Playset Ramp for Lauren

We've got a big swing set in the backyard that also has a slide attached to a platform that is about four feet off the ground. Lauren loves to go down the slide, but she can't quite make it up the ladder to the platform all by herself.

Last night Rosemary asked me about building a ramp so that Lauren could make it up without our help. Thirty minutes later this is what we had :

It's made up of two 2x4s on edge for the sides, with 2x4 blocking on 16" centers separating them. Topped off with 3/8" plywood, then some 3/8" plywood strips for traction. Lauren had a little trouble getting up so I added some more 5/8" softwood strips in between the 3/8" strips and now she can make it up no problem.


I think I'll add a 2x4 railing about a foot or so high to make it a little safer for her. Joshua liked going up and down the ramp as well - he asked to ride his scooter down it but we convinced him that it was not a good idea. Well, I think we convinced him...

Deck Finished

The Deck is done.

All the rotted wood has been picked up at the curb. The garbage men here are really good at taking anything I put out and I take advantage of that. They took the old deck in 5 or 6 loads and saved me from having to cart it to the dump and pay to get rid of it. Over the past two months I've got all the old deck into smaller pieces and filled up 6 garbage cans and a number of recycling bins and they took every piece away.

The railing is completed on the new deck and we've put our table back up and started eating on it. Though it was a lot of extra work, the under deck mounted screws means the top surface looks great.

We are very happy with how it has turned out - I'm sure we'll get a number of years out of this deck.

A few things that will eventually be addressed :

• boxing in the bottom of the columns for the roof to cover up the cement bases
• lattice on the side of the deck under the railing
• a trip hazard - open spot between the railing and the top deck stop on the sloping part of the railing

In any case the deck is done enough for now. I'll finish up other things before I get back to the deck.

Joshua's First Day of School

Joshua was very excited on his first day of Junior Kindergarten. He rode the bus all by himself with his backpack and Spiderman lunchbox.

Garage Painting

My house and back garage are both covered in vertical wood (pine) siding. Both were in need of a new coat of stain when we bought the house and I got started on that last year. The tallest part of the house is a little under 30 feet so I needed to use 3 ladders, including a borrowed 28 footer to get the house done.

I'm not sure how many hours the house took, but it was a lot. I'd have to guess somewhere around 40 hours total? Probably more - it's best not to think about it too much.

In any case, it's time to finish up the garage and I got started on it this weekend. I put in 6.5 hours to cover the front and side that you can see in the picture - that was the first coat. I started on the second coat and that will probably only take 4 hours.

That stain I am using (Superdeck) has a 15 year guarantee, and I'll be happy if it lasts 10 years. It's only sold by the gallon and I'll need 11 gallons to do the house and garage. I've been paying between $40 and $50 a gallon depending on if it's on sale.

The stain goes on pretty easy, I'm rolling it on and the back brushing. It dries quickly and it's thick enough that there are no visible runs. I'll have to wait and see how it holds up over the years but so far I'm very happy with it.

Deck Replacement - Part 7

Here is the deck with two coats of blue on it. The blue is darker in 'real life', the flash lightened it up a bit. Since I put one coat of stain Superdeck stain on the decking boards before I installed them, they've all got 3 coats of stain. With the protection of the roof overhead I hope this stain will last at least as long as the 5 year guarantee.

The two coats took 1.5 gallons of stain and about 2-3 hours to put on. I did my best to stain in between the cracks of the decking boards as they were originally stained a lighter colour. We are really pleased with the end result.

After finishing I realized that I should have stained the risers on the stairs the tan colour to match the house - oh well, maybe next time (5 years?).

To finish up I need to re-install the railing that I took out for the staining, add a coat of stain to the railing and posts, and stain/paint that green cement step.

To really finish up I need to box in the cement at the bottom of the support posts for the roof and add a railing between the end of the (uninstalled) railing and the support post at the far end of the deck. Those two might take a bit longer.

Wooden Inukshuk

The Detroit Zoo, Toledo Zoo, our neighbour's garden, Chickadee magazine, the 2010 Winter Games. We've been seeing inukshuks everywhere and Joshua has taken a real liking to them.

Rosemary tried to put one together a few days ago with him out of rocks we had around the backyard but his sister was determined to knock it over as soon as two rocks were piled on top of one another.

Joshua asked me today to build up a inukshuk out of the blocks we have, but since it was during his sister's nap time I thought it would be a good excuse for us to play together in the workshop.

We dug through the scrap pile and found some leftover construction lumber from still unfinished rocketship playhouse and got started!

The wood was severely cupped (probably why I never used it) so we ran it through the sander to get a flat face, then the planer to flatten the other side.

Next it was over to the bandsaw to cut out the different parts. I tried having Joshua draw the parts to cut but that was too cumbersome so I just had him tell me what size to make and I cut it out. I curved all the sides so they looked more like rocks and we built it up until it was about a foot high.

I tried to convince him to leave in pieces so he could build and rebuild, but he wanted to glue it so that's what we did. Over to his workbench where we glued it up then clamped it up.

Here's Joshua removing the clamp a few hours later after the glue had dried.


Here's Joshua with his finished (?) product. He did some sanding with the sponge he's holding and he's asked to paint it as well. If he asks again tomorrow I'll get out some paint for him.


This was a fun and easy project for us to do together. The most time consuming part was running the boards through the sander. I think we finished it up in about 1.25hrs.

Deck Replacement - Part 6

The deck is finally finished!

Well, almost. Now it needs two coats of solid stain - the darker blue in the above picture. We originally picked the lighter greenish blue, but switched to the dark blue after we saw how the lighter colour looked.

The steps were quite a challenge and probably took more time than the rest of the deck. The rails are removed in the above picture, they and the posts are stained brown to match the house so I moved them out of the way for staining the rest of the deck.

I'm using Superdeck Solid Color & Stain, the same product I stained the house with. It has a 15 year guarantee on siding and 5 year on decks, so I'm hopeful it will last for awhile. The brown colour is a custom match with the house, the blue is 'Slate Blue'.

I really like how the Superdeck goes on, though it is a huge pain to try and clean the brushes and rollers I am using. I've been just putting the brush, roller and tray in plastic bags and keeping them in the fridge in between painting sessions. Keeping them in the fridge prevents the paint/stain from drying out. Once I'm done I'll throw out the brush and buy a new one - I tried cleaning one before when I stained the house and it was a waste of time.

Workshop Organization - Drawers

We bought this cheap Rubbermaid cabinet to fill a space in our old house and provide some storage Joshua's games and toys in his basement playroom. When we moved into our new house, we decided that we did not want it inside and so it was banished to my workshop to provide some storage before I finished up the workshop.

Two years later I'm starting to empty it.

I bought some 26" full extension slides awhile ago from Lee Valley and am finally getting around to building the drawers to go with them. Like most woodworkers I have entirely too much scrap wood hanging around, so I dug through the pile to find the material I needed to build some drawers.

The drawer bottoms will be 3/8" plywood - one of the pieces I found need a small patch before I could use it - some glue and a few staples will hold the patch in place.

The sides come from salvaged plywood, old shelves that were being tossed at my work. After ripping them, cutting the dado for the shelf and cutting them to length, I drilled pocket screw holes in the front and back, then clamp them up before pocket screwing them together. This is how I've build all the other drawers in the shop - no glue and they hold together fine.

I always check the squareness of the draw before putting in the second set of screws - this one needed to be straightened a little before screwing. Again, no glue just pocket screws to hold these together.

After mounting the three drawers, I filled them up with some nails, screws and hardware from the cabinet. I'll probably add some handles later.

The cabinet is on it's way to being emptied - and moved out of the workshop, which will open up a nice spot for Joshua's workbench.

Workshop Visitors

My parents recently picked up a new camping trailer and needed to add some drawers to provide some more storage. They came over to my workshop and I gave them a hand putting some drawers together.

They were using AC plywood for the drawer sides, with one good side, we ran the 'C' side through my new sander to smooth them out a little. Joshua came out to catch the wood pieces. The sander worked great and the dust collection is excellent.

Rosemary and Lauren stopped by to check on our progress as well.

The drawers were just simple boxes, pocket screwed, glued with a 1/8" hardboard bottom. Unfortunately I did not have enough pocket screws so we could only finish two out of 7 drawers. The rest my Dad will finish up at home after they pick up some pocket screws.

With the 1/2" plywood we need 1" pocket screws. I had a jar of pocket screws that I'd picked up awhile ago - it was labeled 1" screws but full of 1 1/4" screws - argh!