Al Heavens is a Haddonfield, N.J.- based, nationally syndicated, home-improvement writer and author whose newspaper columns, magazine articles and books have been the first word on remodeling for 50 million readers for more than three decades. He is the author of What No One Ever Tells You About Renovating Your Home and Remodeling on The Money: Fifteen Innovative Projects Designed to Add Value to Your Home and was “The Gadgeteer” on Discovery Channel’s Home Matters program.
A year ago on June 13, Max became part of our family.
Mostly beagle and about five years old, Max spent short stays with two foster families before we adopted him (and his pet giraffe and duck) during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not knowing how long we would be cooped up, my wife spent nearly three months searching and filing applications with rescue agencies until Max (a.k.a. Beans) appeared.
This was not our first dog. Neither was he the first one we had rescued. He was preceded by Emmy, whom we had adopted in 2003 at three and owned for the next 13 years, and Mitzvah – a long story – a mixed breed who was rescued as a pup in 1987 from some skinheads who were threatening to throw her in front of a bus at Fourth and Queen Streets in Philadelphia if no one adopted her.
We had Mitzvah for 16 years. She shepherded one son to adulthood and the other close to it.
In this article, we’ll discuss how to design or dedicate a certain space in your home for your pet.
What started me along this path today was a survey by Ally Bank showing that 44 percent of Americans consider their pets’ needs when they are looking to buy homes or rent apartments. Twenty percent of these folks bring their pets to check out their possible future digs, whether they are buying or renting.
If you think these statistics are bizarre, I must confess that we bought our second house with Mitzvah in mind. I never thought that dogs should be confined to rowhouses, so we traded up to a six-bedroom, three-story house on an eighth of an acre from a three-bedroom on a postage stamp.
What is more, according to the Ally survey, having a dedicated space for pets in a home is important for 24 percent of those responding, while 32 percent said they would make changes to their houses for their pets if that were necessary.
Since buying a house is one of the most significant investments Americans will make in their lives, “it makes sense that we want our four-legged friends to feel at home,” said Ally Bank president Glenn Brunker.
If you own fish or a snake, do not feel left out. I believe, however, that Brunker was catering to the “life is a warm puppy” crowd.
The survey was just a part of an overall check-up on home remodeling that I will be getting to in a moment, but I thought that we should have a look at the possible changes one could make to a house to make your pet feel at home.
Here are some suggestions, courtesy of the website Mortgages.com and the Greener Living Blog, a feature of Ambient Building Products.
The first is a pet shower, which you can incorporate into your mudroom (if you do not have one, call a contractor). You will need access to a waterline, and the showerhead should be removable for easy cleaning. If you do not have a pet, you could use it to wash your feet or your tools.
You can go whole hog (excuse the pun) and add a doggie bath to the mudroom or laundry. A doggie bath looks like a sunken tile tub at counter height and often includes hot and cold running water, a spray nozzle, and a ledge or recessed shelf for shampoo and combs, according to the Greener Living Blog, which adds that such a renovation might be attractive to another dog owner when you sell your home.
A built-in feeding station in your kitchen would require some work unless you want to cut a couple of bowl-sized holes in a piece of wood and install it in an existing drawer. Do not go overboard – that is, altering the kitchen island to accommodate such a setup – because the next owner might not be a pet lover and stick you with a lower price because of the work. (If you need an island or a kitchen for that matter, call a contractor).
Feeding stations do not have to be in the kitchen, says the Greener Living Blog. Some people with large dogs or many pets create a small alcove off the kitchen and add the convenience of shelves and drawers near the food dishes to keep food and supplies organized.
If you want to go all out, add a water line and circulating pump to the feeding station, and your pet’s water dish becomes a drinking fountain, Greener Living says.
What about a pet door? You can find them at home centers with installation instructions, but you might want to call someone to retrofit your back door for it. There was an episode of Adam-12 in which a burglar used his small son to go through the pet door and then let him in, so see if whoever installs it incorporates the door into the security system.
Then there is the “pet cave.” I know what you are thinking, but if your dog or cat relishes alone time, a bed in a corner of the living room or den might not be enough. Mortgages.com suggests that the space under the stairs is a great place to start because it is probably wasted right now.
Unless you are a veteran do-it-yourselfer, this is the kind of project that may require both a permit and a licensed contractor. There will be drywall to hang and flooring – tile or hardwood for easy cleanup – to install. You may want to add a pet door or a window.
A dog or cat run. I have never seen a cat run for any reason, and Max agrees to three well-spaced daily walks a day in return for being allowed to nap at least 18 hours a day, but some pets need that kind of thing. What Mortgages.com is recommending is a chain-link fence somewhere in your back yard, possibly with a roof if your pet is a climber.
This, too, may require a permit and a contractor to carry out the project.
Speaking of floors, consider radiant heat flooring, of which I am a big fan but for humans not pets. It is energy-efficient and great on the feet first thing on a winter’s morning. If you are doing a major renovation project, consider adding them to all the floors of your house, but ask the contractor to explain how they work and determine whether the payback over time is worth it.
It is a fabulous resale amenity, however.
Then there is the “cat highway.” It can be, as it is in my case, my driveway, which is used by the neighbor’s tabby when she looks for mice, chipmunks, and moles, or the one suggested by Greener Living Blog, with on and off-ramps two feet above the floor, “kitty condo towers” and scratching posts.
Greener Living Blog has a link to a YouTube video https://youtu.be/okOVxfuSYPk that, well, the word “overboard” does not cover it.
If you are calling in a contractor for any reason, pet or not, HGTV has a few recommendations for keeping your animal safe while hammers are flying and circular saws are slicing, including introducing them to the workers; crating them (I mean the pets); hiring a caretaker or enrolling them in a daycare program, and buying new toys or treats to distract them from the work going on.
Millennials are more likely than other demographics to report that pets influence their home decisions, including making changes in a home because of a pet, creating a dedicated space for their pets, or buying a bigger bed for nighttime snuggles, the Ally survey said.
While the pet renovation angle was Ally’s way of capturing the media’s attention, much of what its survey found was interesting for remodeling in general.
A large percentage of those surveyed, both men and women, said they fantasized about renovations. And a growing number of respondents said the pandemic had turned them away from the idea of open floor plans to divided rooms, both of which are good news for the remodeling industry’s bottom line.
The survey found a number of other things that I do not consider very surprising.
Nearly half wish they were more prepared for the cost of home repairs. More than half the millennials surveyed said they were shocked by the cost of repairs, while almost half of baby boomers (who ought to know better) were unpleasantly surprised.
Until she found evidence to the contrary, my wife believed me when I said that every job would cost $3,000 – a ploy I used so I would not have to spend money. It was the $900 plaster job on the living room ceiling and the $3 a window for professional washing that did me in.
Yard work came as a surprise. Millennials could not believe how much work was involved in maintaining a lawn besides mowing it.
Second homes are less of a dream since the pandemic, with millennials avoiding them and fewer boomers wanting them.
Those who do want second homes are choosing the ocean and the mountains but not the city.
Wherever they move, I am sure their pets will have to sign off on it first.