Guinea Pig Village is a Go!

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Nicquita

Nicquita

Teenage Guinea Pig
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well, i will be going out to get post crete, a 6ft gate, and lots of sand tomorrow. as i was told to make a thread on this, i figured i should start now, with the overall plan

my sister has given me permission to cut up guinea pig manor ( http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49599 ), so we're going to alter it so just the hutch part will sit on the floor, on some home-made feet.

i've also planned out the buildings, completely to scale on a drawing program, so that i could work out how big of a piece of plywood i will need, as i'm on a pretty tight budget (£90, but we already have fencing and fence posts and slabs).

so, here's the building designs. they will all have flat 'roofs', but will be painted up to look like little houses. they'll be put together using a non-toxic plywood glue, which cost me a silly amount of money, but works really well.

pigglevillage.gif


the piggle cafe will have a divider, and is the only building with a base. this is because it is essentially my hay rack. it's going to have a 'door' type area on either side, so that the guineas can pull the hay out through the openings. the lid will be removable so that i can change the hay, obviously.

i felt the need to have a prison, as i will be drilling large circular holes into either end, which will then have wood sticks as bars, just to be cute

pigglevillage1.gif


the hospital was specifically going to be built to be Alfie's Hospital. i've decided that i'm still going to build it, and it will be the 'Alfie Memorial Hospital'.

the bridge is basically a tunnel for them, which will be painted in a brick effect.

pigglevillage2.gif


the piggles get a post office, as my boyfriend is an avid ebayer rolleyes they shall find frequent treats in that building. delivered by the piggle slaves, obviously. and of course, every willage needs a town hall :)

the area will be 8x6ft, and this is the overview of the whole area with everything in it:

overview.jpg


the rectangle under the farm is a turf trough i'll be building. like the neutral home i built recently, but with smaller sides to allow piggy entry.

how utterly sad am i? :(|) we'll be putting the fence up for this tomorrow, so i'll start adding photos, and then we'll be laying the patio on saturday -c
 
Oh WOW! This is fantastic! I can't wait to see how it progresses.
 
I can't wait to see photos of this! Will you give us up to date reports on progress? Your piggies are a lucky bunch! :)
 
i'll take photos as i go. i'm hoping it'll be functional within the next 3 weeks, though i don't want to rush the houses, so they may have avon boxes for a while... i can sort paving and fencing out this week. unfortunately, the thin mesh to go over the wire fencing can't be afforded until either next week or the week after.

with that much space, i'm hoping to be able to offer a new home to a group of rescue piggies, as i can afford it, and that space seems a bit large for just my 3 girls. i forgot to mention that the side behing piggle manor and to it's left are sheds, so that half is already weatherproofed, and i'll be adding tarpauline (eventually corrugated plastic) to that top of the run, so that rain will slide off. i'm pretty much just hoping to weatherproof the area (though hutch is the to be used if needed).

i also forgot to ask... other than Alfie's Hospital, all of the buildings need names

any ideas? :))
 
Ooo wowie! Its great to see the plans, so exciting and I'm not the one building it :P I really want to make one now ! :D Cant wait to see pics.
 
:(|) thanks everyone. i do so enjoy spoiling the piggies, but i guess we all do. i'm determined that this will work out well, despite having never made anything like it by myself before. i have to heft a silly amount of slabs around, which i think will probably hurt a fair bit. Chris will help, but he's about 7 stone, so i'm not sure just how much we'll be able to do in one go :)) still can't wait though.
 
thanks everyone :) it's definitely helping me to feel better. what better way to mourn a piggy than to spoil the remaining lot? :(

i love my little girlies so much. they deserve everything i can give them and more. i'm hoping it'll all work out okay, and i really can't wait to start building. i hate waiting for money to go into the bank @)
 
This looks like it's going to be an amazing project, looking forward to the progress pics with baited breath!
 
me neither to be honest. i think it may kill me to build though :p i'll be a bit of a useless piggle mom when i'm dead :p i'm still waiting for Layla to get back to me about whether i'd be allowed to adopt more from her (i'd had my eyes on some before i lost my poor little Alfie, and i guess his loss prompted me to go for it 8...). as much as i know it's unlikely, i'm pretty paranoid that she won't want me to have more, after what happened to him. i tried really hard, but i guess i'm still blaming myself. i probably will for a while :(
 
i don't think i can sleep for the anticipation. though that's a bad thing, as lack of sleep may make building it more difficult...
 
well, Chris just took me to B&Q, and we now have everything we need except a gate and the pond mesh i'll be using to keep piggies safe. hopefully, the fence will be finished today, and the gate will be fetched tomorrow, then tomorrow we can get on with the paving. i'll take some photo's while we're building whenever i have the time :)
 
dude those plans are fantastic!!!wow!! I'm really really impressed!! How did the slab laying go today? hope it went ok! thanks again for earlier, hutch is in the backgarden, gonna set iy up 2m! x
 
amylouise said:
dude those plans are fantastic!!!wow!! I'm really really impressed!! How did the slab laying go today? hope it went ok! thanks again for earlier, hutch is in the backgarden, gonna set iy up 2m! x
Click to expand...

didn't get as much done as i'd hoped :( slab laying was scheduled for tomorrow, and i'm determined that it will be done :p our chickens kicked up a fuss and dug massive holes out after we'd flattened it all down ¬_¬ evil critters. as soon as they see freshly dug mud, they're after the worms. one even tried to stand on the rake.

we're fetching the gate first thing tomorrow, and then i'll be able to put up the last post. the slabs shall be laid, and wire fencing will be put up. the area looks massive now the hutch and everything is gone. not overly huge to me, but then i compared it to the piggles hutch :))
 
the piggies now have a patio area, and the fence posts are us, bar one. i have to wait till tomorrow to put the remaining post in, as the post-crete needs to dry before we attach the gate.

the gate i bought was from homebase, and we went to collect it, assuming it was flatpacked (as there was no home delivery option). however, it was all in one piece, and wouldn't fit in the car, so i was going to walk home with it while my mom drove the car back. the store is about 3.5 miles from my house, and the counter girl offered to drop it off for me after her shift. it was such a nice gesture, it really made my day. just to be nice, she bought my gate to my house on her way home from work at about 5 o clock. i was quite in awe that she went out of her way for a complete stranger :)

i was even more in awe when she showed up with the 6ft gate in her ford fiesta :o

i'll put some piccies up later, when i've sorted out my camera :)
 
Nicquita said:
the piggies now have a patio area, and the fence posts are us, bar one. i have to wait till tomorrow to put the remaining post in, as the post-crete needs to dry before we attach the gate.

the gate i bought was from homebase, and we went to collect it, assuming it was flatpacked (as there was no home delivery option). however, it was all in one piece, and wouldn't fit in the car, so i was going to walk home with it while my mom drove the car back. the store is about 3.5 miles from my house, and the counter girl offered to drop it off for me after her shift. it was such a nice gesture, it really made my day. just to be nice, she bought my gate to my house on her way home from work at about 5 o clock. i was quite in awe that she went out of her way for a complete stranger :)

i was even more in awe when she showed up with the 6ft gate in her ford fiesta :o

i'll put some piccies up later, when i've sorted out my camera :)
Click to expand...

Some people are just so kind!

Ford Fiesta's are great. I once bought an Ikea bunk bed with a double bed at the bottom and put it into mine (we had had to walk home though :))).

I can't wait to see the pictures...
 
Sounds like you've had a really productive day. Well done. Lovely that people will still do a favour for someone they don't know. :)
 
TaDa

well, here's the product of our painstaking day. we have to flatten the floor first. which is difficult, as chickens dig up everything, making our garden the host of more craters than the moon.

so, this is what we started with:
P1110758.jpg

then we started the paving:
P1110760.jpg

and continued the paving:
P1110762.jpg

P1110763.jpg

and eventually, finished the darned paving!:
P1110765.jpg


it doesn't look like much, but the slabs vary in size, as smaller ones are thinner etc, so this took a lot of doing ¬_¬ i'm on a pretty tight budget, so half of the slabs were found on my local freecycle site...

this is the gate to be put on tomorrow, so that we can put a fence post positioned properly in the hole that Chris is digging:
P1110769.jpg


after that, we have to put up the wire fencing, and add wooden blocks to the base of the hutch that we have to suspend it slightly off of the floor. we also need to put concrete around the edges, and dust it over the top of the slabs. that'll be really helpful, as it's never fun trying to sweep piggie poos out of paving cracks... overall, this will all hopefully be done pretty soon.

and for variety, Piggie Lips:

P1110690.jpg


for the record, i did help with everything, but i took the photos, so couldn't be in them. and Chris kept laughing at me for taking occasional photos for the forum
 
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