The Five Dollar Dog House
A few weeks ago I saw an ad in the local newspaper for a used dog house, two of them actually. I called the lady and she said that she was selling them for five dollars each. I couldn't pass up a deal like that so I drove across town and picked them up. They were very simple dog houses and not constructed very well although they did have shingles on the roof. I brought them back to my woodworking shop and proceeded to add some bracing and a lot more nails. I also added a few slabs of two inch solid-core foam insulation panels in the floor, back and sides. Most of the stuff I had just laying around like 2x4 scraps and wafer board. The only thing I had to purchase was the metal corner round that I added to the doorway to discourage chewing on the wood. Puppies love to chew on things, especially wood.
Since I have a female puppy now I am facing the fact that my three dogs will have to be separated at some point in the future. While on the prowl for cheap construction materieals I found another treasure in the classified ads last week. Somebody in Salt Lake City had several rolls of used heavy duty 8 foot tall chain link fence for sale. They only wanted $100 for all of it so I picked that up for a future kennel addition. There ended up being two 50 foot rolls, as well as 4 smaller lengths of fence totaling just over 150 linear feet of chain link. I hope to use it to add a large 25x50 play area to my existing dog kennel as well as two or three individual outside dog kennels.