittens are in the House. Links to previous episodes are below. Please join me here on Thursday mornings and allow me to share my wonderful fur family with you.
- Part 1 -Nittens are in the House, -Prologue
- Part 2 -Nittens are in the House, -Ode to Nittens (Reprise)
- Part 3 -Nittens are in the House, -Chapter 1, First Exploration
- Part 4 -Nittens are in the House, -Chapter 2, Who Eviscerated the Mousie Toy?
- Part 5 -Nittens are in the House, -Chapter 3, Who are these Nittens Anyway?
- Part 6 -Nittens are in the House, -Chapter 4, Nitten Games