It's so much better. . .

Molly and Jack have to sleep in kennels at night. Molly is actually the only one that needs to be in a kennel, but Jack likes to get in his kennel. Because I'm the one that takes care of the dogs, the kennels are in my room.

Before Jessica, Mom, and I redid my room (I might post about that later), I had a window seat by the . . . window. You could lift up the top and store things in there, but I had to put things I didn't need regularly in there because I had some OLD computer sitting on top of it. When we redid my room, we got rid of the old computer and stored the window seat elsewhere. Then we put the kennels in the little window niche (they'd been on the other side of the room. Jessica said we should turn the window seat into a "kennel". We all thought it was a good idea, and Dad can create / build / do just about anything, but he isn't good at getting projects started. And, if he starts them, he might not finish them. . .

It's been almost a year since we finished my room, and something made me remember the window seat. I thought about how nice it would be if it were in place of the kennels. I decided to call Dad and ask him about it. He said we would do it soon, maybe even start on it later that day! Mom was doubtful, and told me not to get my hopes up. . . I however, was not doubtful, and brought it up again, later that day. Amazingly, Dad said we could plan on how we were going to do it, right then, that very moment!

Christopher and Dad carried the window seat outside into the garage and we figured out where the doorways would be and what they would look like. They cut the doorways, put a divider in the middle of the window seat, and cut a few small holes for ventilation. AWESOME!!

One problem though, we couldn't figure how to make the doors, at least not with whatever materials we had on hand or the limited time we had left to work that night. The doors can't be just solid wood, it would get too stuffy. Mom and I thought a blanket over the doorway for right now would be fine, because the dogs would stay inside out of habit. Sadly, no, Molly got out and had an accident in my room: not fun.

Now our temporary solution is to use "Christopher's" newly acquired doggie baby gate (borrowed from Jessica). It fits perfectly in front of the window seat / kennel palace - the dogs can't go anywhere.

He has never been able to tolerate the dogs wandering into his room, so he used empty Avon boxes for the longest time as a 'dog barrier'. Finally, Jessica offered up one of her many baby gates and it's much better. We threw out the boxes.

*** One night after Christopher had gone to bed, and I'd had a particularly large Avon delivery (well, not just one), I did this: - - but it's another story : ) ***

Now we'll either need another baby gate or we'll share the one we have: I use it at night and he can use it during the day.

If anyone has a suggestion for the doors, I'm open. We don't need anything to complicated, just something simple. Share your ideas!