In my neighborhood we have lots of stray cats. Some of them are friendly. So I decided to make a house for one of them and place it in my yard.

This is my first Instructable and my second ever project. Unfortunately at that time I made this I didn't plan to write an Instructable so I don't have photos during the progress.

The wood I used was from an old bed. The walls are from the boards for the mattress and the roof is made from the side boards. The size is about 60x60x60 cm. The roof also is detachable for easy cleaning.

Materials and cost:

Pine wooden boards (0 EUR)
Cushion (5,5 EUR)
8 mm dowels (~ 3 EUR)
Varnish (~ 5 EUR)
Woodglue

Total cost: ~ 13,5 EUR

Tools:

Jigsaw
Drill
Palm sander
Lot of sandpaper
8 mm drill bit

Let's go on then...

Step 1: Disassembly the Old Bed

The donor was something similar to the bed in the photo (R.I.P.). First Ι had to detach the side boards from the headboard and the footboard. Then I unmount all the hardware and remove the rails from the sideboards and any nails left.

Now comes the most boring part of the project. SANDING. I took my sander and with a lot of patience and a 36 grit sandpaper I started to remove the old varnish from the sideboards. Luckily the mattress boards were bare wood. When all the varnish has removed I changed to 80 grit sandpaper. From now on I was sanding all of the boards. I proceed with 120 and finished with 150 grit sandpaper.

Step 2: Walls and Floor

I cut every board to lenght. I drilled four holes for the dowels in each board and then glue them toghether. Five boards for the three sides and four for the fourth so the roof would be sloping. I followed the same process for the floor. At the very bottom board of each side I also drilled holes for dowels to support the floor which is not in touch with ground. I didn't use any hardware or screws.

At the one of the three biggest sides will be an opening hole. I drilled a starting hole and then with the jigsaw I cut out to the desire shape. With a sandpaper I smoothed the edges for not to be sharp in touch. At the upper end I marked a diagonal line and cut it out with the jigsaw. I did the same diagonal cut for the opposite side. For the other two I just mitered the edges at the same angle.

At the end, all sides were glued together with miter joints and the floor in between them.

Step 3: Roof

Now it's time to make a roof!

I cut the bed's side boards to lenght, drilled holes for dowels and glued them. I rounded all the edges to have nicer look. To stay in place above the house and not falling off, I had to make a rectangular frame underneath the roof the same size as the inner size of the house. It was made from a wooden trim that I had aside.

Because of the slope, the two opposite sides of the frame shouldn't be perpendicular to the roof but vertical. This was a tricky part. I had to miter the edges at the same angle as the slope. For the other two sides I had to cut little triangles at the ends to fit right between the previous ones. Except for all these cuts I cut 45 degree miters joints for the frame to be stronger. I glued the frame at the center of the roof.

Now the roof can be attached to the house like a lid.