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Octagon Dining Room Table

My second building project... this one took quite a while, building in the evenings after the kids went to bed.

The playhouse is based off of Ana's Playhouse Building series, with some modifications to fit the space in my backyard and accommodate climbing wall, monkey bars, and slide.

To put the main deck structure into the ground for sturdiness while protecting from moisture, I dug out 5 holes to fit single hole cinder blocks (4 corners plus an extra 4x4 for the monkey bars; you can see an leftover block on the ground in one of the pictures). I placed some brick in the holes, then the cinder blocks on top. I then partially filled the cinder blocks with sand, put the pre-built deck in the cinder block holes (with help - it's heavy!), and then filled the rest of the cinder block holes with sand. It's worked remarkably well - the deck has been up for about a year now. I also sprayed some clear waterproof sealant on the bottom part of each beam near the ground for extra protection (deck, monkey bars, climbing walls, and swingset A-frame). This has allowed me to still run sprinklers near/around the playset and even grow grass underneath the swings!

Materials used:
* Playhouse: pine, plywood, Suntuf solar grey polycarbonate corrugated roofing panels (I live in Arizona, so little rain to worry about but lots of heat - the sheeting lets light in but blocks most of the UV rays, corrugated shape also provides venting at top when placed sideways)

* Deck/Swingset/Monkey bars: treated lumber, composite decking, pine for railings, monkey bars purchased from Amazon

* Climbing wall: pine, treated lumber, handholds/railing bought off ebay/Amazon

* Swings/slide/bongos/wheel, telescope: purchased from Amazon

Modifications:
* Turned playhouse 90 degrees to be in back of the deck, with swingset coming off the side. This meant the support beam for the swingset had to pass through the playhouse - modified the frame for that wall slightly and created a notch for the beam to pass through.

* Slide comes out one end of playhouse - made the "window" on that end larger than the plans called for in order to give room for the slide.

* Monkey bars come off one side of the deck - used extra 4x4 here to create support for the bars, and used extra bars to make a ladder on this side

* Climbing wall instead of ladder for main entrance

* Put large window in back wall of the playhouse

* Added cross bracing to side of decking on swingset end to make it more solid/cut down on sway when swinging

We've built so many of these coffee tables, but this one has got to be my favorite. Isn't the stain so dreamy?

I think the biggest thing about this coffee table is to finish it properly. We like to plane our boards down so it gives it a bit more of a seamless look - but real rustic lovers don't need to do this. 

We sanded the coffee table down with 120 grit paper & then stained this table in Sunbleached Oak by Varathane. It's literally the most stunning color. Blends with almost any decor. 

Once that was dry, we applied two coats of polyurathane 

My son is obsessed with Pokemon, and has amassed quite the collection of Pokemon plush toys. I wanted a simple way to keep them contained but accessible, and this was the perfect solution! I changed a few things in my build to make it shorter and square, and used shock cord instead of rope for more give. My son loves it!

My mom was looking for a new outdoor table, and asked me to come up with something. I found the link for these plans (http://www.thedesignconfidential.com/2011/04/free-diy-furniture-plans-t…) to knock off Restoration Hardware's $4000 Provence Beam outdoor table. Overall I liked the plan, with the chunkier look of the 4x4's. But there were a lot of errors in the diagrams, and the finished height is 34" which is ridiculously tall for a table. So we took it apart and cut the legs back down to change the finished height to 30". We chose rough-cut cedar for it's look and outdoor properties, not wanting to use treated lumber for a dining table. We couldn't find 2x10's like the plan, so we substituted seven 2x6's just like Ana's plan, but left a 1/2" gap in between so water can drain and not pool on top and rot the wood. Also, since we were working with 4x4's for the legs, we chose heavy duty lag bolts instead of screws to join them together. I love the finished look they give. Overall it's a sturdy, yet lightweight table that my mom loves and has already used for entertaining!

Reader build

I adjusted your Barndoor l Pantry plans to utilize repurposed lumber from a Murphy bed. The shelves are 22" deep for my microwave, toaster oven, etc. It's so functional and much easier to work in my small kitchen.

Was a good project that I built for my son's new home.

I found a few errors in the instructions such as:

A) 2 - 2x4 @ 30 1/2 should be 30 1/4

B) 8 - 2x6 @ 32 15/16 both ends at 30 degrees off square, parallel to each other) should be cut at 34 15/16 blank sizes then cut the angles to acheive the finish size of 32 15/16

C) 8 - 2x6 @ 36 3/4 (both ends at 90 degrees off square, parrallel to each other) should be (both ends at 22 1/2 degrees off square, NOT parrrallel to each other)

My 8 year old daughter and I decided we wanted a bench to the kitchen. Found this plan here and went to the local lumber yard. My daughter drilled and screwed about half of the bench. So much fun doing this together.

I changed the plans a little bit to add on the extra shelf on top as well as making the shelves an inch narrower than the plans. The project was actually pretty easy and really only took me about a days worth of work.

I love these plans! I build a reading loft tree house for the kiddos that they love... and I might love even more.