Converting a closet to a mutliunit cage (mother of all dial up warnings!!)

[JasonBrennan]

I have a closet in my herp room, which has always been pretty much dead space. So, with the help of my younger brother (who is the guy that appears in the following pics), we converted the closet into some more useful space. I apologize to all those people stuck in the stone age that are still using dial up!! Here we go:

We start out with a bare closet with the studs marked:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c845012466c0000001610
Next we mount wood for the back and sides, adding several coats of poly and sealing the corners with caulk:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c84524746380000001610
After painting the walls of the cages (CapeCod Grey) and sealing them with poly yet agian, we start with the framing of each level:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c8452d8c7970000001610
Each level must be tested for strength!
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c8452c546ba0000001610
Continue building each level (he has to climb a bit to accomplish this. A very good reason to have a much younger sibling help you with this step!!
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c8452cac7850000001610
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c84537706900000001610
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c84532106c60000001610
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c8453f487230000001610
It gets a little tight up towards the top!! No way my big *** was going to climb up there!
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c8453f306140000001610
Of course, each cage has to have seperate heat and lighting, so there is quite a bit of wiring to be done. All wiring is hidden and secured with in the walls!!
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c84507fc7310000001610
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c845043c70d0000001610
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c845dd806380000001610
Had to build and mount a control pannel for all the lights and heating elements.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c845d0b87db0000001610
Here is the mostly finished bottom unit. Still some more work to do, but you get the idea.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c845dbc065c0000001610
And YES, all that electrical stuff is working. We ran conduit out of the room and tapped into the house power. This unit is on a seperate fuse from the rest of the herp room.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3d636b3127cce8c845d0c06ec0000001610

I know that is a lot of pictures, but it is not even half of the pics we took of this project. There will be three full size cages (each measuring approx 6ft x 3ft x 2ft), and the top unit will be devided into two seperate units (3ft x 3ft x 2ft). Of course, we made the two top cages smaller because we don't want to be lifting any giant snakes up there at head level.

We are going to have the entire unit painted Cape Cod Grey to match the rest of the room, as well as add some trim around the frame of the closet door to neaten up any slight gaps or anything.

What do you all think? (sorry so long, but I was having fun with this project and wanted to share!!)

[Mike177]

WOW! looks realy nice! i might do something like that with my closet! right now i just have layed down tile at the bottom of the carpet for a make-do-for-now kinda thing. nice work, and post some pics when its finneshed

[NewLineReptile]

Cool looks good

Brandon

[spyderman]

Thank you for sharing & causing a domestic...Lol. We have a closet in our room. SpiderMrs doesn't want to loose the space. I tried to tell her, we will be gaining Herps. Seriously, though. Gr8 Idea. Thanks for the pictorial.

[Pookie]

What a great idea! I recently had to give up my "reptile room" because i needed a roomate to help with rent! But maybe i can muster up some space for my cloths and throw them in the closet! :) My dad's gonna kill me when i ask him to help me with this new project! I'll tell him to thank you, Jason!

[Lisa]

Pretty cool, we've considered doing the same but this place has so little storage area it's not funny

[drewlowe]

Wow, that looks great!!!

[reptilez]

Awesome work man!! Never thought of doing that before :monkey:
-Reptilez

[Invictus]

If I owned my house, I'd be doing that in every single room. :) Great idea, and be sure to take some snapshots of the finished product!

[TheRedDragon]

Wow! That is such a wicked concept, I would have never thought about converting a whole closet like that. I'm sure Invictus has though. *L* Sheesh, we walk through the furniture section in Wal-mart and we both point out what would make good terrariums. *LOL*

[lilyskip]

oh my gosh. i don't think i could ever do that in a million years, but it looks friggin awesome.

[JasonBrennan]

Thanks for the compliments!! It is really not that hard to do, it is just time consuming (to do it right, anyways!). I will post some final pics of the whole project once it is completed.

[CDN-Cresties]

Thats cool, it looks like a lot of hard work, great job!!!

-Steve-

[B-Rep]

What a GREAT idea! I can't help but imagine what wonders my closets could enclose! What are your expected costs for the entire project? Excluding labour of course.

[SerpentLust]

So, can you and your brother come over and do that to MY two closets? ;)

Jenn

[Simon]

man!
that's a lot of work and it looks great!!!
I have a balcony that you and your brother can come and help me out with....I definately need the room!

great work guys!! pretty amazing work in my opinion~

[ohh_kristina]

awesome project! I have a small closet (about 4ft across) that I'm thinking about doing that to. :D

[paolo]

Good stuff, great job!

[ChristinaM]

yah I know this is an old post, but thanks for giving me the link Jason. It is awesome :) Excellent work. Is it completely done now? Any recent pics?

[meow_mix450]

thats just amazing!!!!!!

Meow