Playhouse to Hutch Project

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Suz

Suz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Messages
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Location
, Wisconsin, USA
Ok good news. My sister in law's friend used to be a contractor and used to have rabbits when he was a kid, so he is very excited to come up and help me out with this the first weekend in August. Yay! I'm so glad I don't have to tackle this myself. :)

Anyhow, here's some pics of my daughter's playhouse. It's 6ft x 10 ft and all in the nice shade next to my garden. I'm going to make an outside hutch on the side where the little window is that will be 6x3. Then the screen on the window slides up to make a perfect doorway for him to go inside during cold weather. Inside, I will have a 40 in x 30 inch area for him. Most of it will be a nesting box, but there will be a little spot for a litter box or something. Haven't figured out the inside yet. But I still need room for my daughter to play on the other half of the house. The inside will just basically be more for winter and stormy weather. I'll have a box on the outside too for him. We're going to put a shingled roof on the outside that we can lift up as well.

Oh yeah, the main door on the playhouse is dilapidated, so I'm thinking we'll take those off and make more of a barn door type scenario. Then, I'm going to paint the whole thing barn red with white trim. I can't wait!

I'm excited to get going on this now! The "before" pictures are below:

3quarterview.jpg

frontview.jpg

sideview.jpg

inside.jpg

 
OK We are off and running. Last weekend, my contractor friend came up and worked on the outside hutch. As he did that, i went ahead and painted the playhouse barn red. We now call it the Bunny Barn and will be putting more barn like doors on it when my friend comes back to finish up in a few weeks.

The hutch is 6ft X 3ft (27in high)with a 2X3 nest box on one end. Then for winter, I'm going to have a hatch open up in the wired section that will go through the side of the playhouse window and inside. Then on the inside, I plan to have just a wire enclosure for him with a plywood floor. Or do you think I should have a nest box inside too?

Also, where should I put a litter box? Would I put it in the outside nest box? Or should I always keep the side window open and put the litter box inside the playhouse. I'm not sure how to set that one up.

Updated pictures will come soon!
 
There's not a whole lot to see right now, just cause most of our first day was spent getting what was in our heads down into some sort of plan. But below is the painted bunny barn. I let my 3 yr old paint the doors because we are taking them off anyhow ;) Great job for a little one though I think! Kept her busy!

And then the other one is my pal starting to put some 2x4 together and wire. Like I said, doesn't look like much right now!

I'll keep ya'll posted.

bunnybarn.jpg

outsidehutch.jpg

 
Awesome! I wish I could fast forward time so I could hurry up and see the finished bunny house! :biggrin:
 
He's making this thing so sturdy, I can't believe it. But he is also using screws and making it so we can take it down and with us when we move. We boughtthis house last year knowing we were just going to fix it up and sell, so we want to be able to take it with us when we go.

Plus it was 85 and sooo humid on the day we did this, he was miserable. So we didn't want to push it. Alot of water breaks inside in the air conditioning!

But I can't wait until it's done either. One big reason being is we can get our cars in the garage until it's out ;)

Questions for rabbit experts - I've learned from this site that rabbits pee/poop while eating, so I'm going to leave the side window into the bunny barn open at all times and just put his/her litter box in there with the food and water. The floor inside will be plywood. Do you think I should get some of those sticky floor tiles you can buy at home improvement stores to put over the plywood? Would that make it last longer and keep the smell down? I would then be able to wipe up the pee when he misses his litter box. I'm just worried about it smelling too much in the playhouse, because my 3 yr old will still want to play in there too. Half will be bunny's, the other half will be Reese's (daughter).
 
I would go with the stick on tiles to be on the safe side. I use them in my cage and LOVE them! They are great for ANY spills, it makes it much easier to clean up.
They look really nice and clean too! :biggrin2:
 
Great. I think that's what I'll do then. I'll only need a couple tiles and I get something to "match" my daughter's decor ;)
 
Here is the finished hutch. My contractor friend ended up not being able to come back up before bunny arrived, so I had to take matters into my own hands. the access to the "bunny barn" is closed for right now. But Muppet has a 6'x3' hutch to lounge around in for now. Plus he comes inside to run around alot too.

I have to say, I am proud of myself for tackling this big project. Well, big for me! I don't do this sort of stuff. When my friend is available again, we are going to tackle some barn doors and another area for Muppet to come inside the barn to run around in too.

It looks lopsided in this photo for some reason, but it's level. My husband got out his monster level to check. And I still have to paint the outside red as well.

eefe9089.jpg

 
I think Muppet does too! Every morning when my alarm goes off, I look out the window above my bed and it looks right into the hutch. And every morning Muppet is doing binkies around the cage. It's very nice to see! She/he is peeing in all of the corners of the box, however. But also the litter box too. Hopefully she learns to just go in the litter box someday.

There is also a little shelf in the back of the hutch that Muppet spends most of the time on. Not sure it's going to fit her once she's grown, but we'll see. I thought I was going to be getting a Tan, not a Flemish. But plans changed!
 
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