When my 4 year old son perused the toy catalogs that came in the mail prior to X-mas, one thing was certain - he loved all the towers and buildings being advertised for action figures. However, I refused to buy one more plastic piece of junk that inevitably breaks after a couple of uses. When I found these plans, I knew they were perfect! My husband and I worked on this together, he's much steadier with our jig saw. I fitted my drill press with a hole cutter for the tops of the arched doorways. We added a rope swing and green paint to the original design. I had trouble knotting the twine for the ladder at even intervals so I used some cylindrical wooden beads I found from an old necklace to use as spacers. It doesn't close up as tightly as we'd like, but we can still get the clasp closed. I decoupaged some of the inner walls with scrapbook paper for fun scenes: maps, brick walls, pebbles, bark, and forest. It was a fun project for us and it's been fun watching him! He has played with this tower nearly every day since he opened it up X-mas morning!
Comments
Cindy from Indiana (not verified)
Sat, 03/10/2012 - 07:58
That looks beautiful! Quick question...
Wow! That turned out beautifully! We are looking at starting a raised bed garden as well. Yours turned out great.
Quick question/concern, though. Are you growing edibles in yours? If so, what did you do to block the treated lumber so it doesn't leach chemicals into the soil?
You did a fantastic job!
windjamer812
Sun, 03/11/2012 - 01:37
Pressure Treated Lumber Is Safe
The chemicals used to treat lumber today are safe. Even with growing food. I can attest that the plants will not be dwarfed by it either. My tomatoes reached heights of 6 feet. I have included a link to a PDF file from Purdue University explaining that. The stain is simply an exterior water based deck stain called natural cedar. The chemicals in stain that are used today no longer contain arsenic. This was eliminated in 2003. This includes oil based stains. I hope that answers your question.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hort.purdue.edu%2Fe…
Cindy from Indiana (not verified)
Mon, 03/12/2012 - 08:28
Thanks for the response!
Hey windjamer812,
Thanks for the response and the link! That's good to know as it really opens up the materials available to me. I'll go check out that PDF as well.
Your project turned out beautifully. I'm excited to start something similar.
Thanks, again!
Cindy
P.S. Go Boilermakers! ;-)