hi Megan, thanks for your reply. yes i think you are right about
everything.  but unfortunately everything's up and i can only make
adjustments to the pole and the designer has been very willing and
open to changes (after i called him sounding very panicked yesterday).
also, i can't purchase online cat trees because they would cost a lot
to ship here (singapore) not only with shipping costs but with
currency conversion, and the reason why i wanted something built into
the house was because i thought it was a chance to do something
permanent and more elaborate for my cat. i thought my designer would
be all right because he already has a cat and he actually also did
something for his cat with his new house - some kind of cat wall
(which i haven't seen).

last night i btought my cat to try the thing out, it went better than
i thought it would, both in terms of her willingness to hang out on it
and her being able to use it- she was ok with the walkway and it was
only when it came to the pole that she was able to go up (by climbing)
and was not interested (or able) to climb down.  on looking at it, i
realized its built on a vertical climbing concept, not a cat tree
/step concept where the cat hops (or leaps/jumps) from lower to higher
steps to get to the top.  its more like a pole that you climb up,
which makes it hard to climb down of course if you are coming down
facing down, like cats do.  this morning i discussed this with the
designer and he's removing a few steps and making the remaining ones
wider (12 by 12) to get the step platform feel.  i hope it works out.

thanks