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I found a pic in the reptiles magazine that I liked. I made a few changes to the plan and the pic as I only did three boxes, and I made mine larger, plus I didn't have a router to do the boxes with so I nailed on the bottoms of the boxes. (Actually I should say hubby did, he built it and I will stain it.)

Anyways it is all done except for the stain...

The first of three boxes.. I used 1"x 12" sides and 3/4" plywood for bottom.



Next the supports to hold up the three boxes... I used 4x4's and notched out 12" x 3/4" every 12" if that makes sense??



Then we put the three boxes on one side of supports...





Then the other side supports and we screwed the boxes to the supports and it is built.





All that is left now is the stain, I used water based....



EJ if you used something different for stain will you let me know.. I chose water based polyurathane because it has less odor.

great job!!!!!
i saw that article in Reptiles

Thanks wayne.bob, I saw it and I knew that is what I wanted.

wow those look great!
i've been wondering about Low/No VOC stains, did you see those available at all?

josh Wrote:wow those look great!

I agree Jen. You'll have to post pics once you stain them and get them set up.

Looks great so far! Can't wait to see how you finish everything.

The water based Polly should work just fine...

That came out really nice.

Looks great Jen, Dan and I have discussed building some like those but since we do not own the house we are in currently we decided to wait until we do own a place. My stock tanks and frames for them are a little easier to move. I sent Ed the link so he could appreciate his inspiration.

josh Wrote:wow those look great!
i've been wondering about Low/No VOC stains, did you see those available at all?

I didn't see any and the person was not as helpful as previous paint people, but I followed Ed's plan and what he said he used and found the low odor poly. I am going to start staining and then just keep applying the poly and then air dry for a while outside to make sure any odor is gone.

Thanks everybody for the nice comments as soon as I finish the stain and setup the enclosures I will post pics.

im sure that low odor stuff will work great. i was just curious about whats out in the market because ive been reading about how we should all start using no VOC stuff but i havent even SEEN any yet!

Looks like you and hubby made a great team! I love it when working with the torts brings couples and families into it jointly. It's one of those added bonus things you never really expected when you first begin with torts. It really looks nice.

So have you decided who gets the penthouse? who is in the basement?

Yeah..We work well together when building things for the torts, he still doesn't like them though! Oh well they are here to stay. He is already planning our next project for this weekend. Gotta get them all done before summer hits. Hmmm Penthouse is probably going to stay empty for right now, basement will b the larger sulcata baby, and the mid section will be the smaller sulcata. The russians and boxies will keep there current digs since they will be going back outside in a few weeks. LOL

So what is the project for this weekend?

A built in desk to match the new enclosure, moving the 125 gal tank into the office, add plants to the outdoor enclosure, and build me a cabinet to keep my tort stuff in. And if we have enough time go to the zoo. So we will see how much really gets done.