Bear with me as this is my first instructable. This instructable came out of a need. We were moving from a relatively rural area where our two lovely (crazy) male cats had the run of the mountain. But alas its time to move to the urban jungle where our little wild cats hadn't had too much experience with the super predator, the car. I was designing this catio for a while to fit in a little nook in the back patio of the house, when I came across a FREE 10ft pallet.(very very cool find) Below you will find a list and as this was done to fit in a pre-built nook I only used a tape measure once so measurements at an approximation.

1 10 ft Pallet

3 8ft 2x4's

3 8ft 2x3's

1 roll wire mesh (36"x 50' 1nch hole)

Nails, hammer, staples and staple gun, circular saw

Nylon Rope

Twine

Step 1: Disassemble

Step one take a part the pallet as carefully as possible and remove all nails. If they dont come out just bang them flush with the trusty hammer

Step 2: Foundation

The nook in the patio was nice because it had a little over hang from the slab to the stucco walls.

I took two of the pallet 2x4s and slide them under the lip and cut them down to the size of the catio i wanted (roughly 7ft)

Like i said in the intro i didn't use a taper measure but once and this wasn't it. I placed the third pallet perpendicular to the other two and flush against the wall marked it and cut it and nailed them together.

Step 3: Time to Frame

This is where the purchased 2x4s came in. I wanted to make sure the entire catio was free standing and could be slid out from underneath the over hang for cleaning and so i could paint the house eventually. The lowest eave was just under 8ft. to measure I placed the 2x4 against the wall next to eave made a mark just under it and cut all three from that.

With the left over pieces of pallet 2x4 I made a couple of H's one H and one h. Making sure they are the same height. I nailed them all together and connected them to the foundation framing.

Step 4: Raised Floor

And now on the to the 2x3. I used these to finish on the raised floors. I connected each one to the H's and layed across the pallet supports to make nice little spot for the little fur balls to soak up some sun.

Then i got creative cause one floor is just not enough for these guys. I took the rest of the left over pallet 2x4s nailed them as a L (only time i used a tape measure to make sure they were level) and nailed them off to the H frame. For extra support I drilled holes in the top of the H frame and the far side of the L. tied some rope trough the holes and leveled it off. then added more pallet supports for the flooring.

Even with out using a tape measure yes it is level

Step 5: Trapping the Houdini's Inside

I built the entire thing in place to make sure it fit during the step I pulled out from the wall so I wouldn't leave any ways for them to make their great escape. I wrapped the entire thing (even the top, not pictured) in the wire mesh and in the front I made sure to over lap it a bit and using the twine I weaved and tied them together oh don't forget the staples lots and lots of them.

Final step add cats. To date we haven't moved in so the little killers haven had a chance to meet their new prison.

I'll add pictures of them when we do.

I hope you all enjoyed my first and not last instructable. Don't forget to vote