Blue sky is this big year end project we have every year where we need to fix a problem someone might have. This year we had a bit of a department store theme. We had to pick a department from a department store and do something related to that department. At first Imwant to be the bedroom department and make a bed with RGB light in the bottom, but that group got filled up before I got to choose which group I wanted to be in. So instead I decided to be in the pets department because I wanted to build a dog house. What I decided on doing was making an improved dog house with insulation in the walls, a dog bed, and long legs so it doesn’t get buried in the snow and if the ground gets cold the dog house won’t. For this project we had to make 3 prototypes. For my first prototype I just made a drawing of the dog where you could kinda see the long legs and the a ramp.

For my second prototype I decided to make a 1:5 scale model of what the real one would look like. First I made some measurement of my dog and made a design with all the measurement of the different pieces.

Then I cut up some 2x4s into mini 2x4s and used those to make the frame. Then I used some plywood for the outside walls and put some insulation on the inside. Then I made the roof with some more mini 2x4s for the frame then put some shingles on it. It ended up looking like this:

For the third prototype I made the actual thing. I used normal sized 2x4s for this one. First I made the frame then I put on the outside walls and cut the door in. After that I put in the insulation and the inside walls. Then I made the roof out of some 2x6s we cut in half and put some plywood on it. After that I put some tar paper over the plywood and then some shingles on top of that. This is what it looks like:

It ended up being pretty big. If my dog would stand completely strait in it her butt would touch one wall and her nose would touch the other wall.

Every year we also have an exhibition for this project. Instead having to come up with a sort of script for what to say to people, I just made a video which I could show to people after briefly explaining my project. Here it is if you want to watch it:

The exhibition itself was kinda fun because not many people came into the room Imwas in and talked to me and because there where some of my friends in the same room as me. The dog house was also kinda fun to make but did take a lot of work. We have a cabin that has a bunch of tools that made it much easier to make. Unfortunately this cabin is 3 hours away from our house so we had to make it there in one weekend, but overall it was still fun.