Playhouse XVIII

Back to the playhouse.  Here are the drawings for the back (north) wall and the west wall.

Playhouse XVII

Frame design for the south wall.  I skipped the frame details for the awning for clarity.  I'll add the awning later.

Playhouse XVI

Here's the drawing for the foundation/floor and the 2D drawing for the building site, which I should have posted right after my April 22 post.  Tomorrow the walls ...

Building site drawing:

Playhouse XV

Here's the exploded view for the whole house.  Tomorrow, I'll get into the details for the foundation.

Playhouse XIV

I'm starting to get the playhouse design into more formal drawings to show the planning department.  Here's the sheet for the overall dimensions.  Next, I may make an exploded assembly view followed my more detailed drawings.

Playhouse XIII

I need to show the planning department my site plan for where the playhouse will be located on our property, so I modeled it in 3D CAD.  Here's a screen shot of the model.  Next I will make a 2D drawing to submit to the planning department.

Playhouse in CAD XII

Still not very productive ... I just added the framing for the kid-sized front door awning.  I have so many windows in the design that the wall faming is really dense with studs.  I almost don't need to put up plywood or siding!

I was hoping to be ready with drawings to show the planning department by now, but I haven't even started them yet. Next I need to make a drawing for the site to show where the playhouse will be located in the back yard.

Playhouse in CAD XI

Not very productive today.  I just added the railing to the loft level.

Playhouse in CAD X

Back to the playhouse.  I designed the framing for the "loft" area.  Here's a shot with all the framing, which makes the loft (in white) hard to see.

Here's a shot without the roof and the west wall to make the loft easier to see.  I shaped the loft floor like and L.  I did this to make the loft feel a little bigger, but now I think this requires additional support columns, which will interfere with the "first floor" floor space.

Playhouse in CAD IX

Here's a grambrel roof design for the playhouse that should give the most head room yet of all the roof designs so far.  I think the ceiling will be sufficiently small that I can use special metal framing brackets without any ceiling joists.  The down side is that the playhouse will look like a barn, which is not so appealing to me.

Here's what the outside would like:

Playhouse in CAD VIII

To maximize head room for the loft area, I changed the roof design to "site built roof trusses."  This kind of roof may not need ceiling joists, but I would still need connections to hold the trusses together along the peak.  These connections would still cut into the head space.

Playhouse in CAD VII

Back to work on the playhouse.  Tonight, I got the roof framing and top plates on.  I will probably have to add ceiling joists, but I know that will cut into the head room for the loft space.

Playhouse in CAD VI

Made the east wall frame design.  Next the top plates and the roof...

Playhouse in CAD V

I added two wall frames tonight.  I also changed the center-to-center spacing of the wall studs to 16".  Last night I had 24" spacing in the wall studs.  The wall framing has a lot more wood than I think I am prepared to deal with. I may have to simplify it by reducing the number of windows in the north and east walls.

Playhouse in CAD IV

Pluggin' away at the frame design now.  I will try to do at least one wall frame design per night.

I also experimented with making the roof slope steeper.  A steeper slope might provide more head room for the loft area, if I don't have to put in ceiling joists.  But I'm not sure how that will work yet.

Playhouse in CAD III

Moving on to the details of the playhouse.  Here's an assembly view and exploded view for the floor framing and floor panels.  The different colors are just for visual clarity ... unless Renee volunteers to paint the pieces herself!

Playhouse in CAD II

I worked on the playhouse design some more today, and I have the main design figured out.  Even though I want adults to be able to fit inside now (and I have man-cave plans in the future), I want to keep the proportions of the house kid-sized, so the main entrance on the south side will be only 5 feet tall.  Then grown ups can enter through the French doors on the west side.  I might be getting too ambitions with the L-shaped "second floor loft.."  I may have to add some support posts under the loft, or I may have to scale it back to a simple rectangle.  But for now this is my plan.

Playhouse in CAD

I started to work on the playhouse in CAD for the first time since our old computer crashed.  I was expecting to do it on the new computer, but of course it doesn't work!  It's a 32 bit program vs a 64 bit OS thing.  Thank God our old laptop is is still running Windows Vista 32 bit, so I can run my CAD program and get to work!  Here are screenshots of the general design.  Once I figure out where the windows and doors go and the size of things, I will get into the details for how all the framing comes together.  I obviously have some interference issues with some the little awning over the door and the ladder inside. Things are still evolving...

Here's what it looks like inside: