Well after tinkering with cars throughout my youth, these days it's now all about the kids - and so it's down with the spanners & out with the power tools - it seems that cubby building has become a priority! Our boys are 4 and nearly 2, so the latest project at our place is building them a backyard cubby house.
The master plan goes something like this: kids go to cubby and play - and leave Dad alone. Dad then goes to garage to work on Torana, without the "help" of the little mechanics. Will it work? Only time will tell.
I'm sure anyone with kids will agree - their help is great and often very entertaining, however productive effort decreases to approximately 25% at best. Something that used to take 2 hours to complete, now takes an entire day. So with both boys hell bent on helping with the cubby build - this could take a while!!
Anyway, let's get into it. I've already been getting stuck into this project for a while now, so I'll start at the beginning and walk through the build. It may interest others who are keen to tackle something similar. Anyone can walk in and buy a kit cubby of course, however when I looked at our local display centre I couldn't believe the prices!! We wanted an elevated platform (cubby on top, sandpit underneath), with decent slide, ladder and verandah. You can spend as much as 6 grand!!
Money is beyond tight for us these days, and my Dad is the King of hoarding stuff (especially timber) that "could be handy one day". We both love building stuff together so it was decided we would design and build this cubby using as much recycled (free) timber as possible. This would also make it a bit different and no doubt add some character.
Ok so here we go.... we have a decent sized backyard so we chose a nice spot along the fence-line but up towards the back... here's our blank canvas:
For the main supports, we went for these old round treated pine posts. Funnily enough, I think these were removed from an old playground of a church many many years ago...
Time to dig.... and it's all-hands-on-deck with my little helpers. Kids love dirt cos dirt is awesome!
6 x stump holes at approx 700mm deep. Here's 1 year old Cruz working the post hole digger...
And here's Butthead.... oh, I mean my eldest... Brock.... kids also seem to love holes...
And here we are.... a completed platform standing 1.5m off the ground....
The end & inner beams are all 2nd hand hardwood, it's absolutely rock solid...
Dad wasn't happy - I went to Bunnings and bought some big gauge screws! I don't want this thing falling apart, so we can't skimp on everything. Total money spent thus far is now around $35.
I would have bought yellow-tongue chipboard for the floor, with decking only on one edge for the verandah, but ended up using merbau decking boards for the entire floor - simply because good old Dad had a stash of 2nd hand boards that were recovered from the next door neighbours old deck. Far from perfect, but they'll sand up nicely...
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Just under $200 again for roofing sheets and ridge capping.