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.