According to my friends, I am one cat away from being a crazy cat lady. In reality, I may not even be that far away. 2 ½ years ago I rescued a young cat who was hiding under my car. It turned out that she was also pregnant. About two months later she delivered four beautiful kittens.
I found homes for two and kept two, remember that one cat away thing? Apparently three is the maximum number any person should have. To say my cats are spoiled is an understatement. My house is a little bit of a cat playground. I have a big cat tree and have cleared the top of my entertainment center, so that they can run across it to the climbing shelves attached to the back of my door. With that being said, I have always wanted to extend the area they can explore by adding shelves to some of the other walls. Then along came the Network Learning Project!
The Network Learning Project asked me to think of something I have always wanted to learn how to do. The task is to learn how to make or do something using only YouTube videos and online help forums. I thought the creation of floating cat shelves was the perfect thing to tackle for this assignment. In the past I had thought of simply buying shelves and putting them up, but for this project I have decided to make the shelves from scratch. I have access to some lumber and the saws that I will need to complete the project, but absolutely no experience using these types of tools.
I started my research on YouTube. The good news is, there are definitely people out there who are WAY more cat crazy than I am! I found many videos and many options for building the shelves. I found one video in particular that shows the kind of shelves I had in mind.
He gave a simple demonstration, but also has a link with more in depth steps on how to build the shelves. I also plan to access videos and hopefully web forums to learn about how to use the power saws I will need. I am a little nervous about that part!
Some of the questions I still have include:
- What size should the shelves be? I want to make sure they are the right depth so the cats will be comfortable.
- How can I assure they will support the weight of the cats?
- In regard to #2, how do I locate the studs in the wall to anchor the shelves?
- What layout will be best for the shelves?
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