spike13's Profile

Oops should have hit reply so sorry for the double post...

@PJ do you have l link to the behind the scenes pics? thanks

I have 3 cats in a one bedroom. Even though we scooped all the time we had 2 big problems. 1) TRACKING - we'd find litter EVERYWHERE. And little dusty paw prints on EVERYTHING. 2) SMELL. No matter how many times we cleaned it, it would smell. We went through every kind of litter - pine (it smells to pine-y), newspaper - it tracks and hurts when you step on, crystals (tracked major and looked too much like yellow snow). For awhile we settled on World's Best and thought we liked it. But it made the whole house smell like barn. Over time we also noticed the fine dust seemed to build up and coat everything. Another thing that started happening is that it didn't clump very well - sort of turned into a gross pee/corn litter sludge that was icky to scoop/clean in the box. Lastly I read about how corn dust is actually more of an allergen to kitties and people than clay. Finally I discovered THE BEST CAT LITTER, as it completely LIFE CHANGING. Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Ultra clay. It looks just like regular clay litter. I don't know what magic they mix into it - but it clumps into firm, compact pucks you can scoop without them breaking apart. There is no dust cloud when you put it in the box and we no longer get dusty paw prints over the whole house. It also seems to stay put inthe box so we don't get litter everywhere - although some does get out. And best of all - NO SMELL. No weird litter smell, no poo smell, no pee smell. I can have people over again without feeling like the crazy cat lady. Link to litter: http://www.preciouscat.com/product/ultra/

On a related note, to stop the tracking I got one of these sisal doormats from ikea:http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80047635/
It's much more chunky than your average sisal mat so it captures what they fling out and I think because it is coarse it also gets it off their paws on their way out. And it's only $4.99. Yet another life changing discovery.

And we also invested in a roomba which we run daily.

those 4 things have completely cured our household of litter ickiness.

Hope that helps!

Oh and as for the litter dust, one of my senior kitties has a bit of asthma and would cough and wheeze. Since we switched to Dr. Elsey's he doesn't do that anymore.

House tour please!

Awesome! Gorgeous!

@Trina re:mirrored desk - you might want to check out z gallerie: http://www.zgallerie.com/ I think I just saw something similar there. Also I think target actually has a version.

PS where is the fireplace screen from?

@kerry81480 would love to see pics of your setup.

I'm with the don't do it camp, save the money. For $10,000 a year you could either go on some amazing vacations, rent a summer spot in the hamptons or put that towards buying a home or retirement. NYC is such a thriving place with some many parks and public spaces there's lots of places to be outside of your house and to meet up with friends, etc.

I have a much simpler style egg separator that I use all the time. I suppose it depends how many eggs one needs to separate at once, for me I make homemade cat food, so I do 6-8 at a time and a utilitarian style plastic egg separator like this one - http://www.housewaresandbeyond.com/p14223-Better-Houseware-2831-Egg-Separator.html - is a huge time saver.