Nothing says "I love you" like PVC!

My husband, Scott, and I are recent converts to birds from fish. Last year, we had to sell our house due to economic conditions. It was time anyways: our non-feathered flock (six children) were grown and mostly gone (youngest is 18 and at college most of the year, 2 are married, one grand daughter, etc.). Anyways, we used to have a six-foot salt water reef tank (sigh) and loved it with our whole hearts. We had to downsize the tank (to a 30g nano with two of our favorite fish and frags of our favorite corals) when we downsized our home, and we now are in a rental town home, which mean we'll probably move again in the near future. SO, all this added up to getting out of serious fish keeping.

Enter a rescue cockatiel from my daughter's roommate, and deep thinking on whether THIS was the bird for me. Fast forward to deciding that if I was going to get into birds, I was going to get the one I really wanted. This led to falling in love with caiques. Now, I'm waiting for my baby to grow up (and getting to the point, I promise).

While we were fish keepers, there was a LOT of plumbing to master. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what my wonderful hubby, Scott, learned about PVC as we kept fish:

First, the tank side (note that all pics can be expanded if you want to see more by clicking on them):



Now, a few shots of SOME of the plumbing that went behind that gorgeousness:





Etc. You get the idea. Lots of PVC plumbing.

So then, we switch to birds. Eyeing my new cage, I discern two things, a space beside it and a space above it. Then I notice something else: a stub going UP on the playtop of the cage (only we assembled ours on the right, not the left).



In the good old fish-keeping days, Scott once took the entire day (it was Valentine's Day) to re-plumb or improve our fish setup. I always felt so GLAD and loved.

Well, recently, buried in deadlines for work and unable to go on our weekly date at all, I batted my eyes at him and said, "Could you build me a play station extension that would go up and over to the right of the cage for Pippin?" Well, it was our date night. So, he disassembled the stub, took it to Home Depot, and (after making one false step by bringing home oaken dowels, which were then changed out for birch ones) created these fantastic results:



Details of construction:

The PVC T-fittings are slip 3/4" to T 1/2" threaded. Then a half-inch dowel screws snugly into place and really holds weight. You put small 3/4" PVC pipe between each T fixture, and so you can always change the direction of the dowels, and hang toys in different places, etc. Below are some close-ups.



The biggest challenge was the cage stub. Scott found a metal plumbing part that was actually a hexagonal bore to a 3/4" thread. He then found a PVC connector that was 3/4" threaded to slip.



Finally, the gym is topped with a 3/4" slip to 1/2" threaded elbow:



And now to hang more toys!



My study room: fish and feathers together... our remaining tank and our waiting cage in process of being stocked. (Sorry, don't know what happened to the light in the room. All pic's were taken together... anyways, this is the view from my recliner, where I do most of my work: