Day 17, 18, 19, and 20

With the help of our young women's leader, Susan, we accomplished quite a bit on day 17. The windows and door frames were fixed, so we could put trim on, we painted a second coat, and we cut the trim. For the first three days of Christmas break, Brittni and I froze our buns as we completed the last of the playhouse. First we began with putting on the trim and caulking and painting the trim. We had to tape around each segment of trim in order to keep red off of the white. Even with our precautions we still managed to get red speacles on the siding.

The next step was to touch up the white. We thought we were done until we took a step back and decided it didn't look quit finished. The next day we painted the front and back eves. This time, when we took a few steps back, we were satisfied. Our shouts of joy could be heard from miles away. We're finally done!

Special Thanks to:

The Spanish Trails Ward Elders Quorum 

Don Peterson

David Peterson

Bonnie Peterson

Roxy Peterson

Dani Peterson

Stephen Peterson

Travis Peterson

Russ Mardis

Regan Mardis

Susan Carter

Maddie Wray

Britany Kurtz

Crystal Kurtz

Michelle Grafelman

Nathan Craven

Allen Lee

Katie Lee

All our family and friends for their support

Total Hours: 15

Day 16

I don't know exactly what we did this day because it has been about a month from the time we accomplished some of these things until now, but what I do know is from August 17th until now these things have happened...

1. The OSB board for the roof was screwed on.


2. The rest of the siding was nailed on and painted.


3. The roof was tarred and shingled, making it complete.

Now the only things left to do are the trim and the second coat of paint. Even if Mother Nature decides she doesn't want work with us, the playhouse should be completed in the next couple of days.

Total Hours: 10

Day 15

Accomplishments:

1. Finished cutting out the door.

2. Finished making "stringers" for the rafters.

3. Made the remaining three diagonal boards to stabilize the walls.

4. Cleaned up the yard for the first time since June.

Temperature: 100˚

"Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it."

      -Greg Anderson

Total Hours: 5

Day 14

Accomplishments:
1. Cut two of the 4 boards needed to make an A in the roof.
2. Cut one of eight boards that will go diagonally inside the walls to make them more stable.

Total Hours: 2

Day 13

Accomplishments:
1. Cut four more boards
2. Screwed those four boards in
3. Put more screws in the other four boards
4. Took down the board that were initially needed to stabilize the beam across the top.

Total Hours: 4

Day 12

Accomplishments:
1.We screwed in the other 3 boards.

Problems:
1. It was really hot, so we put the tramp mat up to block the sun.

Total Hours: 3

Day 11

Accomplishments:

1. Cut boards to go between beams.
2. Screwed in one of four boards.



Problems:

1. The speed on the drill was stuck between one and two. Me and Brittni were unaware and had to be enlighten by my dad's intelligence.






"Not creating delusions is enlightenment."
        -Bodhidharma

Total Hours: 3

Day 10

If we were going by days that either me or Brittni worked on the playhouse, there would be a day where me and my dad put up the first three boards for the roof and marked 8 more boards. But, seeing as how this is both mine and Brittni's project Day 10 will be the day me and Brittni, with the help of my dad, placed the next 4 boards.

After a long break, we finally looked like we were making progress.

Total Hours: 4

Day 9

Accomplishments:
1. Finished window frames

2. Moved playhouse onto trailer with the help of Katie, Bishop, Dad, Mom, Roxy, Travis, Crystal, Britany, Brittni and Myself.

3. Put up siding
4. Painted the first coat

Special Thanks to:
Britany
Crystal
Dad
Dani
Maddie
Michelle
Mom
Nathan









"There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others."
           -George Shinn

Total Hours: 3

Day 8

Accomplishments:
  1. Drained tarp on roof
  2. Moved, took staples out of, cleaned, and moved siding.
  3. Cut boards for the door
  4. Made frames for the windows
  5. Got bitten by misquitos

Total Hours: 8

Day 7

Accomplishments:

1. Leveled Walls

Problems: 

1. Leveler didn't work

2. Our leveled walls were sometimes not very level, and had to be redone.

Explanation:

The lever didn't work on the walls because the ground wasn't level, which made the floor not level, making the walls not level.

Solution:

We figured if the walls were the same length from the ground to the top of the wall, they would be level. We're not completely sure if this is actually true, but it sure seems like it.

Total Hours: 5

Day 6

Accomplishments:

1. Put together the last two walls

2. Mounted the remaining walls to the floor.

Problems:

1. The drills ran out of battery

2. A drill bit was needed to get 4'' screws in.

Total Hours: 5

Day 5

It happened like this...
When we started, the floor was nearly finished. We just had to put in the remaining supporting boards, and cover the rest of the floor. While we were adding boards to the foundation, we were visited by Katie, Matt, and Michelle. I told them not to hide in the trees for the picture, but they obviously didn't listen to me.

Once the rest of the floor was screwed into place, all that was left to do was trim around the edges. For an operation as skillful as this was, we needed assistance. My dad directed us in using the chalk line, trimming the OSB board and removing the excess on the corners of the foundation.

As we thought about our plans for tomorrow, we decided it would be great if we started out with boards that had already been cut. So, we measured and cut the boards that would be used for the second wall. Seeing the boards all cut, made us want to just finish what we started. Thus, the completion of the second wall.

“If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way."

-Mark Twain

Total Hours: 6

Day 4

We began by digging through my storage container. It's more challenging than it seems. Moving boxes, bags, odds and ends from the inside to the outside, we finally found the board, and shouted for joy!

We placed the boards under the foundation to visualize exactly what we wanted. Then, we cut the boards. We didn't make them the exact size we needed; we thought ahead this time and left room to fix our mistakes. Once cut, we laid them on top of the foundation and marked where the boards where underneath. Excited to start making the floor, we started to screw on the first board. Our excitement must have made us blind, because we didn't match up the board with the foundation very well. We had to unscrew the board, fix it, and screw it again. Each board was marked so we knew where the boards underneath it were, and then screwed into place.

At the end we found foibles in the floor. Now we have to add boards to the foundation. The floor should be complete by the end of day 5.

"Genius is the ability to act rightly without precedent – the power to do the right thing the first time."

           -Elbert Hubbard

Total Hours: 4

Day 3

On this day, we felt like we did a crap load of work, and only a little was accomplished. We used boards my dad acquired from a friend. They were wonderful boards, except they were rough cut. Each board's length, width, and thickness was different. However, this was not the biggest problem. The thickness on each board was different from one end to the other. The average width of the each board was about 5''. To prevent ginormously thick walls, we split the boards in half with the table saw. 

We worked from noon till 8ish with a half hour break for linner (lunch and dinner).  Needless to say we laughed a lot, called each other names, and acted like exhausted fools. 

Our greatest accomplishment was the completion of our first wall. Yay!

"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
           -Kurt Vonnegut
Total Hours: 8

Day 2

Put in simple terms, we screwed a bunch of boards inside THE SQUARE to make a firm foundation. This was the first day we used the skill saw.

We cut and screwed into place 3 large boards and 2 short boards between each of the long boards. This took a lot of measuring, patience, and skillful sawing.

Michelle and Matt came over to witness our hard work. She took a picture (shown below) of our unique teamwork. I used the saw, and Brittni held the board in place.

By the end of the day we had completed the foundation. We felt very accomplished. We finally had tangible proof of our hard work.

"How firm a foundation..."
        -Hymn #85


"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him."
      -David Brinkley

Total hours: 4

Day 1

This was the day we pulled out nail after nail and staple after staple from pallet after pallet.

After we had enough salvaged wood, we began construction of the foundation. First, we had to talk with "the experts" on how to build a foundation. Next, we decided the dimensions we wanted. The first big problem was that the wood was thin, so we had to double the wood for double the strength. Our last accomplishment of the day was the completion of THE SQUARE (the basic structure of the foundation).

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

             -Henry Ford
Total hours: 4

Day 0

With the help from a few experts (Dani and my dad), Brittni and I came up with our plans for the playhouse. It took several hours and plenty of distractions, but we had plans. We decided to be thrifty and use whatever materials we could find at our houses rather than spend tons of money. We began our search by taking a tour of my yard. The materials we found were not the highest quality, but we were confident we could make it work.

"Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live."
          -Samuel Taylor Coleridge