(Newswire.net — March 18, 2020) — Building your own home is exciting. The best thing about building your own home is that you can customise your home to suit the needs of you and other members of your household.
If you have pets, particularly cats or dogs, there are a few extra things you might want to consider when choosing a design or potential customization that will make your home more pet-friendly. It’s easier to get as much customised into the build than to make changes later.
Here are things to consider when building your home.
Where Will Your Pets Live?
The most typical room of the house to keep your pets is the laundry due to its small space, tiled or waterproofed floors. If this is the room of the house that you currently keep your pets in, keep an eye on these when visiting a display home. For those who keep their cats in the laundry will need to ensure there is room for litter boxes on the floor. You will also want to keep storage and bench space into consideration. Extra cupboards for pet supplies such as food and litter is important. If the laundry looks like you’ll be tripping over litter boxes or dog beds, this home might not be for you. However, keep in mind that you may be able to make some customizations to the laundry if you really have your eye set on a particular home.
Where Will You Keep Their Food?
Some people keep their pet food bowls in different rooms of the house. It might be on the floor in the kitchen or dining room, in a laundry or bathroom. If you have multiple pets you might even have food in a few different places. When visualising where your furniture will go, keep in mind where the food bowls will go. Don’t forget about your little friends when you’re thinking about your own dining arrangements!
Where Will Their Toys Go?
If you have cats and you have lots of climbing towers and scratching posts, you’ll need to consider where these will go in the new house. Ideally, you’ll have room to add a few more of these. Plan where these will go when planning out the rest of your furniture.
Outdoor Area
If your pets are going to go outside, or even live outside most of the time ensure there is enough shade for them. When designing a new house, you can usually get some sort of alfresco or pergola included in the initial build of the house. This will provide shade for your pets in the summer.
Take into consideration fencing and gaps between your house and the next one. This might be something that will be hard to judge until your house causes being built, but ensure there are no ways that your pets can escape or get stuck.
Cat and Doggy Doors
If your cat or dog is going to be allowed to enter and exit the house freely, you should keep the layout of the house in mind. The types of external doors in your laundry, garage or living/entertaining area will dictate which type of pet door you can use. There are doors that can be fixed to glass doors, rather than the old days where you could only add these to wooden doors. There are now a lot of interesting modern features in pet doors such as ones that respond only to do the ID chip of your pets, so no neighbouring cats can enter.
Floorings
If you have a long-haired cat or dog, you might want to take your floorings into consideration. Most houses today have floating wooden floors or tiles in the kitchen and hallways, but will have carpet in all the bedrooms. Some pet lovers will avoid carpeting the house to ensure it is more pet-friendly. Getting wooden floorboards throughout the house will make it easier to clean up mess and pet hair will not cling to it.
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Will all of this in mind, you should be able to create the perfect home for the people and animals within your household. You’ll avoid tripping on as many food dishes on the ground and avoid a few extra messes. Your pets are part of your family and should always be on your mind when choosing your new home.