Maine Coon Enclosure - The build

Just before the enclosure build an update on the kittens. We picked them up at 13 weeks old and introduced them the their new home, didn't take long to settle in after lots of sniffing around and exploring. So a selection of photos at 13 weeks....

Found a comfy place on the piano stool, then a warm sunny area to stretch out, and then on top of the sofa for a commanding view of the room.






Our design of the enclosure has taken several different shapes, but we have had a few alterations done to the house, which has put the enclosure on hold for a few weeks. But a final design is now ready for construction.

All materials have been delivered and we plan to build it in 3 days in the summer holidays... weather permitting ! (good old UK weather).



Preparation... (week before)

Cleared the patio area of all rubbish, mainly leafs, 2 bags of timber off cuts for the fire, and a few bits of garden furniture.

Jet washed the whole of the patio ! that took a whole day, and found a hole in my shoe which was letting in water. (do you know the song ? )
 

Day 1

Got my son, Alex, to help me on the build. We started by making the roof in sections. We are limited to the length and the width of these section due to the availability of timber and also the width of the wire mesh. I could get wider mesh but the price rises past our budget so I purchased in 900mm width. The timber comes in 2.4m and 3.6m lengths, and again I could buy 4.2m but the price per metre goes up past the budget.

Timber is all 47mm x 47mm tantalised treated timber (2" x 2" for old school builders but the new metric stuff is the nearest to the size we need)

Mesh for the roof sections is 1" x 1" square 18 gauge wire, 900mm wide.

Mesh for the side sections is 2" x 2" square 16 gauge wire, 900mm wide.


First roof section being made...

Alex loves using the air stapler !, this makes light work of attaching the mesh to the frame.

The main wooden frame is screwed together with extra corner braces, and a centre brace which also has 2 corner braces to keep everything square and rigid.

For the roof sections we repeat this twice, making 3 identical sections, then we have to make a further 2 slightly different ones to fit round guttering down pipe, and the conservatory guttering. 5 sections in total.

So that the mesh fits nicely on the frame we have made each main section 940mm wide.

So after cutting, sawing, drilling, screwing, nailing, stapling, we have 3 x roof sections and 3 x side sections complete.

End of day 1.


The next 2 days build and completion on the next blog page ....