Eastside Cruisers

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...

The floor was quickly finished, so next up was some wall framing. Pretty much stuck to 70 x 35 and 70 x 45 treated pine. All old timber that both Dad and I have collected over the years from tearing apart old structures, the majority from my house actually where the previous owners had built a weird extension from a bungalow to the house - which I completely replaced.











We experimented with a few different angles for the roof, before settling on this one which looked just about right. Exact window sizes to be worked out later when adding more studs/noggins, but we allowed for approx 600mm, plus a decent sized door opening of course. Still haven't spent a cent yet on timber.

Next up was the roof. We built this slightly different to the norm. 2 frames were knocked together, and then one side (the under-side) was cladded in 7mm plywood. It was always my intention to fully line the inside of the cubby including the roof, so by doing the roof at this stage was much easier, and as you'll see in the pics, gives a great result without the need for fiddly cutting inside, outside, eaves etc..it's all just one nice piece.

The downside... I started spending money as we didn't have any 2nd hand plywood. Just shy of $200 for a heap of sheets - hopefully it's enough to complete the internal cubby walls too. At least I'm spending money in the right areas...



Roof panels going into place...



Inside view, nice and neat...





Mmmmm power tools!!



Another thing always on the cards was a nice new Colorbond roof to match our house. I love Colorbond! But more money.... oh oh, the snow-ball begins! This is starting to sound just like a Torana build, haha Just under $200 again for roofing sheets and ridge capping.

We also had leftover sisalation (roof sarking) and insulation lying around, so we went all out and installed that too (insulation is only around $27 a roll anyway). The sarking should help with controlling condensation in Winter and also keep leaves and insects out. Overkill? Yeah probably.





Looks a million bucks from the top...





Crazy kids again.... the sisalation roll became a running track. 10 points for imagination...

like button?

WOW! Now that's a cubby house! Nice work Shubes!

I thought that's where your cubby house was going though?

That's heaps more impressive than the cardboard one I had when I was little! Im sure they will have heaps of fun in it once it done

Cheers guys. All I had as a kid were the trees outside, so hopefully this provides a good decade of entertainment for them. I'm getting a lot of people suggesting permanent power, TV, bar fridge, bed, etc.... these are all very tempting ideas!

Matt - the future garage will be built further forward on the block, so no dramas there. By that stage, the cubby may be turned into a storage unit, or perhaps an engine building room?!

Anyway... on with the story, and more photos....

Next up I braced the walls with additional studs/noggins and builders strapping... it all made a huge difference in making the overall structure really solid...







Wrapping it up prior to cladding.... I'm really glad I did this as the external boards tend to end up with gaps, so this should prevent bugs and spiders from taking over the boys room..





And finally it's time for the boards! Definitely the fun part. I looked into all sorts of cladding options... full size house weatherboards, cedar boards, panelling, blue-board... but ended up going for traditional old cheap 150mm treated pine fence palings.... I think they're perfect for cubbies & suit the landscape nicely.

It's not even finished yet and they've already moved in!! Deb found this table & chairs online for $20...



Time for some window & door frames - nothing fancy, but just machined down old hardwood. These will come back out again at some stage to be grooved for window runners...



Getting close now, but ran out of palings. Also fitting up the main verandah posts... 2 old bits of cedar, and 2 old bits of something else. Once cleaned up, they look a treat. Remember, free is good!



And finally all the external cladding is finished! All up, exactly $100 - by far the cheapest option.





Getting stuck into the internal cladding with more 7mm plywood, much more homely than a bare frame... not sure yet if this will get painted..





Window frames came up a treat...



"Daaaaad - can you lift me up?" I'm so sick of that question - stairs must be next priority!!!



And there's where I'm currently up to. Not a lot of time lately, and the weather's turning at this time of year, but progress will hopefully keep edging forward. Need to build stairs, front door, work out the windows (will be perspex sliding panels), buy a slide, and knock up some kind of handrail and balustrade. Got more Colorbond too (some right angled fascias) which will finish the roof edges. For those interested, this now owes me around $750, maybe nudging $800. I never really had a budget in mind, but I'm happy so far.

Wow that's a really impressive cubby house , can't believe it only cost 800 so far well done.

Just realised I never posted the finished photos of this!

Time for steps...



Two happy little dudes:



The handrail and balustrade came up a treat - gives it a real cosy feel (and keeps the kiddies a bit safer of course):







Windows finally completed too now with sliding clear perspex panels....



Interior fully lined - I used up every last scrap of material I had. This was a bit of a jig-saw puzzle, but there was pretty much zero offcuts leftover:





Starting to look complete now...



Picked up the sign at the Caribbean Market and added the logo. They're obsessed with Batman so it went down well: