I finally got around to putting some information about Evan’s clubhouse bed online. I spent a good portion of my holiday break down in the garage cutting, painting, sanding, etc. and now that I’m sidetracked by another project, I figured I might as well share the information I have.
Visit the Clubhouse Bed page for details.
Ok, I’ll call this the update day 3 and a half, since I can’t really count the short amount of daylight after work as a full day. I did work until 9pm last night using spotlights, but anyway…
Dusty has been helping me, and we’ve finished the main framing, basically. It’s taken quite a bit of work with all the countersinking, the multiple decks, etc. Besides, my arms are getting tired and my drill bits are getting dull. I still need to put on the railings and the decking along with building the swing beam and slide attachments (though the slide is still on order). All the temporary diagonal braces have been taken off, but I’m going to put some real braces in place once I have the other stuff done.
Here’s a picture of our progress:
Now that we can visualize a little better, I think we’re going to put a “crow’s nest” way up high over the staircase. We have lots of post left over at the top and plenty of strength, so that might be a neat way to make it one-of-a-kind. Here’s another picture with me in it, to provide a sense of scale (I’m 5’10”). The platform I’m standing on is 5 feet off the ground, and the slide will attach on the right side near my feet.
I still have a little bit of squaring and leveling to do. I’m sure I’ll have to level from time to time as the ground settles, but before I put the decking on I’ll have to nudge the posts just a bit to get everything perfectly square.
There are lots of photos on the project page in case you want more details.Â
I planned on spending most of today (sunday) working on the playset, but we got a phone call in the morning from the in-laws. They came up to visit Evan, and the side effect was that I had a couple of sets of extra hands!
My father-in-law, sister-in-law Megan and I managed to get the other two front-back walls put into place. We used basically the same techniques as I used on the first wall, but having some extra pulling power meant that we were able to move each wall in one piece. Too bad I couldn’t get the garden tractor started – my shoulders are bruised and scraped from my “yoke!” Here’s the result of the day’s work:
Once again, lots of temporary braces to both hold things square and make my neighbors skeptical of my design and construction 🙂 We faced a few challenges getting things square, since the ground was a uneven, but shimming one of the walls up 1/2″ solved the problems. I’m sure the ground will settle a little under the weight, but we’ve prepared for that- it’ll be easy to lower or raise the legs as needed.
While I’m posting, I might as well share a couple of goofy pictures. It was pretty hard to visualize the initial design, so I looked for an easy way to make a mockup. The best thing I found was my old Construx building set. Maybe it’ll help you envision what the finished set is going to look like. Evan knew what it was – the first time he saw it he said “slide! slide!”
I spent some time on Saturday working on Evan’s playset, and I didn’t have a ton to show for it. Much of the time was spent trying to figure out what I was going to be able to do on my own. I took it pretty slow, thinking before cutting, since the placement of the set is a little tricky. I want it parallel to the fence, and the ground everywhere in the yard slopes gently.
I started by doing some rudimentary surveying in the yard. The way the site slopes, I have to make the front side 4-1/2″ taller than the back. Rather than try to do all those adjustments in three dimensions at the same time, I decided the best plan was to build each front-to-back wall on the floor of the garage. Here’s the leftmost wall. The diagonal 2×6 is just a temporary brace (you’ll see lots of those…)
The problem with this plan was that the resulting structure weighed about 300-350 lbs. I split it in half and moved it onto the grass. From there, I wrapped a wide nylon tow strap around a piece, fashioned a harness and skidded the structure out into the back yard. Once I got both halves out there, I reassembled and positioned the wall on the ground. I was pretty well exhausted from my ox impersonation, but I as the sun was going down I managed to walk the wall upright and brace it. It wasn’t until this point that I realized how big the structure was going to be!
Right now it’s 12 feet tall, but in actuality, the main rail of the upper deck is planned to be 8 feet high. We’re not entirely sure what we’re going to do- perhaps a roof or a crow’s nest. Once the thing is in place we can get a feel for how things will look and what seems like fun.
So far, things are going pretty well, but a couple of things are slowing me down. First, I’m countersinking all the nuts (see below) for safety, and that adds a lot of labor. Second, I’ve got one drill but I’m constanting switching between hole saw, spade bit, square drive bit, etc. Finally, working within the limits of what one person can do alone is a challenge, but it gives me the chance to think each step through carefully without any pressure.
In order to add a degree of public accountability to the project, I’m posting my progress on building a backyard playset for Evan in hopes that I’ll finish it as soon as possible.
So far I’ve got my plans drawn up as well as almost all of the materials purchased and hauled to the house. Right now, all we have is a tub full of hardware and an 1800lb pile of wood in the driveway:
There are kits available at Lowe’s, Menard’s, etc. and you can buy sets from Rainbow, Pinnacle, Hillside Hideaway, etc. but I wanted to design Evan’s set myself. Most of the sets you can buy are either good for little kids or good for big kids, not both. Many have a 6 foot rock wall or a fireman’s pole, which are fun for older kids, but is basically just a good way for toddlers to tumble off. My layout is designed to be expandable as abilities increase.
This weekend’s weather is looking kind of crummy, but that’ll give me a chance to do some preparation and assembly in the garage.
I’ve slacked a little bit this year on filing my tax return, but I basically finished up tonight. I’m using the TurboTax online service, which guides you through the process of entering the numbers from your forms and finding deductions, etc.
As you enter your data, a little ticker displays your estimated tax refund/bill. As I went through, the number was WAY different than last year, and I had a pretty good idea that this year would be similar to last year. Nearly in tears, I found my final “refund” amount was going to be almost $8000 less than last year…
I discovered the problem was in entering my W2. In boxes 12a-12d, each have a “letter code” and an amount. Even though I’ve filed taxes for years, including the last 4 using this same system, there was a mistake this time. Box 12a defaulted to letter code of A, and box 12b defaulted to B. Sure, that looks fine, right? In fact, box 12b should have been code “D”, not “B”, so all the money I contributed to my 401k was being reported as “uncollected medicare tax on tips”, not “elective deferrals to 401k”. As a result, that amount was going straight to my tax bill, instead of reducing my taxable income.
Ok, disaster averted. I guess I’ll tell Evan he doesn’t have to go to that job interview tomorrow!
I just concluded a three week experiment with the gas mileage in my truck. My previous 3 fill-ups showed DISMAL mileage, that’s with moderately agressive driving, mostly to and from work (7 miles) in cold temperatures. I’m sure the fact that the truck was was cold for the first half of each trip didn’t help matters any. As a result I decided to try driving as calmly as possible for a tank.
The results are in, and the gain was 1.1 mpg. I’m not going to say how low the mileage has gotten lately, but I will say that’s about a 10% improvement. The driving was mostly the same, though the temperature was warmer and I did have a 30 mile round trip to the lumber yard with the trailer on that tank. It’s too early to draw any solid conclusions, so I’ll see how the next tank or two go.
It’s a musical instrument (somewhat guitar-like) that is often used in Greek music. Would you know one if you heard one? If not, Evan’s got you beat.
A bouzouki has eight strings arranged in pairs and is similar in appearance to a mandolin. The paired strings and tuning create a distinctive sound shared by the mandolin but not by a guitar. On one of Evan’s Wiggles movies, they have a song about Athens in which they briefly introduce and feature a bouzouki.
Well, last night I got out my mandolin to show Evan. He immediately ran over to see it, proclaiming “Zouki! Zouki!” I’d figured he’d think it was a guitar, but his guess was actually much more accurate. A little while later I was cruising youtube for bouzouki videos and found a duet played on a guitar and a bouzouki. Evan heard it and came running down the hall saying “Zouki! Guitar!” He’s known what a guitar is for a few months, but I was impressed that he could tell the difference isverigeapotek.com/!
Quite a while back I posted a link to a Flash game for parking a car and commented that a game like that for parking a trailer would be good practice. I just found one:
I wish they had more situations, longer/shorter trailers, etc. but it’s still neat. BTW my best time was 6.28 seconds (after playing for about 5 minutes). Have fun!
Last weekend, my sister, brother and sister-in-law took a day trip up to Sundown for a day of skiing. We’d had temperatures hovering around zero for a couple of weeks, but for the weekend we got a reprieve. The weather and ski conditions were actually pretty good, but the roads were a little slick and patchy so we spent a fair amount of time in the car. Even so, we had plenty of time to ski.
Since it was a nice day, the hill was pretty crowded. Lift lines were pretty long and tables in the lodge were hard to come by. I hadn’t been skiing for a few years, but I don’t recall people being so inconsiderate last time. It seemed like there were an inordinate amount of people line jumping, getting in the way (i.e. congregating at the dropoff point for the ski lifts or in front of jumps), and generally being rude.
Enough complaining… Overall, the good outweighed the bad. My sister and I stuck to the beginner and intermediate areas while my brother and his wife (i.e. the ones who have actually been skiing on MOUNTAINS) tackled the more advanced areas. We made a number of attempts at capturing a photo of Nathan jumping in the terrain park, some of which you can see on the photos page. Bethany and I tried the small jumps once – I made it, but Bethany had to go after her skis and poles! Nathan managed to take Erin out once after turning around backwards at the bottom of one of the steepest sections. All we could see was powder flying everywhere!
According to my skiing companions, the most entertaining thing of the day was my failed attempt at a small jump. I was up the hill only about 50 vertical feet above the rest of my group, so I yelled down to ask whether there was a jump near the edge of the course. My brother pointed at a spot so I headed down at what little speed I could muster from the short descent. As I approached the jump, a small dip followed by a steep berm about 5 feet high, I prepared for the possibility that I’d end up flat on my back. To my surprise, I found myself flying parallel to the ground for about 10 feet and landing on my belly. Before I even hit the ground, my brother was rolling on the ground laughing. Apparently one of my skis got stuck down in the little dip and came off. I still don’t know how I ended up in that position, but Erin summed it up best when she attributed the humor of the situation to the fact that such a simple obstacle led to such a dramatic outcome 🙂
All in all, it was a good day and no one got hurt. I can’t wait until next time to tempt fate again!
I posted a few photos at on the photos page.
