Tag: hall makeover

Cat Vibes

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment on Cat Vibes

Apparently, today is International Cat Day. According to Wikipedia: “International Cat Day is a celebration which takes place on 8 August of every year. It was created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. It is a day to raise awareness for cats and learn about ways to help and protect them.”

Apparently, according to the Googles, National Cat Day is either October 29th or February 22nd. But Japan kicks our ass by celebrating on February 22, as the date resembles the words “nyan nyan nyan”(meow meow meow). And they’ve done it since 1979.

So, I am determined to get a post up today to celebrate this catfishing silky bastard, Louie:

That photo is actually from this morning before I knew it was International Cat Day! Look at Louie. That’s his first outside bug catch. We are working on harness training. So the last few days, I’ve taken him out back on the harness while I tend the pumpkins. I have to make sure the female flowers get pollinated with the proper males everyday. It’s also way too fucking hot so this has to be done first thing in the morning.

One afternoon we had Louie out and it was either too hot or he just didn’t want to be in his harness and he walked his ass all the way up the stairs to the door to go inside. This morning he had no desire to come in. So I’ve taught him the word and motion “up up” for when I’m going to pick him up. The motion I guess is because Jack was deaf for three years so we used motions to communicate. So I said “up up” and did the motion and Louie got up and backed away! HA. He was having far to much fun with his new bug friend. I was sweating like a fountain from moving vines around, but I sat and watched him and took some photos. But he couldn’t stay outside forever. I gotta go wiggle my work mouse, you know.

So for today’s cat post, we have DECOR! I’ve been making over the hallway. Basically we had to redo the floors. When they were installed and I saw the hall so clean and uncluttered — ugh, I dreaded moving our shit back in. So I finally pulled the trigger to buy cabinets and make that shit look better. Anyway, Louie has the same food setup that Jack had. One of the shelves had the bottom shelf removed and that was his food and water spot. Well, I really like this setup, so I kept it. It’s just white now and the shelf above with all his food stuff has doors to hide that. But yall, I can’t just make it that simple.

I ordered the cat food mat to use as a decoration. I hung it when I was assembling the cabinets/shelves, and I was like… we gotta run with this. It’s not a feeding station — it’s a Lounge now. K and I went thrifting for tiny picture frames. I decided the mat had an art deco vibe so I asked K what I should do and she sent the gorgeous art deco poster you see on the left. And I was feeling it. So I decided Monday was gonna be a mental health day and I’d spend my Sunday photoshopping for the cat. And that’s what I did.

I put a cat head on the gorgeous lady poster. I found a Jazz album cover and modified it a bit. Then, I slapped a cat head on that guy too and sampled the colors from the lady poster so they would match. Then I did a menu. Did I spend way way way too long on that menu? Yeah. Longer than either of the others. Maybe even longer than both combined. I needed it to be art deco, OK? And fonts are hard. Also, I wanted to be clever so I had to make his food sound fancy. Yes, that is actually what he eats. “Nuevo Nuggets” are actually Open Farm RawMix — it’s available breakfast and dinner. “Cat Cann De” is some over priced canned food and available for dinner only.

Look at these vibes though! I’m so happy with how it turned out. Oh and in that photo, that’s real catnip hung in the back. I bought him a catnip plant to encourage him outside but he gives no fucks. It’s also out of season so the plant was lanky as fuck and desperately needed a trim.

I’m also updating the litter closet. Since I was replacing the shelves, I had extra shelves. So I thought — hey, I should put one in the litter closet and actually make some use of that space. That way I can get the extra cat food out of the hall shelves and all the extra cat litter off the garage stairs.

So… I needed this cat bathroom sign from Etsy. Like NEEDED it. Holt shit, it makes me so fucking happy. It’s by Shadowfire3D on Etsy. It’s perfect. The shipping was super fast and they made me a custom name keychain as a surprise present. Go buy one.

And here’s the before and after of the inside:

Look at that storage functionality! It was a brown shelf and I painted it white to look cleaner. Cause litterboxes are dirty. I wanted it on the back wall, but the new litterbox wouldn’t fit sideways inside it. His new litterbox is bigger than his old one. Yes, he got a new litterbox because I’m insane. I got on this damn cat “cat enrichment” forum and read how EVIL lidded cat boxes are. Are they evil? No. Have any of my cats, Jack, Tabitha, or Louie had a problem with them? No. Did I feel like I had to get an open one? Yes. I mean it’s in a closet with a bathroom exhaust fan so the lid is kinda redundant anyway. That’s what I’m telling myself.

Listen, yall don’t know how judgy these insane pet people are. I posted that picture of Louie’s new lounge and someone commented about how bad it was to have a cat’s water near their food. Apparently, in nature, food near a water source would mean that water could be tainted. And that’s where I drew the god damn line. Are you fucking kidding me? Do you see how insanely over board my cat lady ass has gone? Do you see that running water fountain he has in his own fucking cat lounge? He’s got his own god damn bathroom. He’s got beds all over my house in every window he likes to sit in. And we don’t even close the blinds in two windows because he likes to sit there. SO BACK OFF. At some point, the cat has ENOUGH. This cat lives better than like 99.99999% of cats and a hell of a lot of people too. Way better. He drew the cat life lottery when he catfished me. He was like, that bitch looks like my kind of insane. Is that a cat tattoo I see? Oh she be the crazy cat lady. Let me go get on that. Oh, I also break the CARDINAL sin of cat ownership — I only have one litterbox.

Anyway…

That flower pot is the bag-of-cat-poop holder. I mean, I needed a cat poop holder and I had that pot. It makes sense.

And I printed off some cute cat pictures! I wanted to find a lot of crazy cheesy cat lady shit at the thrift store but came up empty. That “All Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work” one cracks me up! Oh and what is that blank canvas? Oh it’s gonna be one of those fun portraits of like royalty they do of your pets. But I haven’t figured out what I want Louie to be. Then I gotta photoshop him in it. I’m just going to get that printed at Staples or online and modpodge it to the canvas.

I gotta say, the litter closet makeover pleases me greatly. It’s a icky chore that I do every night. So having a fun bathroom door sign and funny art in there makes it so much nicer! Now if I can ever figure out how to wire up the fan to a motion sensor by the door…

So there you go. Happy International Cat Day, Louie. I love you. Not like Jack — but like, I’m so glad to have you. It’d be awesome if you choose to snuggle more at some point. I’m here if you want to snuggle. Like right here.

IKEA Quest: Attach Bookcases Together

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment on IKEA Quest: Attach Bookcases Together

Are you looking for a way to attach your IKEA Billy Bookcases to each other? Are you looking for how to screw them together? Glue? What do other people do?

As the youths say: I got you, fam’

Have you discovered the IKEA Barrel and Bolt Spare Parts 100402 & 100644? Are you searching the breadth of the internet for what goddamn bit size you need for your drill?

I got you, motherfucker.

You see, I am redoing my hallway. I am decluttering it with a beautiful array of IKEA Billy Bookcases. It’s fabulous. After I ordered all my cases and doors, I knew I’d need a way to attach them together. I figured I would screw them together. But I didn’t have them yet so I didn’t know how wide the sides were and therefore what screw size to buy. So I took to the great internet wasteland. I found a better way.

IKEA actually has a FAQ about this. “How do I link my BILLY bookcases?”

You’re home free, baby! But wait, the link takes you to a place to order spare parts. They want a postcode, but you keep getting an error. Why have the gods forsaken thee? Fear not friend, you are on the IKEA site for the Netherlands. Are spare parts only available to the Dutch? Do they get legal weed and free IKEA parts while the rest of us are relegated to IKEA Billy Bookcase Hacks?

Nay. You just need to find the same page on the US (or your relevant country) site. Go to your home IKEA site and find “Customer Service.” Then find the link to order “Spare Parts.” From there, click “Order Small Spare Parts” Bam, motherfucker. Free parts unlocked!

Barrel Bolt & Screw

So you want to attach your IKEA furniture together? You need a barrel bolt and screw. You can buy these at any hardware store or online. But did you know that IKEA has them for the IKEA PAX system? And you can use them for your IKEA Billy system? Oh hell yeah you can!

Yes, You just need a few spare parts. You need the pair: IKEA part 100402 and IKEA part 100644. You will need a pair for each join. I chose to join my short IKEA Billy Bookshelves with two near the top and two near the bottom of each join. For the taller ones, I added two in the middle as well. Order extra. You’re going to wait a while for them so make sure you don’t need to order more. Also, they’re free!

That’s right, bitches: FREE. Straight from IKEA. You can google these part numbers and find them on eBay and Amazon. But those people probably just got them free and are scamming you. Yeah. Just get free ones from IKEA. I got 16 of each. They arrived about a week after the shelves themselves (even though they were ordered the same day). You’re welcome.

What size drill bit do you need?

This is where I hit a road block. I scoured the internet. I looked at Reddit’s r/IKEA. I looked on IKEA’s own site. I looked at the Amazon and eBay listings. NO ONE said what size drill bit I needed. What the actual fuck? So I had to go to Walmart to hold the damn barrel bolt up to drill bits and try to figure it out. I figured it was a 3/16 inch by eye. Thankfully, they had a super cheap set of drillbits though so I got that instead of the single bit I THOUGHT I needed. Look, it has a tool for this shit!

Perfect fit for… the 13/64 Inches hole.

Why doesn’t America use metric again? What the fuck is this Imperial shit? 13/64s? Really? Anyway, no, I do not know what it is in metric. I only have this little tool that came with my cheap drill bits from Walmart. I’m sorry. Google it. Or better yet, I saw that IKEA sells a set of drill bits and a drill. Why the fuck didn’t they try to up-sale me that? I’d have totally bought it! And I’m sure it has the right size. Every order of furniture on the IKEA site should suggest you buy those tools. I’d have bought them, IKEA.

Thinking you can sneak by with that 3/16? You can’t. I tried. I mean, you can hammer it in with enough gusto. I just ended up using the 1/4 bit because that was the next size up I had. Good thing too because I was trying to line up the holes perfectly, and surprise, I don’t drill perfectly straight and parallel holes! So I needed the wiggle room. Even then, I was jamming screw drivers through to find the matching holes.

The videos I have seen have you drill straight through the two sides and attach. I wanted to be a bit more exact. So I separated the cases and drilled through a matching shelf support hole on each case. This way, I knew I wouldn’t screw it up and have a lopsided set of shelves. Cattywampus as we say in the South. But when I lined the cases back up, I discovered: I suck at drilling straight. So good thing I had a little extra wiggle room. I used a screwdriver to find the other hole and determination got me through. Jam that barrel bolt through any way you can and screw in the screw. TA DA!

You will need a screwdriver for each side. One to hold the bolt from spinning and the other to turn tighten up the screw. You’ll also need a vacuum for the saw dust.

Oh and DON’T PANIC — your hole is gonna look like shit. This is MDF with a paper overlay. The drill is not gonna leave a clean hole. It’s ok! Don’t panic. Just shove all the edges back in the hole before you put the fasteners in. See how clean it looks?

NOTES:

  • Drilling holes in things means you can’t return them.
  • If you ever disconnect these shelves, now they have random holes in the sides.
  • Do not use the two top and bottom sets of holes that are for door hinges. You might want to add those later.
  • Know where your shelves are going to go because the screw now takes up that hole so you can’t place a shelf at that level.
  • Do this before you install the doors. It will be a bit difficult for one person to reach both sides of the shelves around a door.

So there you go. The info I couldn’t find ANYWHERE. Go forth and assemble custom shelving solutions on the cheap. If you are going to build IKEA Billy case’s, shout out to this man:

That’s PP FlatPack on YouTube fucking pwning the assembly. Look at how he spreads the panels like a fucking deck of cards. His way is far superior to the IKEA way. Look how fucking fast and efficient he is! You know that instruction book/guide doesn’t even have words. Just watch this. I had watched it before mine arrived, took one look at the book, and did it his way. I had them together in no time.

And yes, I will totally show you the hall transformation in another post. I haven’t put the tall doors on yet.

I did put the two short doors on and that was a breeze! I thought it would be hard. I couldn’t find any particularly good youtube videos for it so I just used the book. Super easy.