Home Away From Home

We have two dogs; a Pointer and a Newfie. The boys love to make messes together. Normally I don't mind a stuffed animal graveyard in my living room, but with the Newfie, the stuffed animal grave yard tends to be waterlogged with drool. He drools when he drinks and when he chews. I am grateful he rarely has "danglers"(those disgusting dangling thick drool strings hanging from the sides of a dogs mouth). The boys favorite things to do include chewing bones, killing stuffed animals, and wrestling in the yard. They prefer the latter over ANYTHING else.

This is all why I decided that outside is the best place for the boys when I am not home. This gives them time to play together and effectively dispose of yucky wet toys without creating a soggy mess on my living room floor. The only problem with such an idea is that cold weather is not a friend to our Pointer. We are running into the winter months quickly, and while we still have few nice days like today, they are not going to last long. My poor little Pointer wants to be outside so badly, but he gets soooo cold that he runs outside and within a few minutes is shivering at the doorstep.

Lowes cut my wood to fit in my car.

I got another crazy hair the other day and decided to build him a dog house! It is so cute!!!! It has a little porch and the roof comes out over it a little bit. I made a hole in the back to hold my little space heater so he will be nice and cosy.  The plan is to eventually put the dog house next to my outside dryer vent and run a few loads in the dryer when he is outside! Multitasking!  Here are some pictures of the build. I had a couple of friends help out and we had a blast! We ended the day with Fajitas, chips, and salsa!

Measure once, cut twice... or is it the other way around??

Most of my projects involve cutting wood with the skilsaw. I should really invest in some saw-horses. I usually find myself improvising my cutting surfaces by using anything I can get my hands on. Today I used some left over logs from the outdoor bench I made a month or two ago. Probably not the safest...

A Straight Edge is reeeeally convenient.

Another tool I have come to rely on is my 90 degree angle thingy. I am sure it has a real name... but I haven't been bothered to find out.

We basically just made a frame with the two by fours and then slapped some plywood on the outside. The guys at Lowe's were super sweet and cut the plywood so that it would fit in my car. I don't like to tie things to the top, so making it fit is pretty important to me.  You just have to be sure that when they cut it, they are strategic about it. I had the guys cut my board into the right size pieces for my project. It saved me three cuts.

We Dremelled the longer screws.

It needs to be painted because if plywood gets wet, it will more than likely swell and rot. Ill have more pictures soon of the finished project. I painted it an off white and have decided it looks too plain. You cant be too picky when using "oops paint" in Lowes paint department. I'll update this post when I have gotten around to making it look more interesting!

-S

I hinged the roof for easy cleaning.

UPDATE: While we still use this doghouse during the day while we are home, we have decided to discontinue leaving the dogs outside while we are gone during the day, due to an increased number of doggie kidnapping. Better to be safe than sorry. This article made me ridiculously sad. I had a friend show me a picture of a husky that had been stolen and recovered. They found the husky with her face, and feet duct taped... These sick people dont just trot your dog off with a wagging tail... they seize them violently...