A New Doggie Door!

We have been discussing wanting to put in another doggie door off the porch for a while now. We just weren't sure how to accomplish that. We have a doggie door from the kitchen to the screened porch, but then have to leave the porch door open to let the dogs go in to the backyard, slightly defeating the purpose of having a screened in porch. 

We are going to make one last attempt and helping our poor grass in the backyard (basically the dogs running path + very little sun = dirt). We were going to sod that area, but need to keep the dogs off of the grass. So Trey was talking about putting a ramp out of the other side of the porch and fencing off that area (making the back yard much smaller for the time being). Then came the question of how to do the ramp. We were at my parents about a week ago to get the trailer (to use to pick up the sod) and I mentioned it to my mom as we were standing on the back porch. She pointed out the steps that my dad and I built years ago to give me a landing/starting point for my old zipline through the woods. So we took it somewhat apart (enough to get it home), replaced a few boards and then my parents came over to finish helping. 

Dad and Trey had to rig it a little bit, since the new location is on a slant, but they made it work! 

Vegas enjoyed having them in the yard working. 

So step 1 was complete.... stairs! We pulled the (already falling out) screen out of the corner of the porch so they could sort of temporarily get through there, but next needed to put in an actual doggie door. 

My parents had an extra doggie door at their house that they removed to put in a larger one when their dogs got old (and couldn't pick up their feet well). It is the same size as our doggie door in the screen door so we decided to use it! Trey had to put in some extra wood for support but did a great job and now our screened in porch is actually closed off! 

 Complete!

 The dogs testing it out

You can see the sod that we laid and faintly see the chicken wire fence to block them from it. The piece of wood on the side of the landing is to keep them from jumping off the steps and in to the fenced in area... it won't always be there and look so classy.