Inspired by many examples I found online, this weekend I started building my own catio on the side of my house. I’ll admit that when I started, I thought I’d finish it in a day or two. Now I’ve realized that I’ll be lucky if I finish it this week. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

It’s a real structure! It still needs a roof, doors, a tunnel to the basement cat door, shelves, and mulch on the ground, but it’s coming along.

Here’s what the spot looked like before I started:

It’s to the right of the front porch on my house, and it was just a neglected patch of dirt and mostly-dead grass, which is now even more dead from getting trampled on. Oh, and a little climbing rose bush I planted there earlier this summer before I had any catio plans. Now I’m glad it’s there, though, because I plan to let grow up over the wire mesh of the catio. The view of the catio from the street will mostly be obscured by the large camellia bush that you can see peeking into the frame on the left, but the rose will soften it even more.

Why the slow progress? I make a lot of mistakes I have to figure out how to deal with. Mainly just realizing that there are things I didn’t take into account in my initial plans. I’m learning a ton as I go, though, especially about using construction hardware. Crossing my fingers that I’ll get this thing done soon, without too many more mistakes!