Summer Homework

Ebi-kun worked like a little trooper to get his summer homework done before we left for the UK. 400 kanji and a book full of maths plus the summer project. He used the making of the den as the project, wrote up each step and adding photos. Took him quite some time but he did a great job!

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"

Build your own den part 3

We left you hanging, wondering about the solution to the concrete foundation blocks! Before that got figured out the boys measured the frame and cut the wood to size.

Starting off with the hand saw..

But soon moved onto the power saw. Once all the frame pieces were the right length, we set about the foundation blocks - OMG this was such a huge job!

This is where we needed daddy muscle on site, the blocks are really heavy and he decided that the best thing would be to dig holes and level them that way. Easier said than done! Eventually we got all 7 blocks in.

There was a lot of taking out and putting in. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the most efficient way to do this job! Part of the learning curve.

Ebi-kun filling in the soil around the blocks after checking the wood was level.

Finally, this took hours. We finished off all filthy and exhausted! The wood hasn't been fixed on here so that went back in the car. We'd have to wait until the following weekend to continue on the project...

Build your own den part 2

And yes, the excitement continues...

Once the project has it planning permission (from me and daddy ebi) it was time to make a start. We headed off to the home centre and prayed that the crazy weather would hold off for the day. We started off getting the concrete blocks that the den would be built on... I think Ebi-kun is doing a good impression of heavy lifting here but not actually doing any!

Then it was off to get the timber for the base frame and floor boards. He had decided that the pre-treated wood was the best idea but we didn't know what the wood was treated with, so we asked the staff and they were clueless too. DH had to shoot off an email to the company website to find out whether it was safe or not. We got the OK 

The wood was too long for us to get it in the car so we had to have it cut to length...

Next was packing the wood into the car, we don't own a handy white van so it was a fun addition to the project!

And this was another reason we had to break the project up, we couldn't buy everything in one go anyway!

When we got back, Ebi-kun went round to collect his friend S-kun who had been roped into the building process too. Their first job was to prepare the area.

We also needed to take down a section of the fence, which we were planning to do anyway since the wood had rotted. It's the first time either of the boys had used the power tools so we made sure that either DH or myself kept a beady eye on them. They did a great job and shared the workload.

We had a comedy moment when they were trying to undo the big bolt that holds the pillar, neither DH or I realised that the boys hadn't used an adjustable spanner before and it wasn't until we noticed that they weren't making any progress that we realised that they were doing it all wrong!

They got there in the end, clear away the fence and prepared the ground. The area was measured and the concrete blocks put down and we ran into his first problem....

The blocks weren't stable if they were on top of the stones - the solution was to remove the stones.

Problem 2 - the ground is not flat so it wouldn't be a good foundation to build on.

The solution...find out next time!

Make your own den part 1

Ebi-kun has had his little heart set on building his own den or treehouse for months. We went down the route of a sheets and sticks but it just wasn't cutting it! Unfortunately we don't have a tree so the treehouse was out, which left us with a den.

Now, I would have loved to just dump a load of scrap wood, a bag of nails and a hammer with him and told him to knock himself out BUT we don't have any scrap wood and don't know "a man" to beg some off. 

So... the Montessorian in me came up with a plan!

Right, you want a den, you have to design and research it properly. I want plans, and a budget...

He rose to the occasion and set about designing his den. It was a long winded project and he got stuck a few times but he stuck at it. At one point he stopped and lost all enthusiasm, after a bit of digging I found out it was because the boys he walks to school with were calling him a liar and saying he wasn't going to do it. We had a chat and did some EFT then he was fired up to get back to it.

He looked at architecture books to see how to draw up plans....

Made a note of questions that came up as he worked through the planning stage...

And made revisions as he answered questions. He did need some help so me and daddy pitched in when he got stuck. We took a couple of trips to the home centre to decide which type of wood, the roofing material and the types of paint available etc. The info Ebi-kun found on the net wasn't always helpful for Japan, so there was some out-of-the-box thinking thrown in too!

This was a BIG project so the posts are broken down into stages, stay tuned for the next stage of project den building...