Tea Time Among the Saw Dust

Today turned out to be productive but we started with two steps back. It's so frustrating when you have to take something apart to re-do. We both had "I told you so" moments. It just proves that it takes team work. We're good with that and didn't rub it in.

After the re-do was completed Jan wanted afternoon tea. Here is the tea time tray among the sawdust.

This is Pickwick tea we purchased from Erik Timmerman who delivers Dutch products every few weeks. We always enjoy our little bit of Holland but my question is, "Are the Dutch becoming too Americanized? I like labels in Dutch, this was the latest Pickwich tea and mostly in English. Kaneel is Dutch for Cinnamon, both words on the box but description was entirely in English. We've been buying Dutch Pickwick tea for 24 years and it's always been in Dutch if it's imported. This must be for export.

Moving forward, here is Jan, putting up the first long panel on one of the turrets. We cheered!

He liked this picture of him working and called himself the headless carpenter.

Cutting another panel of siding.

It looks quite different with siding going up.

 We had quite a mess at 3:30 and had no more siding to cut.

We quickly cleaned up and took off for the lumber yard to buy more siding.

The weather forecast is sunny for tomorrow. We shall see.

Code Enforcement Checked on Castle Shed

Monday morning, by 11 a.m. a city building code inspector was at our door. Some neighbor didn't waste a minute to call, must have called at 8 a.m. to report us. The roof frame went up permanently on Saturday.

We invited the inspector in, I was confident we did not need a permit for the shed. He said someone walking by called about the the height of the roof. He measured the square footage and we are well below 120 square feet. He measured the height, it is 11 feet, a foot below the 12 foot high maximum.

The inspector asked if the base was treated wood, yes it is. He asked if we were adding electricity. I told him no, only solar lighting. We were very happy when he left. It is good knowing that we are okay and not violating any building codes.

Look at the gargoyle's scowl, he was not happy but the pot of yellow Johnny-Jump Ups that our neighbor Tracey brought us did cheer him up.

We worked a while today and put out a few things after cleaning up. Our Dutch shoes fit right in to our Dutch inspired shed.

And I couldn't resist putting out some solar lights. Don't you think we need a chandelier hanging in each turret? They will be solar.

We finished the back side of the second turret, put up the back side panels and back fascia today. I painted the back wall. Next we will do the smaller back turret panels so the slant roof can go on.

Here is our inspiration, the Koppelpoort water gate built in the 1400s in Amersfoort, Netherlands. Jan took the photo when we went back to visit in 2006, what a surprise during our midnight walk. The Dutch know lighting so well.

Castle Shed Framing

We have the framing almost complete! Only one rafter and two segments of the turret framing to do. It feels good to have this part almost done.

Looking up to the left tower, it looks so large but is actually only 4 feet across.

And the second side.

We can now start adding some siding.

It was two months ago today that we put together the foam core model. At first it was just going to be two turrets with a wall between. The turrets in the model below were not complete, each was going to have a door. Soon I realized why not connect them with a slant roof shed between them.

Concepts always change and there are still changes to come but I'm liking it more each day.

We are two tired people tonight but it is a good tired.

Garden Castle Shed Turrets

It seemed like another two step dance today, two steps forward and one back. I'm getting so anxious to get the shed totally enclosed and roof on.

While Jan was setting up the tools I slapped a little paint on the back wall, the two left panels are white and the section behind the chair is a grayish putty color, didn't get a photo later in the day when the second coat was on. I wanted to test the colors. At this point the shed will be the pale gray and the windows and door frames probably a soft teal similar to the chair and basket.

We got the turret studs up today.

Piecing the shorter pieces of the turret was like putting together a difficult puzzle. The turret meets the slant roof and the short studs need to be supported to the rafters of the slant roof, we finally figured out how we would do that.

After dinner this evening we watched a couple of YouTube videos of Efteling, the fairytale park in the Netherlands that opened in 1952. I wanted to see it again and maybe be inspired by some of the fairytale scenes I remember when we visited in the early 1990s. It has expanded since we visited. The early designer of the park was Anton Pieck, the most famous Dutch illustrator of the 20th century. We have always loved his work.

While Jan is watching I movie I experimented with a piece of copper to make a finial for the top of the copper cap that will be on the pointed roofs of the turrets. I used my bezel mandrel to form the cone, still needs a little work and will be soldered closed. Maybe I will add a little copper flag that appears to be blowing in the wind, not sure yet.

The gargoyle is looking mean, he wants to have a finished shed to protect from evil demons!

Garden Castle Shed Second Turret

Early in the morning we went out to take a look at our garden castle shed construction site. Jan slipped on one of the roof octagons and the view up was so interesting I had to take a photo. It looks much bigger than it really is, I was standing below.

After returning from my office meeting I had doors to ship. Jan has been busy painting the orders, two were multiple doors, and three orders for one door each ordered from our Etsy shop, Paris Cabinet.

The second turret is started.

 

 

When the second turret framing is done we will need to decide how to proceed with the turret roofs since they are so high.

Four Steps Forward on the Garden Castle Shed

Success, we have a turret! It's Veteran's Day and we were able to work about 7 hours today. Finally we felt we had success on a very difficult part of building the garden castle shed. Sometimes sleeping on a problem solves the problem. I woke up thinking about the core and rafters and realized it is just a triangle from the center point and they should have a perpendicular cut.

Here are the first two rafters that fit fine on the core when it was laid it out.

They fit with no gap!

 And then there were 4 roof beams connected.

By then we had taken a lunch break and needed an afternoon cup of tea. I brought out a tray with tea pot covered with a tea cozy.

We celebrated the roof beams. Don't we look like the American Gothic painting? Almost.

As we started work on the turret we labeled things.

We kept going. 

The turret is taking shape.

Finally by 5 p.m. we had the turret beams up but it was too dark to get the roof up, this photo self corrected to look lighter than it really was, we had to stop for the day.

It is definitely looking like our plan and gargoyle will soon be doing his job.

Castle Shed Two Step

We're doing the castle shed two step, two steps forward and one back. We've only been able to work on the project several hours. Things are just not going smoothly but we think we finally know what to do.

We realized we should have used a 4x4 to make the core since the measurement works out so why glue up layers of plywood like our last post.

Here Jan is testing a  4x4 with the blade at an angle to get the sides made.

We anxiously tried propping old garden sticks to see how the roof angle will be for the turret.

Here is the new 8 sided core that all 8 rafters will attach to for the turret roof. We struggled and struggled to get the rafters to fit. There must be a mathematical method but that is beyond our math skills so we experimented and things were not flush to the core as they should be. We cut two rafters that worked but then when they and the core were put up to screw into place they didn't seem to fit. We adjusted and tried again and again.

Finally I realized the core had to be off and here is the proof. A perfect paste up shows the wood core needed adjusting.

It was off on 4 sides, no wonder every time we put it down and picked it up again things didn't match up!

Today the core was filed to be accurate and tomorrow we should finally get a turret framed up!

Octagon Roof Block for Garden Castle Shed

We only had a little while to work on the shed today. Jan screwed down the rafters. I finished painting the exterior of the the back wall.

I made an octagon pattern for the roof center piece where the turret rafters will meet. I printed 5 and glued them to a piece of plywood scrap.

Jan sawed out the pieces and glued all 5 together. Tomorrow, when it has dried well, the eight sides will be sanded smooth.

This evening we were talking about the solar lights and how green they looked last night after painting the globes and lenses yellow. Jan thought of the color wheel and realized it was because the solar lights have a blueish white cast and blue and yellow make green so that solved that! We need to add orange instead to get a yellow cast that we prefer.

Doesn't look much different but three of the supports are now removed.

Tomorrow we start working on a turret! That will be the most exciting part so far.

Dutch Cursing the Drill, Building the Garden Castle Shed

There was a lot of Dutch cursing going on today. Jan had to drill and install a lot of screws to get the back panels up. The dependable Mikita cordless battery gave out so he had to use the Bosch and the speed control is so finicky, that's what caused all the cursing.

Jan is sawing off the top of the back panels.

Pouring out some exterior primer paint.

By 4 p.m. I had my afternoon treat, see my glass to the right of the painting tray.

Cleaning up.

Back wall is up and primed.

We couldn't wait to see how solar lights look so we taped one on each side of the door opening and a 10 lumen floodlight is down below shining up, you can barely see the light below. We tested painting the lense yellow but it looks like a greenish cast, may need to try a different shade to get a warm yellow effect instead of the bright white.

Close up of a light taped to the stud.

Tomorrow we will permanently attach the rafters so the temporary support boards can be removed and we start on a turret. Can't wait!

Maybe a Dragon for the Garden Castle Shed

It's been a few days since we've had time to get back to building the shed. We had rain last Friday and a busy weekend. Now that the weather is going to be in the high 70s for the next five days we want to get as far as we can.

This is becoming like a giant puzzle. The transition from the slant roof in the center to the turrets will be interesting to figure out. Jan finished cutting the rafters, they are not attached till the back wall goes up.

When Jan finished he said, "I would rather build than watch sports."

Love my man!

Our little gargoyle's evil eye is contemplating the garden castle shed that he will guard against evil spirits.

As I walked through the framework today I remembered the paper mache dragons I made for family gifts in 2012. They were made the Dan the Monster Man way, see his incredible videos on Youtube.

   

Hmmm, I think I want a flying dragon for the garden castle shed. Should he be flying in a turret or over the roof?

Visit Dan Reeder's website at gourmetpapermache.com