DIY Apartment Pet Potty + Balcony Makeover

We moved into a new apartment a year ago because we needed more space and the dogs were having a hard time traveling up and down the stairs. Our current home is amazing! High ceilings, two bedrooms and a study, and a 60 foot long balcony. It’s perfect for two humans and three dogs.

The balcony was the biggest selling point for this apartment. Maxx loves sitting outside. We also live on the second floor, so having a balcony made it easy for the dogs to have access to the outdoors without having to travel up and down the stairs with their (and my) aging joints. Although the apartment is everything we were looking for, the bars on the balcony were spaced way too far apart. Little Roxxi got excited and peeped down at a neighbor one day and stuck half of her body through the railings! I was outside to monitor her until I had time to put up a safety net of some sort, so I was able to catch her.

Watch my video on our homemade dog potty and how I installed chicken wire to keep my small dogs from slipping through the balcony railings. It’s a way cheaper take on Fresh Patch. I bought a dog crate pad big enough for my dogs to walk around on and head over to my local pet nursery once a month to pick up three sods of grass. The pad was about $50 and the grass is about $8 a month. This DIY pee pad is perfect for short potty breaks early in the morning and late at night. I also let the dogs out between walks during the day. We live in a hot climate and walking in the middle of the day can sometimes be too much for me and the dogs.

I’ve since changed the fence from chicken wire to lattice because a neighbor complained about the appearance, but I think both look fine and work well. You can see the lattice version in my balcony makeover video. Let me know in the comments below (or on that video) which version you think looks best.

Chat with you next week,

Maxx’s Mom