Once Upon a Doghouse

Once upon a fall semester in the year 2006, Miko, a student, wanted to make a doghouse for her incredibly spoiled brat of a dog as one of her area assignments for her Production Techniques class. However, this was not going to be any old doghouse. This doghouse was going to have “a room with a view” or as Miko liked to refer to it, the "pimped out puppy palace", or P³.

Once she found this amazing doghouse she went to the scene shop and discussed the size and price of the doghouse with the all knowing carpenters. She was frightened at first when D.G. told her it would cost her $100. But after talking to J, and having him reassure her that the doghouse didn’t have to be any bigger then 2’x2’ especially considering the fact her dog weighed all of 5lbs, and that she would really only have to buy the plywood. Miko’s embarked on her first journey… buying plywood!

Miko traveled to the magical store Home Depot, she found a piece of plywood named ½” good one side spruce. Miko took one look and knew that was the piece of plywood that was meant for her (it was a really nice piece of plywood!)! After having it cut in half and getting into a minor scrap with the stupid piece of plywood on the way to the cashier till (which it won and the scars still haven’t healed). Miko loaded the plywood into her Grandfather’s minivan, as her Chrysler Sebring wouldn’t be able to handle such a task. Miko traveled to the other side of the city, over the bridge and arrived at the loading dock where she dropped off the wood.

Construction of her project did begin the next week, the wood was cut into 2’x2’ squares and she cut a doorway out in one of the pieces, so the dog could enter and exit the box (She thought it might be a good idea).

After the doorway was cut, Miko used all mighty brad nails and his sidekick, carpenters glue, to piece the box together. The future of the ½” piece of plywood was beginning to take shape.

After Miko pieced the box together she carefully selected friends for the ½” plywood from the scrap wood piles, she then cut the pieces to length on the chop saw.

The decorative pieces were glued, nailed, sanded and then put
onto the box, with a few mishaps along the way.

Construction the second story began and after the posts were put in place, it looked like a big, ugly crown.

With the help of D.G., Miko successfully finished the second story. And, in the words of D, it was a bitch! Miko doesn’t know how to measure so the boarders were short, then when they were the right size she didn’t know how to put them in properly, the nails would not stay in and she was forced to clamp them for a bit, but finally, everything came together and all of the boarders were level! The doghouse was finally beginning to take shape. And, after the second story was completed Miko moved onto the boarders of the house.

Those were fine! Well they sucked to put on and it involved a lot of measuring and cutting, but other then that it was fine!

All that was left was the stairs and after measuring many angles and cutting, pre drilling, re cutting, screwing, and re-screwing them, measuring, re-measuring, and many test fits, the stairs were finished. Miko’s P³ was finally constructed!

After looking at the doghouse repeatedly it was decided that the doorway needed a frame. So after two attempts and one broken band saw blade Miko FINALLY had the construction of her doghouse completed!

It only took her, you know, forever to finish the freaking thing.

All that was left was to paint! Taping and painting took another solid two days and she couldn’t get the paint to stop bleeding through (probably because of the fact she was using masking tape, or so she’s told) and taking the tape off was a pain in the ass as well.

FINALLY after numerous coats, a totally unreasonable amount of bad cuts, and many screw ups with the brad nails. Miko’s puppy palace was finally complete. It reminded her of something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

She never plans on working with wood again. That’s a lie; she’s taking 3811 next semester...