We had some pretty amazing colors this fall. Although these pictures don’t do it justice, wanted to post some snapshots:
Left: Looking up our driveway before entering the trees. Right: Looking back from the same point.
Left: Driveway through the trees. Right: Rounding the corner to the house.
After an afternoon storm.
I set out to build a dog house for our two key dog employees, Buster and Sammy, so that they’ll have a place to weather the winter without resorting to going under the house. That’s where they spent last winter. But this year, I’m planning on enclosing and insulating the crawl space and there will be no dogs allowed.
I know, it’s just a dog house, but I couldn’t resist going a bit “dog wild”. First, I decided to make it look a bit like the house. The dogs love our porch, even though they are not allowed on it (at least not when I’m looking). So, I decided to include a porch. Then, I thought it would be fun to make it look something like the house—the same basic exterior design. Finally, it seemed like a good chance to try out the color scheme we’re considering using on the house and see if it flies or not.
I started constructing it in September. I laid out 6x6 treated posts I had lying around and nailed two 4x8 sheets of 3/4” OSB flooring I had left over from the house. I then constructed it like any dog palace:
In the picture on the right, you can see that the dog house’s design is similar to that of the house. In fact, it’s even at the same state of un-finish.
So, here are some pictures of the finished “dog palace”. Maybe I overdid it a little (you think?), but my dogs appreciate it. They told me so themselves today after I finished, although not in so many words.
I built in a door on the side to make it easier to clean out and change straw periodically. Check out the detail (remember, this is a trial run at some of the house details I’ve been considering):
The picture on the right was taken trough the open door. Notice the straw bale in the middle. I put three bales in there a few weeks ago and the dogs have done their own decorating. They tore up one bale and spread it on the floor for a nice soft bed. Then they moved one of the remaining two bales in the middle so that Sammy and Buster each have their own little apartment. Quite the elegant taste, don’t you think?
Buster still likes the hay on the outside (the weather’s been mild). Sammy has his spot staked out. I’d say we have a satisfied customer.
One more shot at the porch. It’s a sad state of affairs to note that the dog house is now the nicest building on the property, and the only one completely finished. You can see the pump house to the left and that’s about what the house looks like. We’ll be attacking the house siding after I enclose the crawl space. The pump house will eventually be gone when we do the west addition.
Now the only problem is that I’m going to have to move it eventually before starting the West addition (an obvious fact that escaped me but Connie recognized immediately) and the “palace” probably weighs half a ton. Oh well, by the time I get around to the addition, I hope to have a tractor with a front end loader. I’m sure I can figure something out by then.
