Cat Tower!!!!!!1! Part 1

Whew!  The cat tower is DONE!  Well, all the wood and carpeting work is done, and I have the eyebolts in where I plan to hang the cat hammock and the toys.  Tonight I’m just posting the beginning and end photos, along with a summary of the process (cost, tools, etc).  I’ll be making several posts about how I transformed it in the very near future, as I have 93 photos that I took while making it.  🙂

The Beginning: An Ugly Old Dresser

The dresser did actually have all the knobs on it – this was after I took a few of them off (I forgot to take a picture at the very beginning).

The End: An Awesome Cat Tower!!!

It took me most of May, but I made it!

Cost: $57.73

Dresser (ReUse Center): $10

Sisal Rope (Lowe’s): $20.61*2/3 = $13.74 (I only used two of three rolls)

Carpet Remnants (Habitat ReStore): $12.46

Staple gun staples (Ace Hardware): $4.20

Wood glue: $6.34

Tacks: $1.03

Eyeboltss: $3.06

Screws: $1.90

New staplegun and staples: ~$5 for staples, plus ~$15 for the gun (gun not counted in price, as that’s a reusable tool)

Also, I used quite a few nails and wood scraps that I had around the house already.  Oh, and a couple leather scraps (but I own lots of leather scraps).  And 8 L-brackets we had in our random nails and brackets box – those were very useful, too.

Tools Used:  Staplegun, jigsaw, circle saw, power drill, screwdriver, 6 clamps, two 8-lb weights, hammer, needlenose pliers, scissors, carpet knife, permanent marker, pencils, rulers (cloth sewing ruler, measuring tape, and at least two sizes of clear hard plastic square sewing rulers)…  I think that’s everything.

Hours:  A lot.  Carpeting the thing alone was three sessions that were probably at least 3-4 hours long… I would say 25 hours would not be overestimating the time I put into this thing, and it could have been a whole lot more.  And if you count the waiting hours, it is much longer, as often I would glue something in place and then have to wait overnight before doing the next step.

Would I do it again?  Hmm… I’m not sure.  If the cat loves it, it definitely a lot cheaper than most cat towers out there for its complexity.  I sure hope the cat loves this thing.  But it did take a lot of time, and a lot of loud noise with power tools and hammering, and it made a huge mess every time I worked on it (I swept up a good pile of sawdust or carpet shavings after every session).  I’m glad I made it, definitely, but I’m not sure how soon I’d make it again.  Or maybe I’d make it a little differently next time.  It was a fun adventure, certainly, and one that I’m happy is (mostly) wrapped up!  I’m excited to share the photos of how this thing got transformed.

Here are links to all the parts of this project:

Part 1: Overview and Summary

Part 2: Woodworking on bottom half

Part 3: Woodworking on top half

Part 4: Carpeting