Building a cat shelter: trim

Another weekend, another few hours on the cat shelter construction.

This was one of the last bits of primary building: adding decorative trim to the walls, to make them appear like board-and-batten siding.

But first, a rare photo of Pepper, one of the two feral cats that live in the workshop. Pepper lives high on a shelf in the front part, and Pansy lives in the back half:

As previously mentioned, I ordered some signs for the two parts of the structure. I actually got two custom signs from two different people, and decided on one pair that we preferred. Here’s the “Cat House Saloon” sign for the shelter, made by HarkenHomeWoodcraft on Etsy, temporarily resting in place:

And the “Mercantile” sign for the feeder:

A view of both signs:

Anyway, back to the trim work. I added 1×0.5″ boards (ripped from 1x2s) to the walls, glued and nailed in place, to simulate board-and-batten style siding:

On the front:

On the facade front:

The shelter maintenance door removed, to make it easier to add the trim on the bottom half:

The feeder side door & wall:

The front and side:

Another angle:

Peeking under the awnings; the boards laying on the deck are cut pieces for the window surrounds, so they can be painted before installing the windows:

Above the awnings:

Adding trim to the back of the facades:

And the back wall, which will probably not be visible, but still worth making look nice:

I shoved the roof forward to make it easier to do the back wall; like many other parts, the roof will remain removable until installation:

That’s basically it for the woodwork. Next up is caulking and painting.

3 thoughts on “Building a cat shelter: trim

  1. These cats are so privileged! They can’t possibly be called ‘feral’ any longer. Have they sussed out the chickens yet? Or do they know what’s off limits?

    1. They’re still wary of humans, but do have a pretty cushy life. I’ve seen them watching the chickens, but I don’t think they’d take one on, since the chickens are about as big as they are. The chickens will be out of reach in their run normally, though currently have access to the less-secure veggie garden (fenced, but the cats could get in if they really wanted to).

    2. They still avoid humans, so are still feral. They haven’t bothered the chickens; they probably don’t want to tackle something about the same size as them. (And the chickens are fairly securely fenced.)

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