Cat Door

Two cats got grandfathered into my marriage. We used to keep the cat food and litter box in the kitchen, but there’s no place for them in the newly remodeled room. I don’t mind the food bowls being out in the dining room, but I’m altogether tired of looking at cat litter. We had some space in the bottom of our bathroom closet, and we decided that was the best place to relocate the litter. The closet door is directly behind the bathroom door, which is a actually a good thing in this particular situation. The opposing door knobs keep the doors a few inches apart, and we decided the cats could squeeze through the gap and into the closet if we just cut a hole in the door. There was no way I was going to ruin one of our original solid wood doors, so I went to the local Habitat for Humanity Re-store and bought a used one for $10. It was in pretty shabby condition, but I figured it didn’t really matter since I was going to put the jigsaw to it anyway:

The hole looks pretty big. But then again, our cats are pretty fat.

The door is hollow, so I had to construct this trim piece to firm up the opening:

It fit together fairly well. I repaired the chipped veneer and put on about five coats of primer:

After applying some glossy white paint to match the trim work in our house, I hung the door:

We had to leave the door cracked for a couple of days to let them get used to the new space, but now they’re comfortable with their private entrance. Most importantly, we don’t have to look at their litter box anymore. When we decide to put the house on the market, I’ll put the old door and hardware back up.