Ok, Now It's Done

The last item to be completed on the pirate ship is now done. You'll recall that I painted it Ace Pirate Ship Brown but I didn't do any decoration. That was waiting for 2 small hands and large imaginations. And it needed a name. Behold the USS Ghost Pirate.

Why Ghost Pirate? Because she's 7 and he's 5 and that's just the way they roll. That is a picture of the ship's namesake below the name. He looks pretty darn ghosty piratey to me but then I may just be a bit prejudiced.

Here's Little Bit proving she can both paint and spell. She did the bulk of the work while The Boy hung out and 'supervised'.

Small hands, some poster paint, a small paint brush and a big heart can work wonders.

The ships wheel. It was a lazy susan Lu found but it's now been turned into the mechanism to move worlds.

A pirate ship moves on water. When none is at hand then some must be provided.

Little Bit graciously gave the back side of the ship to The Boy. It's clams, starfish and way down at the bottom a treasure chest.

The kids decided to honor the builders by inscribing our names on the ship. Grandpa got the prime spot which put a smile on my face I'll never lose.

If you look just behind the swing you can see a cannon complete with cannon ball and lit fuse. I even hung Christmas lights on it.

Touched by angels it is now complete. A child's play area is not done until those it is meant for have christened it. When I look at it now I no longer view it as a blank canvas waiting for the master to create a work of art. It is whole, warm and inviting. It says "Here there be children". No captain ever had a finer vessel. No Papa ever had finer grandchildren. If what we create is a mirror of our souls then I am content. I made 2 small children happy. I better epitaph I cannot imagine.

Six

Pirate Ship Update - Finished (Mostly)

It's been a while since I posted about the Pirate Ship I was building for the grandkids. I managed to break Lu's camera and still haven't replaced it so when the DO got here she took some pics for me. Click any picture to enlarge.

Here's where we left off. The main cabin structure without siding and the beam laid on for measuring. No prow and no landscaping.

Because I was sans camera I didn't get any further build pictures so here's the finished project. I'll just have to talk you through what I did, how I did it and why. I was overruled on the whole two story thing by higher command. I just cut off the 4x4s at the rear of the ship and used the two in front as rigging. The 4x6 beam is bolted to the roof with the end held up by a 1/4 inch steel 4x4 that's 10 feet long. The steel 4x4 is set 3 feet into the ground with 160 pounds of concrete. The beam has a swing, a tire swing and a climbing rope.

The prow is set on another pier block and attached to the main cabin with 2x6 framing. The floor is OSB over 2x4 floor joists. When I decided against it being two stories I went ahead and roofed the main cabin with shingles. The sheathing is more OSB with 2x4s and 2x6s for support. Everything is either nailed or screwed together.

Lu and I were at an antique store when she found this rock. It's fiberglass and it is way cool. 75 bucks. I love finding stuff like this and it added a nice climbing rock to the play area.

We had some old fishing net floats that Lu contributed to the build. I hung them on the sides and used some nylon rope as rigging.

Here's another view of the swings. I wanted to keep the ship theme so used wood and rope everywhere I could. Lu tested everything out. Just to be sure it was safe of course.

 
You can see the steel 4x4 post here. At the top I took two pieces of angle iron, welded them together to form a U bracket, drilled it, welded it to the post and lag bolted the whole thing to the beam. It's solid as a rock. That was Sarges idea. I was going to use an A-frame but this is both stronger and takes up a lot less space.

I bought a small basketball goal and mounted it to the end. We're planning on having some epic HORSE games. I went down to Ace and bought two gallons of brown paint. The paint guy asked me what shade and I told him Pirate Ship Brown. He offered a color, I accepted and it's now officially known at my local hardware store as Ace Pirate Ship Brown. He still chuckles whenever I come in.

Every Pirate Ship needs protection and this one is no different. This is a gun ship not a sissy merchanter. If you look closely you can see the cannon mounted on the side of the prow. That is most emphatically not a Nerf gun. It's a period correct replica of a repeating cannon manufactured in the 17th century by Theodor Geisel Armaments commonly referred to as a Ma Seuss. It's NFA of course. You can also see inside the main cabin. There's a 4x4 post just inside the doorway that holds the ships wheel. I put down some old carpeting I had from the bathroom/hallway remodel for padding. It's snug, cozy and a great clubhouse.

All in all I'm please with the result. The ship measures out at 7 1/2 feet wide by 20 feet long and 8 1/2 feet high not including the spars. It's surrounded by outdoor carpeting with gravel around the whole thing. It has swings, ropes, a basketball hoop and a rock to climb. The kids seem to enjoy it so I'm calling it a success.

Here's a random photo of Angus enjoying the play area just because he's so cute.

The yard was originally dirt and weeds. Lu took care of the weeds and I covered the rest with landscaping fabric, outdoor grass carpeting and gravel. That's 10 tons of gravel I moved by wheelbarrow, shovel, rake and a 5 gallon bucket. Each and every pebble. It really looks quite nice with the ship surrounded by a green sea and gravel shoals. There's plenty to do and it's a nice place for adventures and fantastical voyages of imagination. I thoroughly enjoyed the build with enthusiastic help from Sarge and Lu. It was all done off the cuff and straight out of my head. I think that's called seat of the pants engineering. All you real engineers should probably just look away. I tended to over build and it's managed to stand up to hard play and the usual Hurricane winds. This place is aptly named. The kids are going to take some paint to it and decorate it to their hearts content. It also needs a name. Monikers are being bandied about and as soon as one is chosen it will be painted on the prow.

This was a true labor of love. We managed to turn a couple of hundred square feet of dirt, mud and weeds into a play area for the kids that will hopefully allow them good, clean fun and a chance to exercise their imaginations as well as their bodies. I hope it reflects that.

 
Six

Pirate Ship Play Area For The Kids

As if I don't have enough on my plate. I decided that since DO and the kids are visiting for a couple of months (they'll be here on the 23rd 24th!) we needed a nice play area for the kids. Right now they're into pirates and a few years ago they went nuts for a play ship at the Wharf in Monterey. So my play area will combine swings and other play stuff with a pirate ship theme. It'll be pretty big so it's going to take me a while to get it finished. We started last Sunday.

First up was to make some kind of a plan, buy some materials and put in the base. A clumsy sketch, a rough materials list and a trip to the Big Box Home Store and we were off.

I started with 4 pier blocks. I want the base to be 10' long by 6' wide. The sill plate is 2x6 with 2x4 floor joists. I dug pier blocks down about 10 inches. It's most important to get the sill plate square and level as the rest of the structure will follow.

 I nailed the 2x6s together at the corners but they'll be carriage bolted to the 4x4 uprights later.

It's going to be 2 stories with the second floor at 6 feet. After finishing the leveling and squaring of the first floor I put up the 4x4 uprights. I then built the second floor sill plate on top of the first floor and slid it up into place. I temporarily nailed it in place after making sure it was also square and level.

 The cross pieces you see are for lateral support until I can get some skin on the frame.

The uprights must be level on both sides before I bolt them to the sill plates. I'll have some flexibility later but it's a lot easier to check level and square at each step..

 If you click on the image you can see the bubble leveled.

After I was satisfied it was true we bolted the whole thing together at the corners with 8 inch long 1/2 inch carriage bolts with washers. You can see them at the corners here. There's 2 at each corner, 1 from each side. Each sill plate is now nailed and bolted to the uprights. The structure is actually pretty solid at this point.

My helpers, Lu, Sarge and MiL. It's so much easier with good assistants.

Next up is floor joists and flooring. I used 2x4s for the joists and OSB for the floor.
First floor is done. That's me skinning the second floor. The 4x4 uprights are 10 feet tall so you can see how big this thing is going to be. The second floor is 6 feet above the first with the uprights an additional 4 feet over that. Each floor used exactly 2 1/2 sheets of 4x8 OSB. I love it when a plan comes together.

 Each OSB sheet is nailed to the floor joists and the sill plates. You can also see that we've buried and tamped the pier blocks. It's just some additional insurance against the thing moving around. We also put 4 mil plastic under the first floor to guard against weeds and bugses.

 I love power tools. I'm using my pneumatic framing nailer to install the floor. It makes things a lot easier.

I bought a 10 foot long 2x6 beam for swings, a rope climb and some monkey bars. I placed it so I could see how it was going to work and whether or not I needed to raise it above the level of the second floor. It'll stick out an additional 5 feet from what this picture depicts so there will be plenty of room for stuff. I'll bolt it to the floor and have a 4x4 A-frame at the far end for support. It's just shy of 7 feet from the ground. Lu and Sarge think that will be fine for swings. I tend to agree but I only want to do this once so I have to get it right the first time. Opinions?

Imagine if you will. To the left of the frame, as viewed here (where the ladders are), I'll add in a ships bow. It'll be about an additional 10 feet long and 3 feet high. It'll be surrounded with gravel we're going to paint ocean blue. There will be 2 ladders/stairs from the bow to the second floor (one on each side of the bow). The bow will have a mast for the raising of the pirate's flags. There will be a door into the first floor cabin between the 2 stairs. I'll put the ships wheel on the second floor, just above the bow. The second floor will have a hip height banister with vertical rails with all the way around it.
The back, where the OSB is standing at the fence line, will be sheathed with climbing points (think rock climbing wall).
The right side, nearest the camera, will also be sheathed with port holes.
The front, under the 4x6 beam, will have the swings and a knotted climbing rope. Right next to the structure and running across the face will be monkey bars at the level of the second floor.

I'll probably use lattice here and there both to give some structural rigidity and as a safety feature. There will be an additional door into the first floor at the right front, leading from the play area under the beam. I'm considering putting in an adults stair on the right side leading to the second floor with a gate at the top.

I'm sure I'll change and add things as we go. That's the nature of such a project and I'm not working to a set plan. I'm designing as I go. I'd appreciate any input anyone would care to give.

I'll update as we go with a full write up when I'm done. I went through a lot of web sites and saw a lot of stuff I liked. I kinda stole what I liked and improvised the rest. Man, I hope they like it.

Six