All of this was documented in the 12-Gauge Garage thread. But a couple of people asked that it be broken out separately -- so here it is.
For a week (and a day) in December, I worked on a playhouse for my two kids.
The genesis of the whole project was to find a new base for our front-yard slide, which was getting rotted from exposure to the elements. My father-in-law had given us the slide itself. And since he passed on a short time later, it was important to my wife (and me) that we find a way to keep using it. She suggested a playhouse, and I decided to try to do a 'crooked house,' like you might see in a kids cartoon.
My 3-year-old daughter offered this picture, which has the basic elements: two windows, a roof, some steps and a slide. It ended up being all I had as a basic plan:
The first step was easy. Max and I got some In-N-Out burgers and stuck four stakes in the ground where we wanted the corners to go. Then we used cardboard sonotube and some concrete to make footings for the thing to sit on.
This is the base. It's made with pressure-treated 2x6 lumber. The plywood on top of it got coated with Thompson's Water Seal on both sides and (especially) the edges. The first piece of good news was that the concrete footings came out perfectly level.
Framing is strange when the walls are deliberately at an angle. And I really don't know the first thing about framing. I know I should have headers and footers and closer spacing, for instance.
Here's the basic shape. It finally looks a little bit like a house. The fact that it's deliberately crooked might be lost on my neighbors -- they might simply be assuming I have no idea what I'm doing -- although they have all been very polite and encouraging about it so far.
I'm using plywood gussets and coated deck screws and so far the thing is coming out more rigid than I expected.
Once the frame was up, I had to get the wood for the walls and the roof. I loaded 10 4x8 sheets on top of the Jeep and used a ratcheting tie-down to keep the load from moving.
Here you can see a test panel for the roof and the beginnings of the 'loft.'
I needed one set of stairs for the loft and another set for the slide, but didn't want to give up floor space. So here's the one 'Jack Olsen idea' in the whole place: I turned the wall joists into ladder-type steps for both the slide and the loft. The bar up above the loft is an old broom handle -- a way to pull yourself up and over if you need a little help.
For a week (and a day) in December, I worked on a playhouse for my two kids.
The genesis of the whole project was to find a new base for our front-yard slide, which was getting rotted from exposure to the elements. My father-in-law had given us the slide itself. And since he passed on a short time later, it was important to my wife (and me) that we find a way to keep using it. She suggested a playhouse, and I decided to try to do a 'crooked house,' like you might see in a kids cartoon.
My 3-year-old daughter offered this picture, which has the basic elements: two windows, a roof, some steps and a slide. It ended up being all I had as a basic plan:
The first step was easy. Max and I got some In-N-Out burgers and stuck four stakes in the ground where we wanted the corners to go. Then we used cardboard sonotube and some concrete to make footings for the thing to sit on.
This is the base. It's made with pressure-treated 2x6 lumber. The plywood on top of it got coated with Thompson's Water Seal on both sides and (especially) the edges. The first piece of good news was that the concrete footings came out perfectly level.
Framing is strange when the walls are deliberately at an angle. And I really don't know the first thing about framing. I know I should have headers and footers and closer spacing, for instance.
Here's the basic shape. It finally looks a little bit like a house. The fact that it's deliberately crooked might be lost on my neighbors -- they might simply be assuming I have no idea what I'm doing -- although they have all been very polite and encouraging about it so far.
I'm using plywood gussets and coated deck screws and so far the thing is coming out more rigid than I expected.
Once the frame was up, I had to get the wood for the walls and the roof. I loaded 10 4x8 sheets on top of the Jeep and used a ratcheting tie-down to keep the load from moving.
Here you can see a test panel for the roof and the beginnings of the 'loft.'
I needed one set of stairs for the loft and another set for the slide, but didn't want to give up floor space. So here's the one 'Jack Olsen idea' in the whole place: I turned the wall joists into ladder-type steps for both the slide and the loft. The bar up above the loft is an old broom handle -- a way to pull yourself up and over if you need a little help.
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