Sunday, September 25, 2011

Playhouse Raising!

We raised the walls today!  Thanks to our friends Garrick, Jim, my brother-in-law Veronon, and our nephew Robert, we got the walls up.  Now I finally have a real structure to show for all my efforts so far.  But of course the work ain't over yet!




Sunday, September 11, 2011

Playhouse South Wall Design

As I was building the south wall, I decided on-the-fly to enlarge the two lower windows.  So I updated the drawing to document the change:


Saturday, September 10, 2011

Playhouse South Wall Almost Done

Today's photo doesn't look much different from my last playhouse post, but if you look carefully, you'll see that I cut and positioned the framing for supporting the four windows.  I also screwed in the four window headers and supporting elements.  I just need to screw in the window support pieces, and the south wall will be done!  Also, earlier this week I got confirmation from Uncle Ed, our family friend and civil engineer, that making the headers from 4x6's is okay!  So after tomorrow, I will be ready to raise up all the walls!


Monday, September 5, 2011

Playhouse South Wall Continued

I spent five to six hours working on the south wall, but I moved slowly.  Maybe I feel a little paranoid about whether the 4x6's will work and I am dreading the prospect of having to undo any of my framing.  Maybe I'm just burned out from all this framing work.  I hope once the wall framing goes up, it will boost my motivation.  So since I moved slowly, I don't feel I got as much done as I wanted.  Here is a photo of my progress.  I got the door framing done, and I cut up the wood pieces necessary for holding all four window headers.  I still need to screw the pieces together and make the portions of the wall that support the four windows.


Sunday, September 4, 2011

Playhouse South Wall

I am about half way through framing the south wall.  I showed my progress to my neighbor.  He asked me a few questions, which got me second guessing my use of 4x6 blocks as my window and door headers.  The city  did not require any construction details for the building permit, and I guess that's because they consider the playhouse to be just a "utility building."  I just had to tell them how big it will be, where I will put it, and get consent from my neighbors.  So technically my use of 4x6's as headers is legal, but I wonder if they will be strong enough.