Playhouse Renovations

At the beginning of August this year, Megan and I had the idea to re-paint the interior of the “Playhouse” we have in the back garden. Unlike once a couple years ago, where we painted a couple walls, then left it, this time we wanted to paint it all – every surface of the building – and what a task that turned out to be! Megan and I spent 3 afternoons/evenings painting, but once we were done, the work wasn’t finished – we found out some friends had some spare carpet that would fit in perfectly downstairs and it all spiralled from there! We then decided to completely renovate it into something more comfortable and worth spending time in, so here is the story of what we’ve done, or at least part 1!



Painting:

First up was clearing the playhouse of all the stuff inside, the old table, the bookshelf that was falling apart, and all the old cushions we had inside. This thankfully didn’t take too long, although we did have to work together to remove some things. Next on our list was laying out the newspaper, though as you can see – it all got a bit messed up after a pretty quickly!


     

Although we have in the past painted the playhouse, here you can see (in the white paint in both pictures) it was already starting to fade, so we began painting the feature wall with the “bathroom blue” colour, a much stronger colour that hopefully won’t fade as fast. We painted using some of the spare paint we had in the attic: “bathroom blue”, “apple green” (the leftovers from my bedroom), “bathroom white” and “light pink”. The bathroom colours are especially waterproof, so we used these for the ceilings, which were a NIGHTMARE to paint – all the paint just soaked in to the wood, which meant it took multiple thick coats – in often hard to reach places!


Once we were done – it turned out pretty nicely – although the place did look a little bare with just the painted walls and nothing else inside. This is partly what inspired us to do a complete renovation, not just painting. On the right, you can see the polka dot pattern Megan did on the bars to add extra detail to the playhouse – which turned out very nicely, and helped us choose the perfect fabric for the curtains.



Carpeting:

 

Next up was carpeting the downstairs floor, which we had got a LOT of paint on, despite the newspaper we laid out! We rolled up the old rug which we had in there, as it no longer fitted in, and then set to work trying to work out the jigsaw puzzle that was laying the pieces out!


Then we cut three pieces to the right size size, and set to work hammering all the nails in, with some help from dad.

It was very rewarding to see the final product here, although instead of spending long to admire it – we immediately covered it in cushions and tools!



Roofing:

One important thing we realised was that it wasn’t worth painting the playhouse unless we could prevent it from getting soaked again which was responsible for the fading. So we then went on to do some roofing work, completely covering the roof again with a clean, new sheet of roofing felt, weighing 20kg for 10m – so rather heavy to move!


Again dad came to help us with the roofing, he showed us how to put in all the nails and paint tar on the edges. This job was quite fun, though it involve a little risk on my part (see image of me standing on the very top of the ladder somewhat precariously!) – although there was someone holding the ladder so I didn’t fall!


As the plastic that we had used last year to protect the playhouse from rain had shredded due to the sunlight, we decided, as part of the roofing process, we would redo the plastic too, this time with longer lasting, UV-resistant plastic. Finally, we decided to paint the outside of the playhouse, which involved painting all the green pieces separately, which Megan and I did, while Mum and Dad painted the two non-plastic covered sides of the playhouse. I will include a picture of the finished outside in the next post.



Thank you for reading this post about the playhouse, I hope that I will be able to upload part 2 in the next few weeks, although things are going to get quite busy in the lead-up to Christmas! 🙂🙂🙂🙂

Yes, I did get the “1” back-to-front, it was… it was… artistic design, that’s what it was… (totally not an accident in my drawing, honest!)

Merry Minecraft Christmas 2014!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

As the title implies I’ve been doing something in Minecraft (my favourite game), just a small Christmas/Winter themed Biodome. I spent about an hour on this – as although small, this build was all about minor details. That’s all I really have to say, so, without further ado, I present to you my Winter Wonderland Biodome!!!!

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Overview

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Entrance View, Christmas Tree with items for Baubles, Beacon on-top

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My Little Woodland house, Chimney, Stockings, Flowerpot

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The Woodland Side, Lake, and Wolves (Husky Dogs), And the Only other Native animal (apart from pesky bats!) the Snow Golem

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Fishing Zone

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HO! HO! HO! Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!!!

Christmas Crafts – Felt, Felt and a Whole Lot More Felt!!!

Hello again everyone – it’s been a long time since my last post, things have been very busy lately with my Webpage, and a whole bunch of other things.

Anyway, yesterday I had a whole day(starting from 11:45am as we had special breakfast and delivered cards), and I decided to do some felting – a hobby of mine that I’ve just began to get serious about. I’ve been making a bunch of different things, for different presents for different people. Yesterday I worked for quite a few hours, rolling the mat back and forward 1300 times (counting each time I went forward) – that’s a LOT, though I probably spent a fair bit longer actually making the felt before I rolled it.

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My Felting Setup, with wool, silk, my mat, my bag, scissors for the silk and a fair bit more!

I definitely got my exercise yesterday too – you may be wondering how can you get exercise from craft – the answer is, to get more downward force, I jump every single repetition! Jumping 1300 times is quit a lot, and so I decided to take a break today!20141220_171306

The Finished Products – Planets for Megan’s felt Solar system, and felt strips for candle-holder borders.

Thank-you for reading this post – you may have realized that I wrote most of this post on Sunday 21st December, talking about Saturday 20th, yet this post was released on the 27th – this is because I couldn’t release images until people received their presents. Thank-you for understanding.

Carron Valley Forest

On Saturday we walked around part of the Carron Valley Reservoir, on a cold, lightly overcast but still afternoon. The winter greys and browns were subtle and beautiful.

There was only one marked walking trail – it’s mainly a mountain biking reserve – but both Megan and Aidan found plenty to amuse themselves: it’s very hard to bore them! Megan and Daddy took the high road through the trees while the Aidan and Mummy took the low road. True to the song Aidan and Mummy got there afore us.

Aidan was fascinated by the elongated vertical ice crystals (about 3cm long) he found in the patches of mud – does anyone know how these are formed? – and by the curved patterns in the icy puddles. [Update: this is called needle ice!]

Both Aidan and Megan assembled sculptures while we were there, from found materials:

Aidan was careful to read the signs, too.

Altogether, a great time was had by all! Given there’s only the one shortish trail and it was fairly flat we’re unlikely to return, but it would be a beautiful stopping point on the B818 for a leg stretch. (There appears to be a new attraction in development, the Duncarron Medieval Fort, which may draw us back when it’s ready!).