Dishes and Cats
 

We are in the process of moving into our new Begonia in Lake Deaton. I am having two issues and hope you can help me....again.
1) we have three cats and cannot figure out where to put their litter box, litter etc. The laundry room has no space so that won't work.....any suggestions?
2) where do you put your dishes? Do you use the pot drawer? The shelves in the upper cabinets are rather shallow. I do cook and I am naving some difficulties as to where to put cooking items and small appliances as well. The other issue is that the house came with undercabinet lighting...very nice...but because of the light rail there is only 15 inches between the counter and the cabinets. We cannot even fit our coffee machine under the cabinets.
K know these are very minor items in the scheme of things but our cats run the house and we need them to be happy!
As always, thanks for all the suggestions.....

So you are having the same problems as many others. This sounds really stupid but on our patio villa I had more cabinet space that than I do in my designer. I also I'm having difficulty because I have every day dishes and every day China that I like to use. Do you have cabinets in your laundry room to possibly store extra dishes. We are going to have to add extra cabinets in our laundry room just for that purpose. As for the cat litter is it possible that you can use one of the bathrooms.

Litter Box Ideas from Pinterest

We bought one of those doors that lets the kitty cat go out on the lanai. It fits in your slider. We also made a rod to go in the door so it cannot be opened by a burglar at night or you can just bring in the litter box at night. We put our litter box on the lanai behind a chair in the corner. Worked very well for us and with 3 cats the fresh air will take away the odors.
Kitty may be hesitant to go through the plastic door so you may need to leave it open for a while until they get used to it.

I have a Gardenia ~ very similar to the Begonia. We've ordered two matching 12" pantry cabinets for the nook. We could squeeze in 15", but don't want to crowd the window. We don't plan to use the nook as an eating area.

I plan to put pantry foods in the new cabinets, and use the existing pantry for appliance and quick food (soup, bread, etc) storage. DH is putting a mixer lift in one of the cupboards near the sink.

After we live with those changes for a bit, we will consider a rolling center island. I really don't have enough space for a fixed center island (and can't get elec to it).

We ordered the cabinets from Pro Source Orlando, for about $2,000.00 for the pantry and the trimwork. They will be an exact match to the existing.

DH will do the install. It is pretty straightforward.

We have our little box (like the former poster) in the lanai in a cat cabinet but....we are thinking about getting a cat Genie. If we stack our W/D and lose one cupboard, it will fit alongside. The cat genie flushes into the washer's water drain by adding a simple Y to the drain. Then...ta da !!! No more scooping. It's automatic. My daughter has had one for years and we have been hunting for space. We live in the smallest 2200sf home ever...our 2000 sf home was much larger! It is how they measure. I wish they had of left some space in some of the rooms for our things....but then, we came here believing less is more.

Our Gardenia has a sink (instead of the counter top and cabinet), and we put the litter box under the sink. If you have the cabinet, you can do what I have seen others do, cut a hole in the side of the cabinet, if possible and put litter box inside. If this is not possible, perhaps you can remove the doors, and have curtain in front of the cabinet so the cats can get in.
And for an off the wall idea, you might be able to put in a cat door to the garage, and then have a cage in the garage with the litter box.
OK I am out of ideas, hope these help.
PS in our Gardenia, the cabinets are 18.5 inches from the counter top, this is sufficient room for our appliances, while not cheap, can your cabinets be raised?

We had our litter box in the master bath under the counter where they put the make up counter so it's open underneath.

We live in a gardenia and put a kitty door in the door going out into garage. Litter box is in garage and love it. Out of sight and no odor at all. Hope this helps.

Thanks, Ragdolls. Did you just go thru the existing garage door? Do you let the cats just go loose in the garage or did you make some kind of enclosure? Any info would be helpful.

We have the kitty litter In the closet in one of the spare bedrooms . I lined the floor With a heavy plastic table cloth. Using a spring loaded curtain rod, i hung a plastic shower Curtain across the door opening. Works for us.

We have a Gardenia and dedicate a closet to the cats litter needs.
Works well as long a one makes sure to get fresh boxes. Our ladies remind me if
I fall behind.��

I would think if you did that, you would have to either keep your garage door closed at all times, or have a screen installed, which is around $2K.

In our Begonia, we had a pantry designed for the nook and built for $3K--included electrical work and installation--which perfectly matches our cabinets. It is two long cabinets on either side, three drawers on the bottom between the two long cabinets, cabinets on top between the long cabinets, and a coffee station in the middle that holds the coffeemaker, espresso machine, and toaster. It fits nicely in the breakfast nook and holds all my baking items, miscellaneous serving ware, a container of our dog's kibble, tupperware in one of the drawers, phone books and junk in the bottom drawer, etc. All coffee supplies in the cabinets above the coffee station. We had the chandelier removed and a pot light put in its place. There is still room for a small table and chairs, although we don't need one.

I keep my coffee cups there too, freeing up a lot of room in the dishes/glasses cabinet, which is beside the fridge. Beside the fridge we keep a whole dish service for 8 on the two shelves of that cabinet, with the glasses on the top shelf.

In the pantry I keep food and some baking items. My husband uses the whole upper cabinet to the right of the stove for snacks & spices he keeps for cooking. I keep frequently used baking items in the cab. to the left. the other cabs to the left of that hold frequently used wineglasses, measuring cups, corning ware, spices in the little corner cabinet at the end, and I've given one cabinet over to cookbooks.

Pots and pans in the bottom cabs.

Another purchase we made is a 72" buffet for the dining room to hold other dishes, wineglasses, serving platters.

Hope that helps a little.

does anyone one need a main coon cat?

Yes just cut thru existing door. When u purchase the cat door it comes with a template. Just take the door off and put on saw horses and mark the template and cut the door in. Cats love it and roam and play in garage for hours. Then come in the house as they wish. U will love having litter box in the garage and no traces of litter in your home. Good luck.