For our daughter's seventh birthday, we thought we'd surprise her with a swing set. So while she was away at her grandparents' for the week, we dodged summer thunderstorms and clouds of gnats to put one together.
We had a few pressure treated 4x4s left over from a temporary home-building project last year, so we put those to work as our A-frame swing set legs. We thought we were going to be able to connect the A-frame and the cross bar with joist hangers, but Lowe's didn't have anything that fit the bill. After much discussion with a Lowe's guy about how we could effectively cross two boards and still attach both a cross bar and support beams, we decided to cut notches in each of the boards, fit them together like tabs, and then bolt them together. I'm sure there's a carpentry term for this kind of joint, but it escapes me at the moment.
To begin, we laid the two boards on top of each other to mark the angle we wanted, and then we set the circular saw to a depth that would cut down exactly half-way through our 4x4. Then we cut a series of lines out in between our marks.
Using a chisel, it was a simple thing to break the sliced pieces of wood out, leaving this:
A nicely carved canyon.
Do this four times over, and you've got four boards that fit snugly into each other.
Next up, we used an auger to drill holes for the bolts that would hold the A-frames together.
Voila! We have our teepee-top for our A-frame.
Next up we cut out a channel for the cross beam to sit in, using a combination of drill, circular saw, and jigsaw.
Our cross beam is a 4x6, so while most of it will be held by our channel, some of it will stick out the top.
Into that cross beam, we bored more holes, then hammered through long, strong eye-hooks, from which the swings would eventually hang.
We added two boards to each A-frame, as you can see here, for stability. The higher of the two cross supports will eventually brace the angled supports we'll put in the corners. This is looking wobbly and tippy at this point--all we did was set the A-frame sides up and lay on the cross bar. Next we had to attach them and square everything.
We did use some minor joist joints here--angle brackets to help keep things in place. On the back side, which we apparently didn't photograph, we used a flat plate to attach the end of the cross beam to the A-frame.
Next up we cut angled beams to give the swing set some side to side support. These run from the upper A-frame cross brace to just before the swing eye hooks on the cross beam.
We had to add a second cross beam to help cover the length of the angled cut on the support beam. We also had to toe-nail the support beam into the cross bar, which is never fun.
When it was finished though, the swing set's upper corners were really sturdy!
And there you have it! A finished swing set frame.
We're in the home stretch. All we have to do is attach our swings. We used super-strength naval carabiners that hold something crazy like 1,500 pounds of weight, to which we attached a vinyl-coated chain. (Great for gripping, and doesn't get tangled up with long hair!)
The chains had to be adjusted for height by cutting away the vinyl coating.
Our seats were homemade too, although you can buy all kinds of swing set seat. This is a pressure-treated 2x6 with eye hooks in the ends, wrapped in an outdoor canvas we bought at Hancock's. Half a yard was all we needed for both swings.
And now it's play time!
By request, pics of our new gravity-defying library, a work in progress. Video of the construction is on the way.
The hole in the floor is where the attic ladder nestles in. It folds down to the ground below so the library can be accessed.
This is just Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Graphic Novels, General Fiction, Mystery, and Young Adult. All the Middle Grade and Picture Books are in Jo's room, and the Non-Fiction shelves will go on the ground floor below the library.
We've been quiet here at Gratz Industries after a virtual flurry of post-holiday posts--sometimes even two or three a day!--for a few reasons.
First, we could not feel our fingers. The mobile home we're living in until the new house is habitable ran out of fuel oil--again. And just like the last two times--one on a weekend, the other on a holiday--this depletion proved to be horrible timing. We returned home Sunday night from spending a delightful day in the company of friends in Asheville to find the last of our oil gone and the mobile home already down to a chilly 50 degrees. Then the snow began. Lots of snow. And the temperature dropped, both inside and out. It was Wednesday before we could get down the mountain to buy more fuel oil. We had the fireplace in the mobile home, but overnight on the last day, after the fire died, the temperature dropped to 36 degrees. Inside.
But by day, we were toasty and warm. Why? Because our new house was entirely habitable BUT for two piddly, insignificant things: we hadn't drilled a hole for the drier exhaust (even though we haven't moved a drier in yet), AND because one of the switches in the breaker box needed to be an arc fault switch and not a regular breaker switch. (A code thing. It works just fine the way it is now.) That's it. Otherwise, it has working toilets, working faucets, and, most importantly, working heat.
Though our building inspector--regretfully, he admitted--could not give us our certificate of occupancy, he did give us permission to begin moving our things in, which we did with gusto. (Pictures follow.) We also spent every moment we could in the new house, save the shivering evenings before the fire where we ate from our still-functioning mobile home kitchen and slept under piles of blankets. Had we been snowbound one more night, we would no doubt have moved our futon over and slept in the new house, certificate of occupancy be damned. But we managed to remain legal--perhaps more out of perversity than anything--and so we will be able to celebrate even more heartily when the building inspector gives us the final-final go-ahead.
Now the drier hole has been drilled and the vent attached, and the electrician has promised to be out today, around noon, to fix the one problem that remains in the breaker box. After I finish this post, I am calling the building inspector to see if he can come out this afternoon, and perhaps--PERHAPS--we may officially be in tonight. I remain cautiously optimistic. (As I often tell Wendi, with my best Austin Powers voice, "'Caution' is my middle name, baby.")
And so, to the promised pictures!
The newly installed drier vent, from the outside.
And the less distinguished inside.
Jo's playroom/art room, in progress. The quilt is where we eat our picnic lunches.
Jo's new IKEA loft bed!
Jo's reading nook, in progress.
Jo's "closet."
Wendi's craft room hutch.
Wendi's craft room shelves.
The new IKEA wardrobes in the bedroom.
My office, deconstructed.
More bookshelves like that lonely fellow will eventually line the back of those wardrobes, with a corkboard equivalent above them.
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