I’ve posted some photo’s along the way of this fort I’m building with my nine year old daughter. We finally got it dried in and spent our first night camping out in it on the fourth of July. Here are a few photo’s from this evening, still tinkering with the door hinges.
The picture window is plexi-glass held on with a spider web of purple nylon cord. the door is a piece of left over maple veneer 3/8″ ply with the B-side wrapped in copper foil and the edges piped with copper to cover the edge grain, the porthole was a dumpster find given to me by a friend.
We put a 5×7 rug in it on a riser of dimple board to keep it off the froor tarp. It’s big enough inside that the rug doesn’t come close to covering the floor probably about a nine foot circumfrence and tall enough to stand up in comfortably.
When it’s done we plan to cover it with mulch and soil and plant it in vines and to have a fireplace, chair and writing desk inside.
Great fun
M
Replies
Cool, I'm sure your daughter thinks its the greatest place on earth - and it is because you two built it!
Doug
Enjoy the time building with your daughter, before you know it , she'll be looking at the boys. Funny, it doesn't look like a fort.
very cool.
what's the shell?
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
<what's the shell?>
The outer part.
Forrest - rotflmao
Oooohhhhhh ...
Thanks man!
Jeff
outer ... like opposite the inside?
just making sure ... Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
To make the shell we leveled a ten foot circle in the dirt and laid a woven poly lumber tarp on which we set a nine foot circle of 3/8" re-bar. we than bent half circles of re-bar with "L's" on the ends facing opposite directions and wrapped them in tan colored strips of lumber tarp so they would look cleaner and more like bark. over this went a skin of yet more lumber tarps and then galvanized expanded wire mesh normally used as tile lath. over this went another layer of 3/8" re-bar and then two coats of fiberglass reinforced surface bonding cement, a layer of asphalt foundation sealer and then another layer of surface bonding cement. we'll finish it with a thick coat of Type S stucco and then mulch and soil and vines. the windows are like eyebrows made of copper flashing formed around re-bar and stitched in with wire to make their own gutters. This is definately a beta version, next year I want to do larger and better sealed two room version that is dug into a hillside and plastered on the inside. Still it feels like a good start for an old man and a nine year old girl. ------------------
"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
This is definately a beta version, next year I want to do larger and better sealed two room version that is dug into a hillside and plastered on the inside. Still it feels like a good start for an old man and a nine year old girl.
I can tell where this is headed. :-) The year after next you'll be building a full-on PAHS underground home. Good thing you're not far from Tom in the Virginia mountains. Even better that he's a regular here on BT.
PAHS has been fascinating me for the last few months, with Tom as it's best living proponent. As this particular weekend has evolved into a celebration of green consciousness, I'm finding myself ever more in tune with PAHS and all it has to offer.
It's only a matter of time before I build one myself. Got some sketches on the boards now. It really is fun, playing Brer Rabbit or Peter the happy Hobbit. Who'd a thunk it...at my age?
FATHER WILLIAM
by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
"OU are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head--
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."
"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door--
Pray, what is the reason of that?"
"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment -- one shilling the box --
Allow me to sell you a couple?"
"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak--
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw
Has lasted the rest of my life."
"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose--
What made you so awfully clever?"
"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down-stairs!"
Edited 7/8/2007 9:06 am ET by Hudson Valley Carpenter
ShelterNerd, Thought you and your daughter might enjoy this photo. My son has friends who build these "cob houses" and live in them. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1129/567488878_8603e82625.jpg"Poor is not the person who has too little, but the person who craves more."...Seneca
Wasn't your article in the FHB with the Hobbet House on the rear cover...if not it was an issue close to that one. thats what I thought this thread was gonna be about.
Yours is very cool though for a kid to have...you rock as a dad!
"Even if embryonic stem cells are absolutely good for nothing at all how can anyone in good conscience be against using them for research given that they are going to be destroyed anyway"? J.Hayes
http://www.john-lennon.com/imagine-neilyoung.ra
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