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Wednesday, February 19, 2020

The cat room

Halfway through February we are almost six months into this full time RV adventure. We are still very much learning, fixing and changing our mobile world to best fit our needs.

Just this past week, Greg used his Christmas present. A telescoping ladder to climb onto the roof of the beast to sweep off the slides. With all of the wind we have been having lately, we had several bits of leaves and branches that we needed to remove before we could close up the the slides and move our trailer.




The days are getting longer, just barely. The temperatures are finally rising back up out of the forties and fifties and into the sixties! Back to barbecuing weather! YES!!!

 Valentine's Day game night! 

The Daffodils are blooming. It feels like Spring!

Back to fixing up the rig...

With two cats inside this little tin can, we have discovered it is practically impossible to contain the scent of them. ☹️ Not even by changing their litter box every single day. Our great litter box with the lid, from and earlier post. was not helping at all.

Natalie was spending more nights sleeping out on the sofa bed then in her room. We needed a solution.

They are cute, though.





We were fortunate in getting two outdoor kitchen units in this model. One with a refrigerator and wine rack. The other with a sink and BBQ grill. Well, we melted that down to nothingness months ago and replaced it with one too big to fit inside the space allotted without removing the shelf that was by the sink.

Therefore, that shelf was removed long ago.

In order for the BBQ grill to fit in next to the refrigerator, we will have to remove the wine rack. It is only filled with big cups we never use, anyhow. It might be great for weekend camping, but to gets way to hot inside that 'kitchen' to store wine for any amount of time without it going bad.

Shelves inside the larger kitchen will be a near future project, for sure. I also intend to replace the mini fridge with a mini freezer. So many plans.


Removing the counter unit was super simple. Detaching the water faucet by first turning the water going into the trailer off. Then unscrewing it from beneath the cabinet counter top. We just hooked the faucet back up after we had everything out. The plan is to build a six inch box at the edge of the box so we have running water for cleaning up any messes that may occur from the cats.

There is an outside shower just around the back of the trailer, so we could skip this step, bu the water is already, anyway. The counter top box just unlatched from the slider. Pushing the latch on each side and it was off. Then five big screws and the bottom of the slider was off, as well.

We initially thought about leaving the bottom half of the slider to let the faucet sit beneath it, but the cat doors needed to line up exactly for the cats to push through.


Testing Severus and Luci's acceptance of their new litter box space. Severus loves it. Luci is not so sure.




Time for lunch. Burgers on the grill.




The cats will be climbing through one of the bottom squares of a four square cabinet  and then through a cat door to get to their new litter box room. The shelf unit is one of two that Natalie uses to turn her small trailer bed into a full size bed, by pushing them up to the side of the bed and running a foam mattress over the top.

 

By using a dry erase marker, she marks the wall where the cabinet opening is so the cat door can be placed properly. Greg centers the door then draws his markings inside. Using a drill, he drills out all four corners, then saws our the door opening. He marks one corner of the door opening for the other opening with two drill holes. going outside, he marks the door and cuts it out.





 

Natalie works on teaching the cats how to use their new room.

 
For the first couple of days, we plan to prop the cat door open, until the two felines get used to going out into the new litter box room to do their business. Then, hopefully, when we drop it down, they will continue to go in and out without a problem. 

We got a small netting bag and some plain charcoal briquettes to hopefully help hold down the odor. It is supposed to work. So fingers crossed. We also added a small motion detection light into the space. It is very dark in there when the door is closed. 

I know cats can see in the dark. But, pitch black maybe pushing it a bit too much.

Natalie's fresh litter box free room.