Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 127: DIY

"Hey, Dames, Dianne gave us an idea on the weekend and Shayne said you'd talked about it before – outdoor cat enclosure type things? You got any leads on where we should look for that kinda thing?" Courtney asks Damien, conversationally, as they wait between takes of a sketch shoot on the Monday morning.

"Oh, absolutely, there's a handful of companies that do them- I'll send you a bunch of links after work?" he offers, enthusiastic.

They start researching the same night, sorting through the options Damien sends them. They range widely and in price and quality, and it help them slowly narrow down. They don't want something that they have to get an actual builder to come and install, nor anything that ships pre-made – that's much too expensive – but they also don't want cheap chain-pet-store crap. Instead, as they search, they find themselves settling on the IKEA-style flatpack DIY options.

By Tuesday evening, they've ordered one: it's medium-sized, and rated to be good for up to 3 adult cats. The wooden frame is covered in a soft (so as not to hurt the cats) but durable (so as to keep the cats in) black mesh, and inside the frame there is all manner of wooden ledges, ramps and sheltered hiding spaces for entertainment.

There is one small problem, of course: neither Shayne nor Courtney have ever DIY'ed anything more intensive than an IKEA product, and as much as this is an IKEA-style DIY, they do actually need tools to drill and hammer in nails, hinges and struts to ensure the enclosure is stable. They buy some of what they need, figuring it's gotta be useful to have anyway – a hammer, and a set of screwdrivers – but they call Rob, knowing he will be happy to lend them a spirit level and power drill.

"Do you want help to put it together?" he asks, when Shayne drops by on the Thursday evening to pick up the tools, "I don't know what you've done since or how Courtney is, but you never were a particularly handy child..."

"Thanks, but I think we'll manage, it seems pretty straightforward," Shayne shrugs, brushing off his offer. It's just a cat enclosure, just hammering and drilling a few pieces of wood together – how hard can it be?

They set aside Saturday morning to build it, before the sun gets too high in the sky or it gets too warm. The box says it can be done in an hour, and there's a set of pictorial instructions – very IKEA of them – and all of the panels and struts and parts are labelled by number, so it seems like it'll be simple.

"Okay, so it looks like you build the outside frame first, then add all the stuff inside," Courtney muses, flicking through the instructions before handing them over to Shayne. Shayne takes on the role of drilling the nails in to pull the pieces of the frame together with his Dad's power drill, given Courtney is at least vaguely scared of it, while Courtney holds the pieces up and in place until they are secured.

Her job is easy, as heavy as the panels are, but Shayne's is a little more complicated. The screws keep slipping from his fingers, or he knocks the switch on the drill and it reverses the screw back out of the wood instead of securing in.

"God fucking damn it," he mutters, to himself, when he again manages to drop a screw onto the lawn, quickly leaning down and brushing his hands through the grass until he finds it again, before adding, "we need to get the grass mown."

"We do. D'you want me to try with the drill?" she offers, carefully, but he gives a frustrated huff and shakes his head, trying again to carefully balance the screw between the drill bit and the small starting hole in the wood it needs to be affixed into.

"I think I got it," he mutters, as he presses the trigger and, finally, the screw starts moving into the wood to hold the structure slightly more stable. "There. One more done. Only like... a million to go. How long did they say this would take?"