Dog Kennel and Office remodeling

Lucky me! With spring now in full swing it is time to recondition the dog kennel, which means washing down the walls, scrubbing the floor of the inside part of the kennel, repairing breaks in the wire outside, and then putting on a fresh coat of paint. To my way of thinking it is something I have an obligation to do because of everything my dogs do for me. There is, of course, the affection and companionship they bring and for Cookie there is the work she does for me throughout the hunting season. So, I try to make their home comfortable. Some might even say I spoil them since the indoor portion of their kennel is 4x8x4 and is air conditioned in summer and heated in the winter. Their outside portion is 6 feet wide, 10 feet long with a concrete floor and is roofed. The inside kennel is at the far end of my office and I usually leave the door open so they can roam in and out at will

All of that freedom has had a price—flies and mosquitoes! Before this space became my office it was my shop and the sawdust seemed to keep the bugs down. I also admit I was not being too observant because I hadn’t noticed flies and skeeters bothering the dogs. Last summer, which was the first summer I truly worked out here, the flies and skeeters pestered me every evening, even when the air conditioner was running, and I had to keep spraying the dogs to keep the flies off, especially their ears. Maybe it was just a bad fly season but I was starting to have doubts about changing my shop into my office and if the winter drove me into the house I’d drop the idea. I held on through the coldest days and when I decided that having my office out here was what I wanted I also committed myself to doing something about the flies and mosquitoes. I decided to start by keeping the pesky bugs out of the outdoor kennel. For the past week I’ve been tacking, stretching and fastening fiberglass screen. (I opted for fiberglass because it is stronger and although the dogs are going to find some way to punch holes in it unlike aluminum screen the fiberglass will not cut their pads.)

My next project is to complete the conversion of the shop into a real office. I’m pulling out all of the makeshift book shelves, my plywood writing desk and the work bench that I’ve been stacking books on. Once everything is cleared out I’ll scrub the walls, ceiling and floor then paint the walls and ceiling before building new book shelves. Finally, I’ll put down indoor/outdoor carpet (so the dogs can still roam in the office) and move in the desk I bought at the auction. With a little luck I’ll have the job finished by the end of next week and I can settle down to some serious writing.

I guess, when everything is finished I can thank the dogs for pushing me to the remodeling job. My desire to insure they have a good home started me on this project and in the end I’ll have a comfortable home office.

Have a good week, all! Glg