Stuffed-Animal House Room by Room : Episode RXR-904 -- More Projects »
Materials:three 1' x 6' x 8' pieces of aspen
one 4' x 8' piece of birch plywood
brad gun or wire brads
wood glue
circular saw
jigsaw
compass
paints of your choice Steps: - The first decision you need to make when building a stuffed animal house, is what stuffed animals are going to be housed in it. Ours were pretty small, but we did a lot of measuring to make sure they would fit all the way inside, and that the openings would be large enough for them.In the end, we determined that one stuffed animal required a space of about 4"w x 6"h x 4"d. These dimensions helped us decide how many animals high and wide we wanted our house to be. We actually made two of these units. Once an apartment complex holding 19, and another small condo of seven units. We liked the stepped look instead of a rectangular box, so our units started out tall in the center and went down one floor as you moved to the end or side units.
We always draw out all of our pieces on paper, to make sure we don't miss anything.The drawings for our animal apartment showed five fronts of varying heights (figure A). The middle (tallest) one with a peak and room for five animals, two four-unit side pieces with opposing shed roofs, two more side pieces of three units with opposing shed roofs and six roof pieces and a base the width of the entire unit to help secure all of the towers together, all made out of 1"x6" aspen boards. Identical backs, two sides for each vertical unit and the required number of inside shelves were drawn to be cut out of the birch plywood. Note: For clarification purposes, we made each vertical unit separately , meaning they all could stand alone with backs, sides, roofs and shelves. The piece seemed sturdier this way. We double-checked all of our measurements, making sure we made our shelves narrower to allow for the side to be inset, etc. Then we began transferring all of the measurements to the wood and cutting the pieces out. The circular saw made all of the cuts for us; even the angled cuts on the upper end of the side pieces that were needed for the slanted roofs to fit correctly.
The next big step in the project is creating the arched openings for the animals. Making sure to start the opening in far enough for the side panel to be recessed , we drew out the bottom and sidelines of the opening and topped it with a curve that we fashioned using a compass. We left about 2" vertically between our 6" openings so we had room for the shelves inside. To cut them out, we used a drill bit to make a hole in the "door," and then inserted our jigsaw blade in the hole and cut the openings out (figure B). Once all of the openings were cut, we sanded the pieces smooth so we wouldn't snag our precious tenants!
Well it might not make sense at first, but we learned the hard way that once the unit is assembled, wow is it hard to get inside those little apartments and paint! To assemble, we used wood glue and a brad gun (which is worth it's weight in gold ) to attach the sides to the back, then the front to the sides. Then we dropped the shelves or floors into the tower, lining them up flush with the opening and nailed them in. Before adding the roofs, you need to link all of the towers together. We used 1/2" wood screws to attach the sides in two different places, at the bottom (below where the first shelf is mounted) and right at the rooflines. Once this is complete, nail on the roofs (figure C) and the base. Note: Keep in mind that an entire apartment building can be heavy. Mount it to the wall using toggle bolts in four different places.
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Media
![PHOTO](javascript:popup("http://img.hgtv.com/HGTV/2004/02/26/rxr904_1figA_condofronts_e.jpg",350,450))
![PHOTO](javascript:popup("http://img.hgtv.com/HGTV/2004/02/26/rxr904_1figB_archedfront_e.jpg",350,450))
![PHOTO](javascript:popup("http://img.hgtv.com/HGTV/2004/02/26/rxr904_1figC_roof_e.jpg",350,450))
