Conception

It all began back in November, the way most home improvement projects around our house go: with a seemingly innocous comment by my wife. "Little Dude and I were at the park today and he just loved climbing on all the playground equipment..." With that, the idea was planted in this engineering brain and it didn't take long for me to decide that I was going to build W his very own playhouse. Not one of those pre-built playhouses they have set up at Lowes, but one designed and built by these two hands (with a little help along the way from family and friends, no doubt!) That night, we came up with the rough design - it would be a pirate ship playhouse. Here are the initial sketches. It didn't take me long to start thinking big (or start losing my mind, whichever way you look at it.)

You see, this is getting to be a family tradition. A little over 20 years ago, my dad built my brother and I our very own playhouse from scratch. That iteration was the Byers Brothers Castle, complete with jungle gym, swings, sand box, slide, climbing rope, and yes, a fireman's pole! Here is a picture of it in all of its glory before it was disassembled when my parents moved a couple years ago. By the way, Dad claims it WILL be reassembled by the time Little Dude is old enough to use it!

 

Another trait of home improvement projects at our house is the late night setting of deadlines (usually made after a few beers or a bottle of wine.) In 2009, I <supposedly> agreed that I could lay an 800+ square foot concrete flagstone patio in 3 or so months, just in time for one of our famous (now defunct) backyard parties. It nearly broke me, but I finished the groutwork a couple of days before an epic Easter party. This time, I agreed that I could probably get Little Dude's pirate ship playhouse built by June, just in time for him and all his friends to climb all over it at his second birthday party... Well here goes nothing, we'll see if I can pull this off again! 

 

Edit: Oh, I guess I owe everyone an explanation as to the name of the "pirate ship" we are constructing...it is an ode to The Becky Thatcher, the iconic paddle boat that was docked in Marietta for years before sinking after being moved to Pittsburgh a few years ago. Hence,The Becky's Revenge!

TWB
1/23/2012