Build your own den part 5 - the big reveal....

We had aikido in the morning and because Ebi-kun had a national demo to attend the following week he couldn't skip class. So after aikido we grabbed some lunch then got straight to it. The first job was to put up the pillars, we used L brackets to do that.

The attached the cross beams for the roof...

There were a couple of re-calculations that had to go on, due to the plans not being quite right but nothing major.

Then they put netting over the roof frame to help prevent bugs and beasties getting in..

And this it was time to put the walls on. Either DH or I helped them put the wall in place and get the first couple of crews in and then the boys got busy and did the rest.

Daddy took charge of the roof. It would have been great if we could have had another weekend to work on it but the following weekend we had plans then we fly to the UK a couple of days later, so it was crunch time and no slacking off was allowed.

And here it is... a lot of sweat, no tears and quite a bit of blood loss (thanks to the mozzies) went into building this! Ebi-kun is one very happy chappy, this incidentally is his birthday present! Nothing quite like having to design and build your own birthday gift. 

I think the experience he will carry with him forever, long past when the den had gone. 

Interview with the designer:

On a scale of 1 - 10, how difficult was this project?

7 because working out all the problems was difficult.

What did you learn from the project?

How to use the tools.

That it was really important to do all the plans first and it's good to have people helping you.

How do you feel about the final result?

It was fun but difficult to build it. It's cool and turned out better than I thought it would!

What I feel he learned from the experience was project planning, that it's sometime slow and boring but vital to get get a good end result. That you have to be prepared to make changes along the way and that creative thinking will help solve a problem. 

And that big projects don't happen over night, that perseverance is very important and that quitting half way through is not an option. I think this is really important these days as we live in a time when everyone expects instant results and life really doesn't work like that.

I'm really proud of what he has achieved and I'm sure hours of fun will be had in the den. He has yet to do the interior, I will be sure to give you a tour when we get back from the UK. I did suggest a trip to Ikea for interior design but they both look at me as if I were mad! can't imagine why...

Build your own den part 4

The foundation was all in place so it was time to start building! S-kun was bought in again to help, they were loving it! Even though they had done a great job with the concrete blocks, they weren't perfectly level so we needed to add a bit of packing under the main frame to ensure everything would be level.

Next job was to put the frame together. That was pretty straight forward as the wood was already cut to size. 

Again the boys took it in turns to use the drill and everything moved along quite quickly.

Of course we had to stop for a tea break, or more accurately a senbei (rice cracker) and mugi-cha (barley tea) break.

Then it was back to it. Even though it was hot, this section of the yard doesn't get much direct sunlight which was a blessing as it was a really hot day and the mosquitoes were out in full force. The frame was attached the packing and then to the concrete blocks.

Time for the floor boards...

And to try it out! Get up you lazy muffins and get back to work!
note how cute it is that they take their shoes off automatically!

We doubled up here, Ebi-kun and daddy drilled the holes and S-kun and I put in the screws, we had the job done in next to no time.

Which obviously meant another snack break! I could get these lads jobs on an English building site!

S-kun had family stuff to do in the afternoon so after lunch we went back to the home centre to buy the rest of the den supplies. The plywood was not pre-treated so we had to buy paint/stain to treat it with. Ebi-kun picked green for the door and window and honey maple for the doors.

Whilst daddy got busy cutting the window out, Ebi-kun and I got busy with the paint brushes. We just about managed to get everything painted and cut out before we had to call it a day. Luckily the weather gods were on our side and it was a fine night so we just left all the plywood out to dry.

We had one afternoon left, would we manage to finish the build in an afternoon? Find out next time in the final part of this exciting installment of "Build your own den"