Porky’s 3 story condo from start to finish

[Eepster]

 I had started posting this earlier, but the google chrome decided to eat it, so I’m going to be breaking it up into multiple posts this time.

Part 1:

We started by deciding where porky’s condo was going to go…

There used to be a very large futon and futon frame in that spot.

 

I was going to build it out of wire grid storage cubes from Target, but when I opened the box, I discovered the wires on more than half the grids were spaced too far apart, and not safe for bunnies, so I put them back in the box and put it by the door to be returned to Target.

 

I then called my husband who happened to be at the super market and asked him to pick up the ones they had at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

They were perfect, so I gathered together all my supplies and tools.

I put down a chair mat from Ikea as the base layer to protect the carpet from the bunny and vice versa.

 

[Eepster]

 Part 2:

It was time to start building the walls.

I laid them out and attached them together using the connectors that came with the grids.

 

Notice that the walls dip down to avoid a window.  This is one of the best things about such a customizable system.

I now had the basic shaped laid out with 3 of the outer walls.

[Eepster]

 Part 3:

I was now ready to work on the interior.

I continued using the wire grids as the floors of the upper levels. 

 

I left openings in the levels for the ramps.

 

The B,B & B storage cubes came with 2 special hooked grids per box that were meant to be used as diveders withing the cubes,  I thought the hooks would make them perfect for making ramps b/c they could hang down and grabe onto the next grid.  So I used a hooked grid at the top of each ramp, and a regular grid at the bottom.

 

I then added another grid next to each ramp for stability.

 

I started to secrue the ramps, and suddenly realized that the top of ramp from the first level to the second level was blocked by the base of the ramp from the second level to the third level…

 so I took it apart…

 

and fixed it.

 

[Sarita]

Very cool. Are you going to put something over the ramps? I don’t think it’s safe with the holes in the cubes for Porky to go up and down.

[Eepster]

 Part 4:

I made all kinds of little adjust ments to the interior then started to put the front on.

I added an extra grid to the ramps to make them less bouncy.

I used tons of cable ties to smooth the transition from ramp to floor.

 

And finally put on the top and front grids, leaving openings for the doors.

 

There are many more cable ties than are obvious.  I mostly used small black one that tend to just blend in with the grids, and only used the larger brightly colored ones in a few places.

[Eepster]

Posted By Sarita on 03/23/2011 04:03 PM
Very cool. Are you going to put something over the ramps? I don’t think it’s safe with the holes in the cubes for Porky to go up and down.

We’ll get to that in part 5 or 6, it’s coming soon…Some time after I have had my hot chocolate (it’s snowing here today.)

[Sarita]

Snowing! Wow, we are in the 70’s. Enjoy your hot chocolate :~)

[Eepster]

 Part 5:

Now that the basic structure was done, it was time to work on the details.

I used plastic carpet protector for the floor covering.  The roll just happened to be almost exactly two grids wide, so it was perfect.

I put it on top of the condo to get started with the measurements and get it cut basically to size.

 

I made final adjustment and cuts to fit on the interior.

 

The little spikes (don’t worry they aren’t really sharp and are too short to pose a hazzard) on the bottom hold the carpet protector in place.

 

I found the kitchen shears inadequate for cutting the cable ties and switched to a wire cutter

 

Since we actually adopted a bunny inm the middle of this process, we were suddenly in a rush to get it finnished, so the whole family started pitching in to help. (Yes, this took a few days to build.)

We put on the doors.

We cleaned up and clipping from the cable ties and used left over carpet protector peices to cover the bottom of the wall .

 

[Eepster]

 Part 6:

It was time to let the bunny test it out.

We imediately made two changes,  First, my husband was worried about the hooks from the mini-bungy  cords we were using to secure the doors, so we switched to clothes pins

 

Second was that the ramps were too slippery for Porky to get up and down, so we added a layer of cardboard over the carpet protectors for traction.

 

Porky was now able to get from level to level.

 

We hadn’t actually gotten around to returning the grids we got from target, and dicovered a use for them.

They were fine for making a room divider.  We used the properly spaced grids on the bottom where the buuny might stick a nose through, and the lerger grids as a second layer above to discorage attemps at hopping the hurdle.  We also used the larger grids in the back as supports to hold the divder up right.  It made a divider easy and light enough for our 5 yo to set up, but sturdy enough to keep the bunny in the right room.

As time went on, we made a few other minor changes. We moved the litter pan to the third level where he poop the most.   We added some liitle carpet peices (Ikea) and a hay rack (repurposed Ikea kitchen accessory.)

 

The End

for now at least…

 

[Roxygirl]

Thank you so much for your photo journal! It’s so helpful to see the step by step process as we are currently trying to figure out a condo for our bunny. Porky looks very happy in his posh digs!

[Beka27]

Great job!!! What a gorgeous bun!

[peppypoo]

I love it! It’s particularly neat how you have an irregular exterior design going on…very creative

If you don’t mind me asking, do you remember how much the grids were at BBW?

[LoveChaCha]

I’m going to steal Porky

[Eepster]

Posted By peppypoo on 03/24/2011 09:34 PM
I love it! It’s particularly neat how you have an irregular exterior design going on…very creative

If you don’t mind me asking, do you remember how much the grids were at BBW?

They are just $19.99, the same as the Target ones.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/pro…U=16719773

[Eepster]

Posted By LoveChaCha on 03/24/2011 10:02 PM
I’m going to steal Porky

Do you really think you can make it past the Lego attack robot?

[lashkay]

That was fascinating being walked through your whole process of putting it together! Thanks. Your bun looks happy…happy and cute!

[BinkyBunny]

NICE!!! I ditto — it was great to see it from beginning to end.
I really like the plastic flower flooring thingamajig—where’d you get that?

[LoveChaCha]

Posted By Eepster on 03/25/2011 09:57 AM

Posted By LoveChaCha on 03/24/2011 10:02 PM
I’m going to steal Porky

Do you really think you can make it past the Lego attack robot?

 

I’m a ninja

[Eepster]

Posted By BinkyBunny on 03/26/2011 12:58 AM
NICE!!! I ditto — it was great to see it from beginning to end.
I really like the plastic flower flooring thingamajig—where’d you get that?

Ikea.  We go often for the apple cake.  I don’t know if they still have them though, we got that one ages ago when my son was potty learning and we needed to have a potty on the first floor where we don’t have a regular bath room.  It was easy to clean up when his aim wasn’t perfect.

[GimmeYop]

Amazingly well done, and Porky is quite adorable

I have a question about the room divider idea. It seems like a really good idea but I can’t see how you get it to stand up. Does it fall down easily when your rabbit pushes it??

I need a one for my closet because I can’t have my bunny getting in there.

[Eepster]

Posted By GimmeYop on 03/27/2011 12:09 PM
Amazingly well done, and Porky is quite adorable

I have a question about the room divider idea. It seems like a really good idea but I can’t see how you get it to stand up. Does it fall down easily when your rabbit pushes it??

I need a one for my closet because I can’t have my bunny getting in there.

The divider isn’t just 6 grids attached.  If you look at the photo very carefully, you will see that it actually took 12 grids to make.  There are 2 aditional grids overlapping the wall of 6 grids to make the structure rigid.  Then on the back there are 2 grids that fold out to prop it up when in use, similar to picture frames.   Finally, there are 2 more grids 1 attatched to each of the props that hold it against the wall.  The prop grids in the back are only cable tied along one edge, so they can be folded flat against the divider when we aren’t using it and want to stick it behind the piano.

[Jenna, Chubs & Comet]

Wow! Great condo…I might have to copy this if I ever get an apartment big enough to house a condo. Hehe. I used the heck out of those shelf things during the bonding process!! They do make great room dividers! Gimme, I build corners on to it in order to have it capable of standing on it’s own when it was acting as a room divider.

[RabbitPam]

Thanks for posting the step by step. While we have many different styles of habitats pictured in the info. section of BB, it usually prompts a response of “how’d they DO that??”

Just over a year ago Target stopped stocking a brand of NIC grid that was all the same small hole size. There were a flurry of posts as many of us tried to locate more, but ultimately only BB&Beyond had the right ones, so it was back to the metal color. I hope some day the manufacturer does colors, or that Target gets the other kind back for sale.

Good job!

[Eepster]

What about the Whitmor ones? They seem to come in a ton of colors.

When I sent Dh out to find the grids at the last minute, I only sent him to BB&B first b/c he happened to be right near it. If he hadn’t found good ones there, I was planning to send him to Kmart to see if they had the Whitmor in stock. If Kmart hadn’t had them, I was prepared to drive to the Walmart that list them as being in stock.

When I originally went to go buy them from Target, my back up plan if Target didn’t have them was to order the Whitmor cubes from Amazon ( http://www.amazon.com/Whitmor-6256-…amp;sr=8-2 .) If you look through the list of “customers who bought… also bought…” you’ll notice that cable ties are the first item, and there are many bunny items in the list. By the time I noticed that the Target cubes wouldn’t work, I didn’t have time to wait for Super Saver shipping. The ones from BB&B were less money anyway.

[jerseygirl]

I liked the NIC gate you made also. Very nifty. I want to give that a try. I’ve found making the panel then strengthening with the overlapped grids works quite well.
I can see how the gate would stay in place when a bunny pushes against it. Have you found Porky has tried to pull it backwards yet? That would be something I would
have to overcome around here! They get their teeth on things then wiggle their butts backward. Crafty rascals!

[Eepster]

Posted By jerseygirl on 03/30/2011 06:14 PM
I liked the NIC gate you made also. Very nifty. I want to give that a try. I’ve found making the panel then strengthening with the overlapped grids works quite well.
I can see how the gate would stay in place when a bunny pushes against it. Have you found Porky has tried to pull it backwards yet? That would be something I would
have to overcome around here! They get their teeth on things then wiggle their butts backward. Crafty rascals!

Porky has tried pulling it back towards himself.  It doesn’t go.  The props on the other side wrap around the wall, and the piano is in front of it.

I did a quick diagram of how the gate works.  The red and gray rectangles are the grids and the green circles represent cable ties.

 

[Bren]

they get addicting dont they!?  I have found those cubes to be sooooo useful for just about everything. I have changed my cage three times to accomodate needs. I purchased them from walmart.com although at the time there was only white, perhaps there are other colors now? I love the flower floor cover you got and never would have thought of it! I had my hubby make a floor by covering plywood cut to the size of the cage with those square laminate with the sticky stuff on the back.  But that is a great idea and I will have to remember that one! thanks for sharing!!!

[mplsbunlove]

Ooo. Nice. Looks like you put alot of energy into planning. I’m sure your bun appreciates. I’m going to have to check out ikea and see if those protecotrs are still available. Great idea.

[Lintini]

very nice!!!

[victoria nicole]

i’d love to do something similar to this for fufsy. it looks great :3 i bet your cute little bunnn loves it lol

[Author]

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