So now the weather has changed

Firstly a big hello to all the people who have liked the page, and to those who are new to the page, a big thanks from me.

I must admit it did catch me by surprise in how many people have liked the page and recently we also had a big increase.

Not sure where you've all seen the page from, it would be good to hear where you or how you found the page. Just leave a message in the comments box :-)

Anyway, the weather now seems to have well and truly changed here in the UK. Rain and cold weather isn't usually very good for pallet work, and this is also the first winter for the children's playhouse I've built. So far so good though, all the rain seems to have stayed on the outside, which is always good, so now let's see what else gets thrown at it.

Throughout the winter, rather than leave the page lie dormant, I'll  post links to ideas ready for next year, so please let me know the sort of thing you'd like to see.  I'm thinking pallet projects and ideas as well as garden ideas, but please leave a comment if you'd like to see anything else.

Look forward to hearing from you, and as always, please feel free to share the page, as well as any pictures of what.you've been up to.

Thanks again for following the page.

Bryan

Children's Playhouse - Day 9

OK, so work had been continuing, despite the lack of updates on the playhouse.

The exterior us just about finished, with just some sort of window shuttering to do.  My wife and u settled in not having a door, but we may revisit this decision at a later date.

The outside had been painted (with the assistance from three little ones 8, 5 and 2) a brown colour which to our surprise, has belnded the whole thing into an almost invisible structure - quite a feat for something so big.

Work continues in ernest on cladding the interior to hide the pallets and weather proof the inside, as well as reducing the risk of all those nasty splinters.  Any gaps around the roof have been filled in using expanding foam - works a treat.

Pictures below of work so far......

The helpers painting the outside of their playhouse

Side view of painted exterior

Front view of painted exterior, partly hidden by shrubbery

Washing Machine Drum Firepit

I've seen a few homemade Firepits on Pintrest, Facebook and google searches, which were made from various things, but it was the one made from an old washing machine drum that caught my eye.

Lucky for me, I was told that a friend of ours had just bought a new washing machine, and they hadn't yet taken their old one to the dump, so that was it. I'd have to give it a try.

Unfortunately, I was so eager to get this one done, I only remembered yo take three pictures....

Step 1

Take one old washing machine, and strip it right down. Therr are several videos on YouTube which show you how to do this, but take care when removing the big counterweight stones. Those bad boys are heavy.

Step 2

Once you have everything stripped out, you should be left with the drum , which will be inside a thick plastic casing. 

On the reverse side you should find a single bolt, which once undone, should separate the casing. Unfortunately for me the bolt just wouldn't budge, so after two days of sawing, I finally removed the casing to reveal the drum

Step 3

You can spray the drum with heatproof spray (usually used for spraying the artificial coals on a gas fire), but that's an optional thing. I had run out, but decided to go ahead and try it out anyway.

Have some dru wood and pop it inside. Once you have a he fire lit, you should have something similar to the picture below.

Hope you like the post.

Feel free to share this blog and follow my Facebook page at;

https://www.facebook.com/gardenpalletprojects

Thanks

Pallet Wooden Boxes 2

I had to strip the wood from the frames of some pallets I had which left the frames.

What better way to use these crimes than to make another box

Pallet Wooden Boxes

Decided to take a bit of a break from the playhouse. Well when I say break I actually mean I had an hour spare.

So rather than start anything on the playhouse and pull all the tools out for the sake of an hour I decided, with the assistance from my 2 year old helper, to make a box from some leftover pallet wood.

Here's the result......

Question is, will they sell if I make more ??

Children's Playhouse - Day 8

Well it's been a busy weekend on the playhouse, but here's what's now been done;

Stairs now fitted
Old windows boarded up
New window cut out (first one)
Entrance to the secret den cut out (awaiting a door)
Cladded one side
Soft play tiles now laid in the secret den
Kids have also tried and tested the stairs, new window and secret den. The difficult part was getting them back out again...

Here's the pictures;

Newly installed stairs

Entrance to the secret den. Also with soft play tiles

Side view showing new window and cladding.

TOTAL COST TO DATE £3.50 (needed some screws)

Children's Playhouse - Day 7

Not posted for a few days so here's the latest update.

I've now lowered the floor to a more decent height but with its new level also allows for a roof to be fitted.

Was simple and straight forward enough, especially given that it is self built so knowing what needed to be done gave a headstart.

So. The few boards which I'd already laid were taken back up and undid the supports for the floor.

Took them down to the new level and attached. So the floor now sits 1 pallet high, which give a decent height for the kids.playhouse but also storage underneath, which I dare say wol turn into a hidy hole for the kids instead :-)

Anyway, we've also since been given some couragated clear plastic roofing sheets and some lengths of 2x4 which has also enabled me to add the roof.

New floor height

Frame for flooring shshowing storage area underneath

New door entranceThe roof is hold (and keeps the rain out)

More roof. 

Floor has also been added

Children's PlayHouse - Day 6 (addition)

I've now started adding the floor to the upper deck.

After I'd secured a few boards in place (with screws rather than nails), I thought I'd get my daughter to try it out.

The first thing she said when she reached the top was "Wow!!"

However, it was me who was the one left slightly uncomfortable with the height of the thing.  I even felt myself getting a bit giddy when I tried it, so I've decided, after a chat with my wife, to reduce the height of the building.

Luckily, as this is both self built, and from wooden pallets I know how it's been put together, as well as how best to sort this out.

The current plan is to reduce upper deck to a lower height.  This will then give the added advantage of not only still kepping steps into the playhouse, but also to add a sloping roofonto the building.

I'll post again in the next day or two with how it looks now, and how it looks after the modifications.

Children's Playhouse - Day 6

So now we have the floor filled in ready to be covered with foam mats and the beginning of the safetlyve also started on a safety rail in the top level.

Filling the floor has taken most of the evening so have called it a day for now.

Floor now filled ready for covering

Roof Beams which will also act as the floor on the second level. Also see the beginning of the safety rail to the left of the picture

Children's Playhouse - Day 5

Day 5.

Finally managed to get hold of some more pallets to finish off the walls.
We've decided against the secret tunnel as the space between the trees was too small for a small rabbit, let alone three growing girls.

So now the walls are up its time to move inside to do the stairs to the upper floor and the roof beams.

Final pieces of the walls in place. Just the cladding to do

Securing the steps in place

First step done

Nearly there...

Children's Playhouse - Day 4

Another busy day back on the playhouse. Have managed get get more of the walls up and to save pallets have now starts using 2x4 as the supports for the higher walls.

One of my neighbours was also throwing out some wood so I went and had a chat with him and managed to salvage some 3x2 which will be ideal for the roof supports.

Progress of day 4 in pictures below ;

Next level. This will form part of the upper decked level

Supports for the walls.

Now using 2x4 for supporting the upper level.

Children's Playhouse - Day 3

Finally managed to grab some decent weather to continue with the Playhouse, and an early finish from work meant I had a little bit more time.

 

I've now managed to start erecting the walls, as you can see below.

 

First of all was securing the pallets to the floor.  I did this by cutting blocks of wood to fit in between  the sections of each pallet.  These we then screwed to both the pallet wall section and the floor itself.

 

This is done for each of the wall sections.



 

 

 

I've removed some of the boards from the pallets to give me seperate strips of wood, as well as the supports.

 

In order to secure the top pallet to the bottom, I've used the supports and slotted them inside the bottom wall section.  This then left part of the support protruding out of the top which the top pallet then slotted into.

 

Both bottom and top pallets are then screwed into the supports.

 

 

The next picture shows a corner which I've done so far, which has the front 'wall' screwed into the side 'wall' as well as the support and top section of one of the walls.

 

 

Now that I've figured out how I'm going to secure it all to each other, all thats left, is to continue adding more wall sections.

 

I'll also need to remember to factor in both the door, and the windows.

 

The next big challenge after this part is complete, is the roof, which will also act as a floor, as the aim is to have steps leading up onto the roof, which eventually will have a slide back down into the garden.

Children's Playhouse - Day 2

Its been raining heavy showers during the night so I'm hoping I can continue today.

The plan of action for today is;

• Build a secret tunnel into the playhouse
• Make the walls of the playhouse prior to adding them to the base
• Start adding the walls

I'm also hoping to pick up some more pallets around lunchtime.

I'll add to this as things progress, but I hope that a substantial amount will be done by the end of today.

 

Needless to say, the weather got the better of me today.  As a result, all I managed to do, once I'd collected some more pallets, was to attach the floor of the secret tunnel.

 

Hopefully over the course of the next few days/weekends, I'll manage to get the walls up, and the roof, before moving up to the top section.

Children's Playhouse - Day 1

Our garden is a fair size but not big enough for three small children, so I've decided to build them a playhouse as cheaply as possible, and the best thing to use is wooden pallets.

Its taken my wife and I a fair bit of time to find a decent supply, but at last we've found some. To make it even better the majority of the pallets are the same size, shape and type.

The plan for the playhouse is to have an upstairs balcony with a slide coming down from the tip. The slide will go over one small trees we have in the garden.

Day 1
Now that we have a decent amount if pallets Ive decided.to make a start.
Unfortunately the day I pick to strart its chucking it down with rain.
Finally at around lunchtime the rain stopped so I've managed to put the floor together...

This is the area the playhouse is going to go;

First thing I've done is to clear the area. 

 

Next was to place 4 pallets 2x2.

Using small blocks of wood I then screwed across each pallet to fasten them all together.

Next was to fit the final two. This was a bit ricky due to the apple tree in the back corner and the fence.post just slightly in the way.

After a little bit of trimming the final two were then fastened together in the same way as the others.

Connecting two pallets together using 2x4

 

Cut around the apple tree

 

Almost complete floor.

 

End of Day 1. Floor complete

 

Welcome

Well here goes.

I've been looking into garden projects with wooden pallets for some time.

Things I've been looking at are ;

• Playhouse for the kiddies
• Decking
• Seating and Table

I finally now have the opportunity to start some of these.

Having sourced some wooden pallets my wife has managed to bring home approximately 20 which means I can finally start the playhouse for the kiddies.

I'm hoping to use this blog to share the before during and after as things progress, through to the finished article

Of course, this won't be the last of the pallets and we'll hopefully be going back and forth for sometime collecting more and more as things progress.