Indoor to Outdoor Pet Pen Solution for Home

If you feel like taking your pets in and out of the house is a big pain, or you want to travel and cannot take your pets, then you have to see this post.

What a great idea!  The dogs can go outside, do their business and come back inside with minimal maintenance for humans.

What we did:  install a pet door in our home and a small pen in the backyard.  This setup shows a pet door on the side of our house with a cute ramp and pet porch for the dogs to enjoy the outdoors.  There is a ramp and the dogs can go into our out of their pen area.

Why it’s good:  Since we live in the country and our whole yard is not fenced in, this pen allows our three dogs to go outside and also be protected from anything outside the pen, like stray dogs for instance.  This is a small section of chain-link fencing, some wood for the porch, material to cover the ramp and a dog door.  It is a cost-effective way for the dogs to go outside whenever they want so that we do not have to drag three dogs around on leashes.  Whenever they want to go outside, they can and then they come inside whenever they want as well.

For the pets:  This pet porch allows a nice spot for the pets to rest outside.  The dogs love being able to see what is going on and also lay in the sun on warm days.  They can lay under the porch for shade whenever necessary too.  Because of the dog door, the dogs can also come inside to the air conditioning if it’s hot outside.  Likewise, they can come inside for heat if it is cold outside.  Because there is a grade to the property, the land is uneven under the pet door, which required a few ramps to accommodate.  As you can see, this ramp and porch style works well for us and our pets.

Ease of use:  The dog door is easy to install and has two flaps to protect from the heat and cold getting inside or outside the house.  There is a magnetic flap on the dog door, which help keep it sealed when the pets are on either side of it.  It took less than two days for the dogs to understand that they can easily get through the dog door.

Travel bonus:  Another thing this system as done for our family is that it allows us to go on trips away from home without worrying about our three dogs.  We can leave the pets with plenty of food and water (automatic or whatever) and they can go outside whenever they want.  This is a low-maintenance system as well because it is easy to keep the pen clean.  Once a week, the kids use our gas-powered blower and/or a hose to blow or wash leaves and buildup out of the pen. This way, the area is kept clean for the dogs and they are more encouraged to use the space as it is designed to be used.

Think about the idea of building one of these great low maintenance pet escapes for your home!  It works great for everyone and frees up your time so that you can travel and have happy pets at home.

Finished Metal Building – Simple Living – Could You Live Here?

Have you ever seen metal buildings and wondered if people could live in one?  This metal building has been finished and furnished so that people could actually live here!  It is hard to imagine that this is a metal building on the outside when it looks so homey and cozy on the inside?  Check out these pictures of what can be done to make a metal building inhabitable, even trendy!  Inhabiting a metal building could be a very cost-effective lifestyle for people in this economy in many settings.  Living in a metal building could support a sustainable lifestyle, repurposing items for use in a friendly environment.  If you have any questions about perhaps trying this idea at your lake house or lake property or as a place in the woods, contact us and we will help you out.  You may think this living idea would work well as a cabin on property where you or your friends go hunting seasonally.  Whatever your metal building needs may be, feel free to let us know if you have questions and we will be happy to help you out with your sturdy structure.  This is simple living where you can live simply and enjoy your space!  This building idea is a great way to minimalize and downsize in order to live a more simple lifestyle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Effect of a Shutdown

Duggan Drafting Firm Shuts Down

After almost 50 years in business, Chattanooga-based steel drafting company Ted S. Duggan & Sons Inc. closed its doors last week. Don Duggan, the firm’s president, blamed the worst time he had ever seen in the steel fabrication industry.  “We’ve closed because of the rotten economy,” Mr. Duggan said. “This industry there is just nothing out there anymore.” The firm had 16 employees.  Over the past five decades, the firm provided drafting services for projects around the world, including the Omni Hotel in Atlanta, the Opryland Civic Center, the last skyboxes at the University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium and a number of other projects that shaped the skylines of such cities as New York, Chicago, Boston and Dallas.

© Amy Williams 2009 All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, May 5, 2009, 12:00 a.m.

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Work ethics require personal choices to be made; will I or will I not stay with a company?  Will I move to this other company that seems to be doing better or will I stay loyal to the company I have been with?  Will I keep my business afloat or go for that comfortable loan?

Each individual should carefully evaluate his/her individual options before making a personal decision. Checking your options (by doing your homework on purchasing a steel building for instance) is a good idea and is always something I recommend doing.  The above goes to show that even after 50 years in business, a company can go out of business and be gone with the economy the way it is.  Ask yourself, had you ever heard of this company before?  Could it happen to you?

S.L.M. 5.5.09 @ 10:24

This portion of the work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License