Building a play house

I built a play house and swing set for Bailey (and Caiden, even though he may be growing too old for these things). I drew up the plans myself. It's not quite done (still need to paint, add some paneling inside to cover the bare studs, paint, and get some furniture for the inside), but it's usable. I'm also probably going to re-do the ramp leading up to the deck.

Started off by measuring out placement for the posts



Cemented in the post holders and mounted the posts and joists



Started adding the sub floor



Added some cross bracing on the bottom so Bailey could dance on the top



Framing (note, for all of you contractors out there, I realize this is not to building code :-), no king plates or proper framing for windows and door ways, but this is just a playhouse).







Roof going on (I've never built my own pitched roof before)







Added T1-11 to the front and decided to just eventually paint over the OSB on the other sides. Also added cedar to the framing and made a fancy front door





Made sky lights on each side before I roofed it and covered the wood with galvanized metal



Started making the swing set (note the door I added to the play house in the background and the shutters)







Bailey loves her play house



Side note: My neighbor is building a TALL playhouse behind us. We both started building at the same time (almost on the same day) without knowing what each of us were up to. We eventually started to help each other out. His has some SERIOUS creativity (he built that slide out of 50 gallon drums). He's still working on it (this picture shows it without the stairs or railing), but he's worked his tail off on this one.

Fence addition to the side of our house

It had been a while since I had done a decent project at our house and knowing me, you know I have to have a project to do. I decided I was tired of all the weeds growing through our chain-linked fence on the side of the house and having to cut them down with my weed eater was becoming a pain. I started off my saturday with removing an old chain linked fence that ran right up against my neighbor's wood fence. Leaves were collecting in between the two and I like wood anyway, so I removed the old chain-linked fence. Someday I plan on adding cedar fence posts to this fence line, but that will be a while.

Once my neighbor's wood fence ended, there was a chain-linked fence that continued to the front of our houses. My plan was to remove this chain-linked fence and utilized the existing posts to hang my fence rails.

Here is a picture of where the old chain link fence ran against my neighbors wood fence (I had already removed the chain linked fence before taking the picture). Someday this will all be 6" cedar slats.



Here is a before picture of the rest of the fence, which is chain-linked and where I'm going to put in the cedar fence.



Here is a picture of my gate on the right side of my house. I am going to turn this into a cedar gate as well with a proper lock.



Here it is after building the gate. I used the old gate frame and bolted wood rails to it in order to screw my cedar slats to it. It worked perfect.



This is how I hung the rails. I just used 2x4 holders and some self-tapping hex-head screws to screw them into the posts, then mounted the 2x4's to the holders. Worked perfect.



The slats went up pretty quickly. I could have done it much quicker, but if you notice the old Camero in the background, it was actually hanging over onto my fence line so we had to dig the tires out and push it back about 6". Now I don't have to look at an old Camero either :-).



Before



After



Glad it was all done. I can't wait to finish off the rest of the yard. Most people love Vinyl fences and I can understand why (because they last long), but I love a more natural look and I don't mind having to stain the fence every 2-3 years.

Training a baby to learn to sleep

Lately I've felt like Bailey, who we are "training" to get used to knowing when it's time to sleep......for a long time. It's not easy and Alene has honestly done most of the work. Alene is so good because she's so consistent and believes in staying focused on the task at hand, no matter how hard it is on her own sleep. She sacrifices so much for Bailey. I think most people would give in here and there and just bring their baby into bed with them, but Alene knows that it would mess up all the work we've been putting into getting Bailey used to sleeping.

Bailey still wakes up a few times every night and what we're trying is to just let her cry until she falls back asleep. It's very hard because that crying keeps us up too. If Bailey cries for over an hour, Alene will then go in and get her up, but she usually cries for 45 minutes to an hour, then falls back asleep. I'm so happy that Alene is so strict in this endavor and doesn't waver. She's a great mother.

So, getting to my point about feeling like Bailey. I haven't done any house "projects" for a good 3-4 weeks now. I've done some small stuff here and there (hanging a shelf, dinging around in the garage trying to pretend like I'm doing something), but it's been weird.

For most of the 10 years I lived in my old house, I was constantly working on some sort of "project". I'd take small breaks here and there and it wasn't always "constant", but there was always something to do. Then after I got married and it became even worse (not Alene's fault, it was my own because we had more money coming in I guess).
Just before getting married I tackled a kitchen/bath remodel (the largest "job" I've done for someone to date) for my ex in-laws. This took a lot out of me at that time.
I started off by putting laminate wood flooring in our front room.
Then, I built a playhouse for Caiden.
Then I did a tub/shower tile job.
Then we re-modeled our kitchen/dining area.
Then I built and tiled a shower for my parents.
Then we re-roofed the house.
Then I tiled the bathroom and back laundry room.
Then I painted our bedroom, Caiden's room, and our office area.
Then I moved all our extra stuff out of our house and into storage so it would look more sellable.
Then we sold the house and moved everything else.
Then we bought another house on our way out of town to Canyonlands.
Then we came back and I had this genius idea of expanding our own bedroom to make more room.
Then we went on a trip to Joes Valley just before Bailey was due and we came home to a flooded basement.
Then I spent the rest of summer/fall re-doing our basement AND adding a bookshelf unit.

Not to mention, over the course of completing all the projects I also coached FB during the fall, went on some great camping trips to Arches, Zion, Glacier, and Canyonlands National Parks. We also camped at Escalante, the San Rafael Swell, Robbers Roost, and the Uintas. We tried to fit in hikes here and there as best we could too.

Now it's done and I'm still busy, but I have this itch to work on something else. It drives my mind mad sometimes like I need to be doing a project, but then I have to just talk myself away from that ledge. It's really funny to think of, but sometimes it actually hurts. Like it's a drug. Like I have to "train" myself to not do a project, even though I look at the house and see stuff that could be done to make it nicer. I know it doesn't have to be done and I'm trying my best to just be patient.

Over the course of this time though, this work has taken a toll on my body. My back is constantly sore, more sore than it's ever been. I'm extremely tired all the time. But I'll live. I know I will. There are still things that we want to finish on the house that kind of eat at me. We bought paint for our front room and hallway, but I have yet to do that....but I'm being patient. I recently bought some material to build a lattice wall around our hot tub, so that will be another little project. For the most part though, it's nice to not feel somewhat burdened by it. My only problem is now wasting the free time I have and making it feel like I'm busy. However, this "free" time couldn't have come at a better time because I'm attempting to get back into school this week AND Alene has started her new job, so I'm pretty busy on Monday/Tuesday afternoons/evenings while she's at work.

The thing is, I wish I was strong enough to simplify my life. I wish I could easily choose one thing over the other. My biggest "vice" I would say in my life is my love of being around the game of football. When I'm not, it eats at me constantly. I first started coaching right out of high school and I found what I thought was my calling. I had dreams/aspirations to coach on the college level someday, but now that I decided to take the route of not teaching, I think it's a little more impossible than it ever was. Still, I have an extreme love of the sport.

My biggest thing I'm torn over is the fact that football is during some of the best times to be doing my "other" love, which is being outside camping and hiking (during the fall). Every year around this time I go through the same little feeling of "why am I doing this". I get this urge to just stop and drop football for good, but here is where it gets complicated: Caiden is now playing and loves it.

So, with Caiden playing, all his games are on Saturdays, which takes out every weekend. So even if I wasn't coaching, he would have games that he is obligated to be at. When it comes to sports, I've always tried to live by the "creed" if you will, that you always finish something you start. I would hate to go against that by telling him he wasn't going to be able to play in a game because "I" wanted to go camping. I think that would be selfish and even if I gave him an option to stay or go, I think it would make it hard on him.

Anyway, I'm currently mulling the fact of at least stopping coaching at the HS level. It takes so much time and energy. I think maybe it would be best if I just focused on coaching Caiden's team and leave it at that. If he keeps playing at the HS level, maybe I could help out there too. I just don't know.

Sorry this post may be so depressing. I know I sound like a whiny idiot to most of you, who are probably saying, "buck up and do what you know you're supposed to do". Well, that is the problem...still can't figure it out.

Bookshelf unit is complete!

Threw on the last few touches of trim a few minutes ago and snapped these pictures. At first I had wanted to put some sort of work surface in this empty space, kind of a study space, but being that this house does not have any sort of linen closet, Alene suggested we build a linen box/bench.

Here are some pictures of the completed project:

The book case is done!

Finally got the book case done downstairs. Now we have plenty of space for all of our books. I decided to go with building it myself, rather than buying them because I could make it so they fit and filled up the wall completely, wasting no space.

Here are some pictures of the before and after, as well as additional angles:

Before (before the flood)



Before (blank wall)



After



I built each case in the garage separately, then took them downstairs to screw them into the wall:





Here are some other angles:





I plan on building a sort of linen box/bench in the center of the book case (that area that still looks undone). The last thing I have left to do down here is to finish the base boards up to the book case, then path all the nail holes and touch up with paint.

As far as getting the basement done, I still have to paint the laundry room and our office room, but they're both really small.

Some before/after pictures of the basement

As you may or may not remember, we had a flood in our basement a week or so before Bailey was born. It was about 75% ruined, so we basically had to start over down there.

Luckily our homeowners insurance took care of the costs of replacing and repairing, so I spent a good part of my paternity leave fixing the basement back up (as opposed to paying someone to do it). It sucked and it was hard work, but it's worth it to save money and get it done the way you like it.

There is still a tiny bit of work to do, but for the most part it's all ready. I also just noticed that I'm missing some "before" pictures on my flickr site, so I'll have to see what I have at home and add some of those later.

Family Room

Before (note: this is tile on the floor under the stove, which I had to break up)


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Hallway

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Bailey's Room


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Caiden's Room (for some reason I did not take any before pictures of his room, but it basically looked just like Bailey's)







Post flood video



Finished video