Sorry
Lyndon, I know it's tough trying to resist that urge. I find it's easier to just give in
HOTFR8, my wife is at the pointy end of the uni term with assignments and exams coming up, so "Daddy duties" are taking priority at the moment. I am making gradual progress, but I'm hoping to have a clear run at it in a few weeks when uni winds down.
I got the joists and bearers cut to their new sizes on the weekend, and I want to give them a paint before I put the deck framing back together.
I think I've settled on the final layout too, which has been a bit of a challenge.
The reason it's been a challenge is that neither the back or side fences are parallel to the house!
My original plan was to angle the walls so I could push the cubby house hard into the corner, up against the fence and make a Jack Olsen replica cartoon wonky house, but I've decided that's going to make my life way too hard!
Leaving a gap to both fences means I can make the cubby house square to the house and the retaining wall, and making things square will make it easier to get it done before the kids are grown up.
I did a bit of experimenting on the weekend to work out how small a gap I can leave for my son to still be able to squeeze through when they inevitably drop toys down there. I think I can get away with 250mm between the walls and the fence.
I've reduced the size of the deck area from 2600 x 2800 to 2,250 square, which I think will look right for where it's going.
The cubby house is 1,500 square, so leaving a 250mm gap to the fence means a 500mm deck around the front.
Here's a (not to scale) plan view, the angle of the fences is exaggerated to demonstrate the problem...
View media item 64785
[drawn with my new pencil]
oldironfarmer, my back yard is starting to head in that direction, with piles of cubby house and pergola parts under tarpaulins!
I don't disagree that regulations are necessary, I just don't want them to apply to me!
I also learned to twirl my pencil when drafting, and you still need to do that if you're drawing a long line with this pencil, as it only rotates when you lift off and put it down again. I never got in the habit of twirling my pencil when writing though, so the auto rotate is nice for that.
