Our furry friends, Tabitha and Shadow, have a new way to get 0nto the screen porch, and they could not be happier!
In the past, when we have wanted to turn on the air conditioning or heat inside our home, we have had to keep the door to the screen porch propped open, just enough for the kitties to go in and out, and with a makeshift curtain covering the opening. This has not been an efficient way to conserve energy.
We finally purchased a cat door and installed it this past Sunday! Let me just start by saying that installing the door was not an easy-breezy task... It took several hours and some disagreements ;) but we did it.
First, Roger carefully read the instructions and marked the opening to be cut on the existing door. The cat door kit came with a template, so this step was easy.
But before using the template, we had to decide how high from the floor we should place the cat door. The manufacturer suggests leaving at least three inches from the floor, to keep the integrity of the door intact. Also, we had to take into consideration the height of our cats, which was a very funny task to accomplish, since cats don't really like to be measured... ;)
After we had all the prep work done, we needed to cut through the door with a jigsaw. We did not own a jigsaw, but Home Depot is right around the corner, which is very convenient! Sometimes it is not such a good thing to have this store so close to where we live, because it is too easy to just purchase everything in the store, but in this case, it was great.
The instructions recommended taping the door around the area where it needs to be cut, so the jigsaw does not damage the paint or the door itself, so, we taped it. First, we used a drill to make holes in the corners, to make it easy to start cutting with the jigsaw, and after that we started to cut--Roger was having fun with this step of the process!
And here is what we did to our door--we cut a big chunk out of it and we could see through to the other side!
We then went on to the actual installation of the cat door. This was not the easiest to do. It is best to do this step with two people, one on either side of the door, so one can have someone to "argue" with if things don't go according to the plan! ;)
We finally got the cat door in place--yay!!! The wood door has paneling, so it is thinner in those areas. We decided to use spray foam around the cat door for insulation. Right now we can see the foam, but we will be covering it with some kind of rubber or plastic edging, and we will paint the door around it. Here is what it looked like without the foam:
We taped the cat door open so that the kitties could get used to going through the tunnel:
The kitties are already enjoying the freedom of being able to step onto the screen porch whenever they want to, and we are enjoying the fact that we can keep the door closed when we need to!
Here are a few videos of the kitties having fun:
"People who hate cats will come back as mice in their next life." ;)
Stay tuned for my next blog post!
Tschuss!