Ahoy Mateys, Raise the Main Mast!

It seems to have been relatively slow going recently as we are finishing the main structural items and are moving to the outside or decorative items. It seems like most of what we do is discuss the best way to do this or that. I guess you will have that when there are no plans besides the ones that are in your head! It also seems that the other thing I have been doing is going to Home Depot or surfing Amazon for more supplies. Those pre-fab playhouses that are set up at Lowes and Home Depot seem less and less expensive now!

Over the past week, however, we did accomplish a major task - we got the crow's nest and Jolly Roger flag installed and the main mast permanently attached to the ship. The crow's nest is half of an old Jack Daniel's whiskey barrel. It is just the perfect size and scale for the Becky's Revenge. However, the addition of the crow's nest on the top of the mast immensely increased the weight. I had to wait a couple of days for my brother to come up and help me raise it so I didn't fall and break my neck while trying to hoist a 16' long 4x6 with ~100 lbs of added weight added on the end of it!

We are currently working on the final framing of the front of the hull, the access steps and the decking! Only 3 weeks left until the christening of The Becky's Revenge and there is still a lot left to do!

Profile view of the ship prior to adding the crow's nest.

Little Dude trying to help measure the hull framing

The awesome drill bit I found to drill all the holes for the carriage bolts (Home Depot is a dangerous place!)

Inside of the crow's nest prior to reinforcement.

The main mast is ready to hoist!

This is as far as I got before I decided it would be prudent to have an extra set of hands to finish lifting it.

Mast hoisted and attached!

Stay tuned!


TWB

All Framed Up

Another weekend, another milestone on The Becky's Revenge! We were able to get the entire floor framed up by finishing the bow of the ship. After a slow start while fighting with multiple angles at the front of the ship, we got the rest of the outer joists attached as well as the inner joists at the front. We were also able to get the lower deck line attached to the back of the ship. We even had enough time to dry-fit the bowsprit (I am becoming an expertly shipbuilding terms) and the main mast! While standing on the upper deck, we realized that we can see 2-3 yards over. This is quite the project! I am currently working on setting the railings all the way around the ship and we will be working on the ramp up to the ship next!

  

View from the upper deck

 

I have my concentration face on!

 Trying to decide on the angle of the bowsprit

Chad doing his best Titanic reenactment. No icebergs in sight!

 Front view of the ship

 

Testing the height of the mast

 Stay tuned,

TWB

Going overboard

Over the past couple of weeks I have been able to make significant progress on The Becky's Revenge. I have been getting about 45 minutes of work done each night after Little Dude goes to bed and before it gets dark.

Mid-last week, bow of the ship is rough set!

 

Little Dude checking out all the angles at the front of the ship

My wife was nice enough to take time out of her homework schedule last Sunday to watch Little Dude so I could have an entire day of work. As I continue to build the ship out, it has become apparent to me that I may have gone a *tad* overboard in the size of the ship. My wife tried to warn me, but true to form I over-designed and now Little Dude is going to basically have a Spanish Galleon in the backyard once all is said and done! Luckily we have a pretty decent size yard, so it doesn't dominate the entire landscape.

 

~75% of the hull ribbing is set after a full day of work on Sunday

 Looking head-on at the ship

Close-up shot of the hull ribbing near the front corner

Almost all of the hull ribbing is complete and about 30% of the post railings have been set. After I finish the basic railing frame around the ship, we will be starting the "boarding ramp" up to the ship and working on the mast. I am really proud of how everything is coming together and barring any major setbacks, we should be on track to christen The Becky's Revenge by late June for Little Dude's buccaneer birthday bash!

That's all for now,

TWB

"Joist" 2 Months Left!

So we are not in crunch time yet, but I am starting to feel the pressure of Little Dude's birthday party being ~2 months away. I have realized that Sunday afternoons alone are not enough time to get this project finished by June, so I have had to resolve to work on the Becky's Revenge every night after we get LD to bed, even if it is only for 30 minutes at a time. That is the only way I have a chance to get this done: piece by piece.

Over the past couple weeks, we were able to get the floor joists set for the lower and upper decks. All that is left to get the floors framed out are the joists for the bow of the deck. That will take some imaginative engineering to get all of the angles worked out properly, but we will get there!

Joists for top deck installed, lower deck started.

Little Dude inspecting the lower deck joists (Shhh, don't tell Mommy!)

"Hey Dad, the top deck is pretty high!"

  

We have also made some progress on the "top-sides" design. We decided on a ramp (think dock ramp) for the main entrance to the ship as well as a climbing ladder to access the upper deck (once LD gets a little older, of course!) While at Home Depot yesterday, I picked up some items for the main mast, including the mast itself, the cross braces for the sail, flag pole for the Jolly Roger Flag and the crow's nest (half of an old Jack Daniels barrel!)

Mast materials picked up!

Next up we will be working on framing the bow of the ship and starting to build out the skin to frame the hull of the ship. Stay tuned!

TWB



Starting to Take Shape

So I know I have been a bad blogger recently with no new posts. But that was mostly because we had been stalled on progress over the past few weeks. Between travelling, weekend errands and rainy weather, we hadn't done anything until last weekend.

Due to a minor brain fart when buying materials, we accidentally set 4x4's for the main swing posts when we actually needed 4x6's. So another trip to Home Depot was required to buy replacement posts, additional cement and the materials for the floor joists. With the additional cement and correct posts, we finally got all the structural posts set last weekend! The only remaining posts to be set are the masts that will be added before we get the floor installed.

Little Dude checking out some high quality dirt.

Leveling the new swing posts.

Cleaning up after helping exploring in the mud and dirt!



Then this past weekend we had a very ambitious goal: to attach of the main joists to the posts. Before that, Little Dude and I decided that we needed to finally get the extra dirt from the post-holes moved so we would have a (semi) flat surface to work from.

"But Dad, I am king of the mountain!"

"So the dirt goes in here?"

"Wheelbarrow's full, time to go dump it!"



Once we got all the dirt moved, it was time to clean up for dinner. Unfortunately, Little Dude did not want to wait for Daddy to help him! I was still down in the yard when I heard water running. I ran up to the house to see this!

"Look Dad, unlimited water supply!"

The next day Unc-da came up for the day to help attach the joists. First we had to make sure the first level was low enough to accomodate Little Dude's new slide. It definitely met his seal of approval, but he was not too happy to see it come down without him getting to slide on it!

"This looks just right!"

"I don't think it is steep enough to slide on, Dad!"

Drilling the holes to attach the main joists.

All the main joists are attached, it is a little easier to envision the two levels now (hopefully.)

 With most of our work done for the day, our foreman decided to show up and check out our work so far.

Looking for his tools.

"Alright you bums, hold one end of the tape so I can measure all of this out!"



I guess everything was satisfactory to Little Dude (that, or dinner was ready and he was ready to go eat!) That's all for now, next time we will cutting off the extra lengths on the posts, fastening the swing cross-post and fastening the deck cross-joists.

Until next time, Cheers!

TWB

Some Progress Is Better Than None At All....

Well we got back to work today on The Becky's Revenge after a two week hiatus. Uncle C went back to Ohio to visit last weekend and we had a rainout the previous week.

Not that we haven't been busy around here though! Last weekend I got the garden box set and filled with bedding mix and we planted our veggies on Friday night! Little Dude was very excited to help plant and water the new plants!

 I also have been busy putting in a small flowered in the front yard.  Another project that has been on my to-do list for 2+ years! We also got a couple blueberry bushes for the backyard (what with LD's love for blueberries.) They are full of blooms now and the bees are busy pollenating. Hopefully we get some berries and can keep the birds away! As usual, my little helper was accompanying me to do the planting!

Anyway, back to the playhouse... In the aftermath of all the rain, the post holes for the front of the ship had caved in quite a bit so we had to clean those out before getting started. Last weekend I had fastened together the front three posts that will secure the prow (and climbing rope) to make them easier to set. With that done, it was just a matter of measuring and leveling out with the rest of the previously set posts then concreting!

Unfortunately, with all of the cave-ins we have had, the front hole had gotten quite large, so it swallowed up the 5 bags of concrete that we had left before we could cement the two front posts. 400 pounds of conrete later, I don't think those posts are going anywhere. Looks like another Home Depot trip is in order to get some more concrete to set the remaining two posts.

You can finally see the outline of the ship with all of the posts set. (Prow of the ship pointing to the left, with the raised deck and swingset to the back right.) Next up we will be leveling the tops of the posts and starting to frame for the decks! 

That's all for now, check back soon!

TWB

Rain Delay!

We made quite a bit of progress this past weekend despite the fact that I think we surpassed the 2011 precipitation total over the course of the last week! On my Friday off, I went out to check the damage to our newly dug holes and this was what I found:

I was going to Home Depot anyway to get some lumber for another project, so I had the perfect excuse to pick up an item I had been wanting to try out for the past couple years. Fortunately, up until this point, I had never had a drainage issue anywhere, but this was the perfect excuse. Plus, it beat the heck out of what we had to do growing up: that consisted of dipping a plastic cup into the hole and cleaning it out a few ounces at a time. I guess I think it is so cool since it is basically the same technology as a rod pump (pardon the petroleum engineering geekiness!)

Even though my hand-powered pump didn't have quite the lifting power of this behemoth (ahh, nostalgic West Texas,) I was confident it could get the job done.

For your viewing pleasure, here is an action shot of Uncle C getting "pumped" to clean out one of the holes! I am happy to say that it worked like a dream!

Once we got all the water out of the holes and cleaned out the minor washouts (watch out for hole-stability issues in an uncased hole! - again, pardon the PE geekiness!,) we were ready to set some more posts and get them concreted in. To get everything squared up properly, we called on Uncle C's ongoing education at prestigious Rice University and his knowledge of the proper deployment of laser technology!

With the back half of the posts stable and square, it was time to mix some concrete! Once again, the foreman showed up to supervise and "help us out" at the most critical moments...

Mission accomplished for this week: we have half of the posts set and concreted and are on track to get the remaining set in the next week or two. In case the picture below doesn't make sense, the two taller posts to the right are for the swing set and the other three are for the raised captain's quarters at the rear of the ship. Now it was time for some Super Bowl viewing and chili eating!

With a little over four months to the christening of The Becky's Revenge, time is slipping by quickly. Check back soon!

PS - For all you non-Mariettans, here is a picture of the Becky Thatcher in all her glory when she was docked in Marietta. The second picture is of her last moments before sinking near Pittsburgh. :*(

TWB