Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Cat House Photos, 1 by UniQueTreasures

UniQueTreasures wrote:
First off Karen, we made the butterfly from copper. We were really pleased with the way he turned out. It is the "lock" to keep the top closed. We welded a bolt with the head cut off to the body of the butterfly and counter sunk a nut into the top of the door. The screw goes through the top of the cage, then into the top of the door, into the nut to keep it secure. The door fits pretty snug into the top, so we will make something else to use as pull handles, perhaps some caterpillars, lizards, who knows, and attach them to the front of the door.

OK, here is a list of ingredients needed to make the cage the same size as mine - 4'X2'X2'.

All lumber is cedar so it's already weatherproof and "treated" and it's light enough for me to pick up by myself. When buying the lumber, watch for knots (of course) and try and get them uniform in color. It will make for a much nicer finished product. I didn't think about the coloring when I went to buy the boards. I just tried to make sure they were all straight. I should have taken Connie with me to the lumber yard! :-)

8 1X2X8
5 Fence Boards cut to 49 1/2"
2 yds fabric of choice
30" piano hinge
Exterior screws (mostly 3", but some needed to be shorter to keep from going all the way through, we just used what I scrounged from the little shed)

** Be sure to drill pilot holes where you need them ****BEFORE**** you screw in the screws to keep from splitting the boards.

To make inside box frames, cut the 1X2's
(6) @ 48"
(6) @ 24"
(4) @ 22 1/2"

This will give you 2 sides, top, back, and door

We added additional support to the top with 3 sides, (1) 49 1/2" and (2) 25 1/2"

The base that the inner box sets inside of:
(2) 49 1/2" and (2) 25 1/2" (We used wider boards on the side because we didn't want to have to rip more boards. Would look more uniform though if the 1X2's had been used all the way around.)

The base was made, flipped over and the (5) 49 1/2" cedar boards were screwed to the bottom with just a smidgen of space for water to drain through.There is a "lip" on the front that is about 1" because we didn't feel like ripping the board. I like that lip there because I think it gives it more dimension than just a box.

We made the door shorter than the back intentionally so that it would meet with the top when it sat inside of the base and was attached to the base with the piano hinge.

It sounds a bit complicated because I'm re-living how we made it in my mind as I type. For someone that knows what they are doing, it would have been a breeze.

We cut the fabric to fit each panel. We stapled one long side, then put strips of material (I used some fabric straps that hubby had collected years ago from cell phone bags [think straps on your camera bag] - long, thin belts would work also. I ran out of straps after 2 sides and the door was done, so we cut strips from a leather skirt - too small for me anyway - that I bought a while back at Goodwill for 50 cents just for the leather.) Once that first side was secure, we stapled the other side, pulling the fabric taut. We put the strips on top of the sheer fabric to keep it from pulling loose from the staples. Then did the same for the other sides. Some of them had to be pieced together, but all in all, it worked perfectly, just as planned.

Whatever you use, keep in mind that the thickness will add to the tightness of the frame once the sides etc go back together.

I am posting the photo that shows the "parts" again so you can look at it to see the dimensions. I've added the sizes of each of the boards to the photo. If anything is confusing, plese let me know. I'm not a carpenter, but will try to answer any questions.

Janet