Boxing Clever - Part 1

I think two things have been all consuming for the past year of my life: Degus and DIY - both have a symbiotic relationship in my mind as doing DIY to sort the Degus lead to the electrical rewire of my house and subsequent rebuild and redecoration and the Degus themselves have created their own DIY projects.

Without labouring the point we completed the rebuild of our lounge last month (finally!) and with the DIY box in the back of my mind I knew I did not want to put them on a raised shelf again, partly to aid Bex's back and partly because I didn't want to make a mess of my new walls!

So we put them on the floor.



They hated it with a passion.
Having lost their vantage point to the room it meant that we once again loomed over them and they skitted every time we surprised them.

We hated it too as we couldn't watch them easily, we couldn't get the table out to play with them properly, we had to constantly bend down to get to them and there was always the danger that they could fling themselves out and be let lose in the non-Degu proofed lounge.
Not to mention the alcove looked half empty.

We also took the opportunity to move them from the alcove near the door and the foot traffic to the other side of the room.
This had two advantages:
Firstly with the cage there and not blocked it would give the room the illusion of more space and secondly they would be relatively secure knowing they wouldn't have people walking passed... plus they get the sun in the afternoon.

Fortunately I was able to source some breeze blocks for a more human friendly shed moving project I will be undertaking soon so I cut down their old shelf to fit the new alcove and put cardboard down to protect the floor before building the make shift, rustic looking table.



This was fine for the short term but having spent since the New Year working on the lounge it was irritating to have this ugly monolith in the corner so I figured whilst I couldn't afford to build the whole box after my elaborate proposal to Bex, I'd at least get started on the cupboard it would sit on so we could have a nicer looking living room and put all their toys away, finally!

So having come up with a master plan to maximise the amount of MDF I could make the most out of for the least amount of money I made the what seems like weekly pilgrimage to B&Q.

Having a tiny car I took advantage of the free cutting facility.



Mission impossible.



The ride home was interesting - It was a good job Bex was off on a friend's Hen Do.



I shall detail the whole building process in Part 2.