My outdoors hutch is moving indoors!

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Bekki

Bekki

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My landlord has asked me to move the animals indoors as they may attract vermin to the yard and the house as a result.

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This is the hutch that is currently home to three piggies and a rabbit (I adopted them saturday in this hutch) I am blocking off the ramp between the levels and the bun will have the bottom and the piggies will have the top. The hutch is a 5ft hutch so its perfectly big when split in half, the bunny will have the run of downstairs so the hutch will only be a base for her so its an ok size.

Its getting brought indoors tomorrow and painted with white undercoat and gloss on the outside (not pet safe but its in a non chewable from inside the hutch place and the pets are upstairs until the fumes are gone) and inside with pet safe cream paint to make it look good and bright inside , the hutch also has correx on each of the levels so its easy to clean

The roof is getting altered to a pine shelf and its getting made flat so I can use the top for ornaments to help make the hutch blend in its going in my dining room and my OH is going mad haha :-)

unfortunately it means the rabbit is in a small cage for two days, and the piggies are in a small cage for 2 days but they get along well so they will be fine :-) they are in seperate cages btw
 
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Hi , i have never had trouble with Vermin! i think thats just a load of old well you know! there out door animals and used to living outside apart from when its cold so do bring them in! and as long as you keep outside tidy your landlord shouldn't have any issue!
 
I have no say in the matter the animals are indoors

Food left outdoors attracts vermin, so having a hutch will attract vermin and my house is very close to a railway line with some crazy wild plants going on and there are mice and rats in there they are easily spotted on a night and the landlord has a phobia of mice and to be fair its their house and they are allowing me to have 11 animals in it - thats pretty leniant when the original plan was no pets allowed!

The animals are now indoors staying in temporary cages for a few days while the hutch is painted. The outside of the hutch is getting painted with gloss so the animals cannot be around while that is being done , the inside with pet safe cream paint to liven it up. The temperature shock is now over and the house temperature is pretty steady at 16 degrees daytime and falling overnight , recent outdoors temperatures have been 6-8 degrees so yes there was a big jump but its over now and they will cope - the landlord is actually doing the hutch for me with the paint so that its done fast so I cant complain there.

the hutch should look good once done
 
Moving the hutch inside

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Heres the hutch after I fully scrubbed it and sanded inside to get the worst off the dirt off it (I have only had the hutch since saturday the last owner left it with piles of dried on dirt!) the urine white stains wont come off but thats not really a problem they are well and truly soaked into the wood
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Heres the inside of the hutch after one coat of wilkinsons colour your garden pet safe paint , the floor isnt painted becasue correx is going in as a base :-)
The outside is getting undercoated today and ill get the second coat of paint into the hutch tonight once this coat is dry
 
I love the way you are going to make it look like furniture, I too have landloard issues so completely understand, really good of the landlord to paint it for you tho! and 0 to 11 animals v cool!

I can't wait to see the finished product!


xx
 
Its clever how your making it blend in! Bet you cant wait to see the finished item!
I'm doing up a hutch for the girls to use in the summer so ill be interested to see how you do it especially the correx as i could only come up with using lino!

Sarah x
 
What a great landlord...I guess you cannot blame them, we have loads of cats our way so we don't suffer from them but houses near us near a railway line frequently do.

I love your furniture idea, how cool is that!

Your guineas are gorgeous BTW, your little black one is exactly like my lovely old girl Thelma, (the one whose incontinent) almost identical.

Looking forward to more updates!
 
The hutch has now been undercoated and the inside has had a second coat of paint too

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Its getting glossed tomorrow and a third coat of paint inside

Ill keep posting updates as it gets done

The bit I am most excited for is replacing the roof with pine shelving

The inside is cream (only pale colour pet safe paint I could find) and the outside is white - this is basically the colour scheme of the entire house pale and boring - I have permission to paint the walls or paper them (I pick the paint/paper they do the work so its done properly) but I dont want to spend money on such items that I really dont care about id rather have boring walls and eat good food and have plenty of money for the animals :-)
 
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Looking good, it will be lovely for you to have your piggies inside. You'll get to watch them in the evenings. :))
Don't worry about plain white walls, get some big bright prints/paintings, they look great on white and you could add more colour with your soft furnishings.
 
Wow this is progressing so quickly. You'll be able to save money on not having a TV any more too as who needs telly when you have guineas and a rabbit to watch? xoxo
 
Ive been busy today!

I had the day off work today so ive had time to collate some photos of before and after of the hutch so far

This is a photo of the state of it inside AFTER I had already spent about 2 hours cleaning it!
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These are after several more hours of scrubbing and the use of much harsher (unfortunately non animal safe products)
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I am sure you will agree they are a lot better :-) not perfect though the white calcium from the wee is just soaked into the wood very bady so I painted over it after giving it all another scrub (no potos of that though)
 
And then heres some photos of the same area after painting!
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after several coats of paint and the correx is put in
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and heres the outside of the hutch after two coats of undercoat
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Downstairs doesnt have the correx in yet because I havent cut it to fit properly - the correx is tatty and old but is being used in the hutch until I get around to buying new sparkly white stuff - the tape holding it together is clear greenhouse sealant tape :-)
 
Mummy has been shopping for us

Ive been shopping for their new sparkly white hutch to say sorry to the piggies for their dire temporary accomodation

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Its a zoozone 1 which is frankly a disgusting small size for three pigs (or even any piggies) but it will do for a few days and this is why there is a rush to get the hutch all finished for them! My hamster wont speak to me either as this was his home and now he is in a smaller cage until the piggies move back to their mansion

I got them a 1.1L giant bottle as they drink fast so id rather give them more than they need and throw half the water away than let them run out especially in the summer and a new baby blue bowl with guinea pig written on it and a pigloo (blue because its easier to match and looks less garish than pink)

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This looks gorgeous!

I bet you're really excited to be able to see them all the time, You've done an amazing job :) Xx
 
Babysnufflez said:
This looks gorgeous!

I bet you're really excited to be able to see them all the time, You've done an amazing job :) Xx
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Thanks :-)
I cant take all the credit my landlord is painting the outside for me :-)

The rabbit is having the bottom of the hutch and the piggies are having the top :-)

the piggies and rabbit lived together happily for 4 years so I will still let them have floor time together :-)
 
So I hand-sewed some fleeces to fit and cover the correx

I had a huge fleece (maybe kingsize? that was £6 so I cut it and sewed it so that it fits nicely over the correx) and this is what I did with it :-) I have a sewing machine but its at my mums and for such a small amount of sewing it was easier to hand sew

The top level of the hutch was cut by eye so its rather wonky but it still fits
the bottom one was measured out but I still didnt get it right haha but again it fits and its neater than the first one

Top
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Bottom
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Overall
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This is fantastic.....I have never even thought of re-painting a hutch a different colour!
It blends in beautifully x
 
Chocolate & Toffee said:
This is fantastic.....I have never even thought of re-painting a hutch a different colour!
It blends in beautifully x
Click to expand...

Wilkinsons do a range of paints called colour your garden and they are totally pet safe that gave me the idea! The outside is just normal undercoat/gloss

Its not finished yet, it gets glossed and a new roof tomorrow :-)

I reckon its going to look ok once done
 
Its not finished yet but its getting there!

The new roof went on today and the roof went on
The three ladies and their new pad

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and the bunny's new pad
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its not finished yet, theres paint touch ups to do and I need to decide whether to paint the roof (obvs the pigs and bun would be taken out) and yeah :-) its not done!
 
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