Castle is Taking Shape

Its been a whirlwind of activity around the playhouse this last week or so. We got sunshine so I have neglected my blog so that I can spend most evening outside throwing up wood for an hour before or after dinner. Since I am working outside, I am trying my best to stop earlier than I ever would in the garage. Last weekend I had such a wonderful day. I got up early and I was outside making my first cuts at 9am. I wanted to make sure the neighborhood was up before I started. Not everyone has to cute adorable alarm clocks who can't sleep past 6am for ANYTHING. LOL.

I started on the tower and everything just fell into place. The kids played and helped out where they could and my daughter ended up taking a 3 hour nap where I finished the tower. My husband took a break from proof reading a manuscript to take my son to the World Beat Festival which meant I had practically a whole afternoon alone outside with my woodworking. I got the platform built and the stairs practically completed before the end of the naptime. I finished the steps and the walls and everything for the inside of the tower by bedtime!

Here I am looking through the small window into the tower. You can see the platform, but not quite the stairs in this photo.

I think this one shows the top step at least.

I even managed to get a couple more exterior walls on and once I have some more time this weekend I hope to have the whole darn thing done!! :-)

I am also super excited because I figured out what I am going to do about the small windows on the front of the tower. I am sooooo excited and I can't wait to get started. I hate that its Thursday today and not Friday.

This is going to be such a fun fun fun!!!

Oh and by the way, I also got both roofs screwed down and ready to go. I am getting the shingles tomorrow night and I will be ready to install that as well this weekend. :-)

Hello Beautiful

I got a touch of lovely weather behind me which allowed me to make some progress. I have a roof, more walls, and I have even begun exterior walls and some interior walls!

 

I know I have not written much, but I am spending every spare moment out there putting up walls and not leaving myself time to make a decent post. Although the pictures do speak for themselves in some ways. If you want to chat more about it, feel free to email me or just leave a comment on here!

Rain, Pain and Progress

Because this is Oregon, naturally on Sunday when I was supposed to put up that last wall, I felt this drop of water hit my cheek. It was NOT supposed to rain until Monday. Guess what came early. I rushed and got all my tools put away, but I wasn't sure what to do for the playhouse myself. I hurriedly grabbed this large plastic sheet things we had for under picnic blankets. At the time I had grabbed ones that were too large (10 ft by 15ft) but man I was happy about that just then.

I got the whole place wrapped up good. It rained pretty hard and I had to make a few adjustments to stop it from pooling on the plastic. My poor playhouse....

So I used all my clamps I have to keep the plastic on through rain all week. Today its Thursday and its finally dry and sunny today. I had spent the last few evenings in my garage building the last of the walls so that I could install them the moment the sun came out. So tonight after dinner I went out and finally installed those last few walls.

Here the kids show you the size of the playhouse. You can see the outlines of the door, the 2 windows in the front of the playhouse as well as the slope of the roof line. I just had the boards sitting there to keep the water from making a big pool on the plastic. Worked great to keep the water flowing off the roof. I guess that means it will work once I finish building the roof.

Next step is the sheeting for the outside and the roof!

Its Taking Shape!

Last night I went to put my daughter in her car seat and I hurt myself. I got some kind of charlie horse in a muscle in my back. Yeah, it HURT. I was totally worried I would not be able move today. One super hot shower later, I did manage to get a little more done today. I did get another wall or so done beyond the photos, but we had guests coming and I didn't get the chance to take more pictures before being done for the night.

I got more walls done and I am just about ready to put the roof on it tomorrow. Let's hope the fact that I pulled that same muscle again tonight wont make it so I can't get that roof on there. Here is a little peak at today. Only 1 and a half walls to go!!!!

Day 3 of Castle Building

Today, I accomplished......Nothing.....I did buy about 10 more 2x4s tonight........

Well I once again had a long discussion with Big Blue trying to figure out what I can use for the siding. The thing is I really want to build it right. BUT, that costs a lot of money. The kit (the inspiration) is $7,000, but to build it will probably run me about $500. I was HOPING to do it for closer to $300 but that just wont happen.

Which means, I need funding. I could save up little here and there and build it over the course of the summer, but we all know the summer is when it is meant to be played with. So I am going to list a bunch of small items on CL and hope I can sell enough to raise the money for the rest. I have spent probably close to $220 dollars already. I need to buy the siding (which to buy the stuff that wont mold or fall apart in the future would be $200 just for that!). I can do a more economical buy and get this stuff that you normally use on walls. Or rather its the plywood that they put after the 2x4 framing, but before the siding. With the proper primer and paint, you can make it last quite a few years, but if water gets into it, there is always the chance of mold or mildew. That plywood costs about half the price of the actually siding stuff.

So either way, I am looking at 100-200 just for siding. Not to mention that we want to paint it to look like a castle and I want to buy some Plexiglas for the windows. Yeah, I should have saved up a LOT more money before starting this project. What to sell.....what to sell.......

Day 2 of Castle Building

Day 2

I woke up SOOOO sore. Much as I expected, but it really slowed me down. I accidentally fell back asleep once my husband too the kids downstairs around 7am and (they are always up and in our room by 6:15 AM) didn't wake up until 9!! Eeeks.

I don't remember what happened to the morning. All I know is that the moment I was able to get outside and begin things it was just about noon. So it wasn't long before I had to get lunch done and run to the store for necessities like bread and milk. So many excused I know, but even when I was out there, I was going slow because of how sore I was.

I did manage to build 3 of the six walls. The front, the right side wall and the back wall are built. In the pictures it is going to look really odd because the back wall didn't have the top piece on there yet which means the studs were all wacky and unattached. The problem was that was as far as I got before the rain started. I was so close to being done with that last bit of the wall, but I wasn't about to let my tools get wet either! I also forgot to go back and add the top piece for the door. It just needs a little more work and I will get it there.

So just ignore the back wall all together. The crooked support piece is still up there too. It going to look MUCH better in a day or so when I can put it all back up and encase with the siding. I detached all the walls and put them in the garage because they are built with 2x4s and not treated in any way so they can't be rained on. Sadly we will have more rain for a few days. UG!

My 6 year old checking out the window height for that wall.

 The front with the half wall for the "courtyard" and the door almost all the way framed in.

This is going to be SOOOO cool!

The Next Project

So I was on my favorite website, http://ana-white.com/ and someone had posted asking for plans for this castle playhouse. Its from this website, http://www.lilliputplayhomes.com/custom-playhouse-castle.asp and its so awesome!

Check it out!

As FABULOUS as it is, I can't afford the $7,000 price tag. I had been thinking about building Anna's playhouse from her website, but when I saw this, I just knew I had to try and build it. So I started to draw up plans and see if I could create something that looks like this.

I have most all the plans drawn up except the inside of the tower. While I get that there are levels inside, I can't find information on how many etc. I want the inside to stay dry so I don't know how they prevent rain etc from getting in what appears to be an open tower. So that is stumping me so far, but I am fairly sure I have the "great room" part drawn up the way I want. I also changed it from an 8ft by 6ft playhouse into an 8ft by 8ft just to give it a little more room.

I asked my dear friend Robert to come over and help me with the base. He build his shed using the same cement footer things (yup technical jargon here) and after begging (okay just asking and he said yes, but I was willing to beg) he agree to help me.

This morning he came over and we got to work. Here is everything we accomplished in Day 1. I am sore in any number of places and I am eternally greatful for Robert's help. I couldn't have done it without him.

Tomorrow I hope to build a few of the walls in the garage and set them aside for when I can set it all up. With the rain coming back next week, I need to get everything ready to build at once and get a roof on it before the next rain. So hopefully I can get the walls build soon because I want to see it start taking shape. :-)

Stay tuned for more!

Sunshine!

Hello all my lovely readers!

Its been a bit crazy lately (I say that a lot, but somehow its always true) and I hope that everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We went to visit family for a 4 day weekend and celebrated both me and my husband's birthdays. So now that all that is behind me, I wanted to tell you all I finished the bookshelves (just not the trim) and my husband is filling the bookshelves with lots of lovely books as I type this.

On the horizon is my largest project yet, but one I am so excited to do. Stay tuned and hopefully tomorrow night I will have the time to write a decent post with pictures and plans and ideas and excitement. For now, its past my bedtime and I am just plain exhausted.

Take care and stay tuned for the exciting new project I have planned. Here's a hint, my children will get to become prince and princesses of the back yard......