- What is it four? Day three? Day four. No, no, no,
day three of this cat tree.
I won't hurt myself.
Safety.
What?
I put the wrong staples in.
Trying to think, okay.
So I have this cat tree.
We've had it for almost five years now.
And she's ugly, dirty,
and quite frankly, falling apart.
Plus my cat Boots,
she'd rather play with anything else,
like this cardboard box.
High five.
We got this cat tree, when we first adopted Boots
and since then it's become a pain point in our apartment.
My living space has a ton of color and textures
so this tree honestly just doesn't fit
the design of the space.
And I think it's pretty ugly.
There are certainly design forward cat trees in the market,
but the problem is most of them are expensive,
like New York city rent expensive.
And I don't want to simply buy a new cat tree
when I have a perfectly solid base at home.
Instead of throwing it away,
I'm going to up-cycle it into the cat tree of my dreams.
Oh, and by the way,
I'm Mi-Anne and I'm on a mission
to create more and waste less.
That's the goal.
Here are my goals.
Make a cat tree that Boots loves.
Make a cat tree that I love.
Make a cat tree that doesn't break the bank.
Step one,
I'll gather my tools.
Step two,
talk to a cat expert
so I can make the tree as appealing to Boots as possible.
Oh, all right. Back to the box.
That's the most action this tree has gotten in weeks.
This is Marcy.
She's a cat behavior specialist.
I know what I like visually,
but I'm really curious what cats see,
so I can design the tree with Boots in mind.
- The main thing that humans see
that cats don't is the color of red.
So when you look through a cat's eyes,
they see mostly in shades of
blue, green, and yellow.
Stay away from those muted colors
because that's not gonna offer as much contrast
as something blue and yellow, black and white.
I can't wait to see it.
- With this new info in mind,
moving on to step three,
sourcing some carpet.
Hi,
I was wondering if you donate or sell your carpet scraps?
I never thought that 2020 would be the year
that I'm buying like five yards of fabric
and running across the street to get carpet
but here we are. Okay, bye.
So now that I have pretty much everything I need
and moving on to step four,
designing the tree.
Using a lot of the blues and green,
because I know from Marcy that
that is what Boots will be able to see,
but I do want to incorporate
some of the pink and the red and the orange too
just because I think it's a fun color.
And Marcy said that
cats don't typically have color preference,
but I do want to create contrast
so she can see those differences.
Palace.
Now that I have a rough idea of what I'm working with,
step five, tearing apart the old cat tree.
Hello.
I am all sun screened up,
got my adventure hat on.
Here I'll do this
so you can actually see my face.
You know, the plan of action
is kind of to wing it.
All right. That was actually pretty easy.
Look
Just coming right off.
Ah!
Screwdriver [inaudible]
So much time alone with my thoughts up here.
You know, this is strenuous,
but how lucky I am that this is my job.
Look at all that.
I'm not gonna lie,
destroying the cat tree was extremely cathartic.
Hey Boots,
do you recognize it?
Do you know what I'm doing for you?
You don't care.
I was wondering if you have any insight as to
like common reasons why cats will kind of
mentally throw away their furniture?
- So it could be the location that she doesn't like anymore.
Maybe the fabric has gotten icky
and you know, needs to be cleaned.
It could be that it's just gotten boring.
She needs a change.
Cats really want to feel something underneath them
that is sturdy,
that is not going to move,
that is not going to collapse under their weight
if they're trying to either scratch it or climb on it.
So that's one of the reasons why cats go after couches.
They can put their weight into it,
and that's what cats really want
in both a scratching surface and a cat tree,
- Step six,
carpet the exterior.
[grunts and sighs]
Tired already.
I am an idiot who thought that cutting carpet
with paper scissors was going to work.
I don't know what I was thinking,
but I am using paper scissors to cut this carpet
and it's really difficult.
Do you have like heavier duty scissors that could like
cut through kind of thicker material?
There's my boy!
Hi Morgan.
- Hi Mi-Anne.
- [Mi-Anne] He always has every tool
you could possibly need.
Thank you.
- Bye.
- [Mi-Anne] What a strange time we live in.
Let's see. Oh yes, these are heavy duty dude.
Look at these!
Goggles.
Two pairs of goggles.
Oh, and next is the electric--
Do I have to charge this?
Like I will find out.
I'm going to carpet the side.
This first.
That's gonna be the side.
And this is going to be the hard part
because what I want to do is cut a shape
so I can put a flower inside it.
Where's my X-Acto knife?
Oh this could go so wrong
I'm like afraid to do it.
I cut this nice little square and it looks so nice.
Let's just do this thing.
I kinda like it when things look a little wabi-sabi,
a little imperfect.
Yeah that's not cutting through.
Like I said before,
this tree needs to fit the aesthetic of my apartment.
The design is definitely inspired
by a lot of home stuff I've been seeing on Instagram lately.
It's looking like a flower.
I mean kind of proud.
Definitely wabi-sabi, this flower.
Let's see.
Now I need to make a little circle in the middle.
Cute!
To be frank,
I've not used this before.
Definitely gonna suit up.
[gasp]
[stapling]
Okay, this is secure.
Look at that.
So one of these has to fit up here.
So I initially thought I'd need glue for this project,
but I asked my friend Laura,
the founder of one of my favorite
independent cat furniture companies,
Cat Haus,
and she actually recommended I only use staples
to avoid exposing boots to any harmful chemicals.
Which is fine by me because there is something
really satisfying about using the staple gun.
Okay.
I guess I'll cut a hole into it.
- Let's talk about cats and temperature for a second.
Cats have a very high,
compared to humans,
thermoneutral zone.
For humans that thermoneutral zone is
between 68 and 72 degrees.
- Dude.
That was easy.
Looking fine.
- Cats' thermoneutral zone is between
about 86 and a hundred degrees.
And this explains why my cat Oliver likes to sit
right in front of my fireplace,
and I think he's going to catch on fire,
and he's totally fine with that.
- [Mi-Anne] It's getting toasty in here, guys.
It is getting toasty.
- Generally speaking,
the loftier or fluffier the fabric that you're using,
the warmer it's going to be
because it traps air in those fibers.
- Okay.
I think all the designs that I thought
that I was going to do might not happen
like doing multiple colors
and doing this by hand is just such a grind.
And it's flipped.
Oh my God I'm so stupid.
Whoa.
So that first part actually wasn't that hard.
Now I'm going to move on to the base.
I'm going for contrast in colors here
based off of what I learned from Marcy.
Place all the [bleep].
Staple that [bleep] on.
Bootsy's meowing because I locked her in a room.
She knows, on the dot, when it's time to eat.
[singing] what about us?
What about all the things you something.
What about me?
Should we watch high school musical tonight?
- [Collin] No.
- Why not?
Collin, why not?
The disrespect.
[singing] You'll be okay.
But what about me?
Oh, There's no staples in that.
Look at that.
So good.
I mean, I think it's good.
I think it looks great.
I feel that I can do more DIY projects now,
which in the past like,
oh, that would have just really scared me.
I would just not do it.
Now I feel so good about my abilities.
Yeah, that did not go in.
Ow!
Okay.
Next up are the scratching posts.
I'm going to sisal it up here,
sisal it down here.
This is going to be the main one on the side,
which is the one she uses the most,
so it's going to have the sisal.
Gloves,
I got to wear the gloves.
Not that these are really going to protect me that much,
but--
- So Mi-Anne,
if you have this cat tree that you want to up-cycle.
One thing I was thinking about
was retaining some of that old fabric
because your cat is going to be familiar with that scent.
And you can incorporate that in your new tree
and it'll help her feel more familiar.
- Old cat tree stuff to put underneath.
So she feels comfortable in her new spot.
It's times like these that I really wish I was ambidextrous.
You know what's nice about this entire experience?
It's hard, physically hard,
mentally, like a little difficult too.
And it's nice to kind of be forced to,
to do something that's so present.
It's nice.
I smell bad.
That's okay, 'cause my house.
Boom,
one section for her to sit on.
I don't like puzzles.
I'm sure there was probably a better way to do it
than the way that I did it,
but I didn't do that.
There's carpet in my water.
At this point,
I'm getting a little bit of decision fatigue
and I'm torn between orange and pink
and orange and red for this section.
So to avoid making more decisions,
I'm going to ask Instagram in a poll.
All right guys.
I think, I think it wasn't really on the wide
that entire time.
I'm sorry.
And you guys said pink and orange.
I guess you might've missed me having a little meltdown
about
stuff.
I will see you guys tomorrow.
[singing]
Last but not least.
Step seven,
carpet the interior.
We need to really quickly re staple something.
This gun like doesn't tell you when you're out of staples.
I wonder how long I was just shooting blanks over here.
I am on day five of re-carpeting
and up-cycling this cat tree.
That is long dude.
I'm going to have to have a huge vacuum after this.
And ironically, I don't have a real vacuum,
I only have a handheld vacuum.
'Cause I was like,
you don't need to vacuum in New York apartment,
we can just sweep.
This is going to be a big one.
My goal here is to create a comfy sleeping area
for Boots that is warm and cozy.
Oh, shit.
Give it to me,
up top.
No?
Okay.
You look cute.
I noticed when I was building this,
taking it apart actually,
that it was really wobbly.
And I'm going to try and fix that
when I'm building it again.
This goes on here.
A screw goes in.
What an angle.
Basically I was missing a screw.
And I remember when I found it on the floor,
like a few years ago,
it was like Collin, what is the screw?
And he was like, I don't know.
And I was like, meh, must be a random screw.
I threw it away, like an idiot.
She's like, my method is to ignore you until you go away.
A little small,
that's all right.
[vacuuming]
So this is the old catchy fabric
that I think still has Bootsy's scent in it.
There we go.
So that's the checkerboard without the staples in.
I think it looks pretty cute.
[stapling]
Okay.
I'm gonna carpet inside,
so that she's kind of in like a little cocoon of carpet.
Marcy said that cats have like
a higher thermonuclear zone than humans.
So they like things to be warm.
- Thermoneutral zone.
- So it's gonna be very fluffy for her on the bottom,
which is her sleeping area
and the sides are going to be nice and cozy too.
Perfect.
Okay.
So fits.
And this might be like the first time
that I've actually cut something that actually fit.
That looks good.
Getting these scissors from Morgan changed the game.
Let's do this thing.
Last but not least.
A little disco ball,
that I think I'm going to put in.
Showing Collin.
How sick is the inside of her cat house?
I have to show the team.
Dude.
I am obsessed with it!
And she's done.
Boots.
You wanna come see what I did for you?
Look, look, look.
She's smelling.
She's smelling inside.
Now she's walking away.
She's just, she's walking away.
Are you serious?
Come on.
Do you like it?
Such is the way of the Boots?
Give us a scratch.
Are you going to sleep?
At this point she's just grooming herself.
Yeah.
The side eye.
You're kicking all the sisal into my eye.
In all honesty I love this tree.
It ticks all the boxes.
I love it.
Boots loves it.
And I think it was pretty affordable.
A hundred dollars on the carpet,
but ended up using roughly 25% of it.
Three rolls of sisal set me back $29.91.
And finally, the extra packs of staples cost $13.64.
The grand total was $68.55,
which is a far cry from the 500 plus
I would have paid for a custom piece.
Would I do it all again though?
Probably not.
It was too much work and honestly I hate cleaning.
The best part was learning
that I could take on a project of this magnitude
and actually complete it
because I have a lot of ideas,
but I always have a hard time with execution.
And honestly that's worth talking about with my therapist,
but anyway, I'll see you guys next time.
Bye