Stevie's Pad

Once upon a time...
I thought my dog, Stevie, would like it if he had a place to get out of the heat, rain, snow, etc if he were tied outside, so being the loving fur mommy I am I built him a dog house! This also was my first DIY building project. It was fun, creative and was little to no headaches.

Stevie Ray

Photo: Adam Shea Photography

Past helping the future!

I was lucky enough to have experience as a graphic designer at a sign company so thinking about how a sign was to be built was part of the daily designing experience. This helped with knowing measurements such as deducting the width of the sides from my front piece, otherwise I'd be cutting it twice! Or worse yet, be short!

Here we go!
Step 1: Make the plans
So on a piece of paper I drew out a scaled version of the dog house. This way I would know exact cuts and the exact amount of material I would need without under buying or over buying. I had to also think about how I was going to attach everything together and the finishing touches.
I would need:
2 pieces of 4 x 8 ply-wood
3 angled brackets (for the roof)
Caulk to seal the edges
Roofing nails
Shingles
Paint
U-bracket (to anchor Stevie's lead to)
And lastly, a paper pattern for the door entrance, paw prints, "Stevie's Pad", and house numbers. (My husband was kind enough to print these for me!

Tools needed:
Jig saw
Drill
Hammer
Caulk gun
Sand papaer

Step 2: 
Get to building!
I built Stevie's house the size because he is a corgi - long and short! The house's opening is 14" tall so he can walk in easily and long so he could stretch out if he needed to. The overall dimensions of this house are 48" deep, 30" wide, and about 30" tall.

Here is a very interesting photo! Top side of the roof~

Dog house mostly assembled with the next step being paint and bracket attachment.

Here is the house just about fully assembled and in the process of being painted. The bracket has been installed on the lower right hand-front of the dog house so we have a place to attach the dogs lead. Next step is to paint the inside the beige color and the kelly green for the accent color.

Here is the house finished!

Shot from the second side~

Stevie prefers to sunbathe! 

The dog house was build about 3 years ago and little did I know, he would never actually use it. So it sits in our back yard as a place to anchor his lead to.