Cat Door
The Cape of Dreams was built in 1952 and has beautiful solid wood doors. I love these doors, but the bedroom doors need sanded down because they do not close properly. This has allowed Crème to be able to come and go as she pleases. This allowed her to have access to her litter box in the hall without disturbing us. It was never a problem unless we had company. Then, we would prefer to able to keep the bedroom door closed.
Now that Menderes is here, we really do not want Crème to be able to open the door, so we decided to put in a cat door that would allow her to get into the basement. At night we leave the basement door open so that she can go from our bedroom to the basement stairs to the hall to use her box. During the day, even if the basement door gets closed, she can always get to her climbing post and perch.
We ordered the cat door
The install was pretty easy.
Douglas first decided where he wanted to place it on the wall. He then traced the door on the wall. After that he drilled holes in the corners and used a hand saw to cut along the line.
Once the hole was made it was a matter of trying to insert the door and trimming to get the door to fit.
Crème made sure to check it out. It seemed to have her approval from the beginning.
Once the hole was fit on the bedroom side, Douglas needed to cut another on the wall by the stairs. He drilled the holes in the corners from the bedroom side and then made the cuts from the stairs.
The hole was immediately put to use.
Douglas filled the opening with a towel until he gets the chance to fill it with wood. We do not want a kitten trapped in the wall.
We really need to paint these walls. Other than that, I do not think that the opening looks bad.
I tried to get a picture of Crème coming through into the bedroom, but it always happened too fast.
On the bedroom side, the cat door is mostly hidden when the bedroom door is open. It can also be locked.
Crème is using it regularly, and it is nice that our bedroom door stays shut throughout the night now.
Happy Homemaking!
I am a teacher, traveler, artist, writer, homemaker and a whole lot more. In January 2009, I bought the Cape of Dreams. It was the second house that I had ever owned, but it was the first that I bought by myself. I now live in the house with my husband Douglas, our dog Kahlua, and Crème de Menthe, the cat. Because, what life is complete without a little Kahlua and Cream? I love arts and crafts of all kinds, and I refinish furniture as well. We are slowly redoing our entire house. You can read about my projects on my blog www.CapeofDreams.com
For the record, we can shut our door tight enough she can’t open it, but then she claws at it and meows non-stop until it is opened for her. Once opened and reclosed she is guaranteed to want to be on other side of door again 15min later. A no win situation, until now…
Thanks for the clarification.
Gotta love your cat! great job, Senior!
She is a spoiled little thing!
What a lucky little kit! Nice that you can close the door too!
She was jealous because she heard that her kitty cousins in Oklahoma have their own kitty door. She is happy now as she has yet to figure out that their door leads to the great outdoors.
I have one in the veranda’s door so that the two “wild” cats I have can come sleep there when it’s cold or raining… It only took them a few minutes to understand how it works!
Cats are pretty smart. I think that if a cat doesn’t go through a cat door, it means that she does not want to be on the other side!
I love the cat door!!! OMG… I would love to put those all over our house but hubby would kill me…! Thanks for visiting my blog, and for letting me know the email signup isn’t working for you! I will look into that 🙂
~ Alison
I think you could talk your hubby into it. He seems pretty amenable. As for blogs, I’m glad I found yours! We seem to have a lot in common.
Agreed! I think I finally fixed my subscribe box… and tomorrow I’ll figure out how to add a contact me box 🙂 I super appreciated your bringing both to my attention! I am looking forward to reading through your blog 🙂
I read through your entire blog last night and today! I feel like a stalker! But we are both in our 40s, both married in June 2012, and both have black fur babies. I also shaved my head a couple of years ago. The coincidences are crazy!
I love it! I can’t wait to read through yours! 🙂