this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2024
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Woodworking

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I’m not active enough of an internet guy to remember to actually post stuff - so we’re going back 6 months…

I surprised my daughter (and the entire family) on Christmas morning when they found this waiting in the living room. I hadn’t told my partner I’d been working on anything, kept it quiet.

It’s all just pine, dressed all round. Had to go buy a cheap and nasty jigsaw to cut the doors and opening between floors since my coping saw broke whilst trying to work this (handle snapped clean off, thanks Stanley)

The roof- cut at an angle, turned one piece over and glued it. Then stood like a statue holding it for half an hour pressing it against the ground until it dried enough. Couldn’t think of any other way to hold it tight at that angle -_-

The floors and balcony are all slotted into through dados. Cut, chiseled and then cleaned up a bit with trim router. And I hate so much working pine with chisels! (I’ve since got a bigger router bit that would have made this much easier)

Finished with water based Jarrah stain, with water based acrylic paint on the roof and “bathroom”. Some of that finish is really sloppy, I was still out there late on Christmas Eve trying to get the last few coats on.

A leftover sheet of mdf (think about 5mm) just painted and nailed in as the back wall.

There’s a little set of stairs on the ground floor finished with dark carnauba wax. There’s also a little rope ladder going up to the top floor - was from our pet bird who had left us recently.

A whole mish mash of different ideas here, but I just wanted to make something fun and interesting for my daughter.

For what I wanted to do for her first big Christmas (just turned 3), this turned out better than I thought I could do.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This is awesome! Amazing work.

Did you secure it to the wall with anything? I'd be concerned it may fall out given how narrow it is (and that kids tend to pull and push on shelves).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

A few bits of velcro stuck with adhesive backing. She’s very careful, but yeah don’t want to risk it.