wire castles in the air

The Coolest Toy in the World

So this weekend, I fulfilled a childhood ambition as well as started my project to build my own rabbit cages and invested in...

these.

Okay, if the link doesn't work, these are the Whitmore Storage Cubes, but I got mine at Target and they came in sets of six cubes, not four, and cheaper, and then again with a five dollar gift card per purchase. Shown in white, I got black. Twenty three roughly one foot by one foot square panels of wire mesh that fit together into cube shapes. They are kind of a miracle, and make me wonder about a civilization that doesn't give these to everyone immediately upon birth. Cause oh my God, these kick ass.

Okay, the connectors suck, and after working with them all of Sunday, my hands were killing me--not to mention I started developing proto-blisters--but the wire mesh panels! Coolest toy ever! This is better than building blocks. These things you can build into fortresses. I went looking online--where I got the idea in teh first place--and discovered cable zip things are better and easier to use, as well as make it easier to build designs, rather than the connectors.

I'm looking at random designs so far, but currently, with four unneutered rabbits and dark rabbit lust afoot, I'll temporarily make a four story cage, each floor closed off to the others, but each one still larger than the current cages. After The Great Snip Snip of 2006, I can rework the inside and create happy rabbit lounges and climbing and jumping areas inside and an atrium for them. It's intersting to see other people's designs--I got an intersting idea of putting teh whole thing on a permanent rolling platform to make cleaning easier, and build the entire thing with a front that swings open to facilitate easy cleaning--and while right now I'll use cardboard for all flooring, I want to eventually move to some kind of coated particle board for all walking and running surfaces that can be pulled out and cleaned--but oh my God. This is going to be so much fun. Child and I had a blast with it on Sunday, before we gave up on the connectors and decided to go with zips. I'll post pictures of Rabbit Condo as soon as it's done. The nice part is, I can add on. And one day, some nice people will come over, worried, to ask me about my Rabbit Castle that is, indeed, the size of a castle.

But seriously, this is so what I've been looking for to build for the rabbits.

I'm also trying to think of a way to build one giant water repository for the rabbits--right now, I'm working with three-four separate water bottles, but I keep thinking there has to be a way I could build the Big Water Repository of Maximum Rabbit Happiness and set it up so that they each still have their own nozzle, on each floor. It would save immense amounts of space and work, but I'm not sure it can be done easily. Hmm.

So far, the design for this time around will be simple. Four separate floors, four feet by two feet by about one foot each, with their beds adn food dishes and water bottles and random toys inside. For the front, which will be about sixteen panels, I'll hook them all together as one large panel and leave it unconnected to the interior floors if possible so I can open and close the entire thing, but honestly, I am not a visual person or an engineer, so this will be trial and error to see if the floors can be supported without the front directly hooked in.

And yeah, that's enough on Jenn's Rabbit Home Improvement Show. Tune in next week for What To Do About Blisters! And Other Tales of Life With Wire!

Comments

[reginagiraffe]

Oh, okay, if it's the recommended thing then it should be okay. I had the impression you came up with the idea yourself. If it's already been tested then you probably shouldn't worry. Sorry. *g*