Castle Play Structure - last minute play set details

The entire Play Set will be packed up Monday morning and transported to site for installation. The end of this past week was all about the details:

Aubrey adds professional Rock Climbing Holds to the Princess Tower walls:











Marco hangs doors and shutters & glues the long screws into the door knobs (extra secure) before screwing the knobs to the shutters:









Then Marco "details" the Kitchen play set. Here he is working on the Sink/Stove cabinet and will finish the matching Refrigerator later...












Then works on hinging the Drop Leaf Table & 2 Drop Seats that will be added to the Princess Tower interior:









Meanwhile, Jeff is putting together the Double Water Cannon: this custom water gun rotates & swivels, spraying a stream of water up to 30' off the bridge.












Rudi stains the long footing posts for the Clubhouse deck (2 color combination) while the other footing posts dry next to the lumber racks:












Then Rudi finishes staining all the bright & shinny details: finial tops, stars for the roof, and the burners for the stove top play accessory:










Back in the building bay, Jose puts together the Big Deck to test fit.









Monday morning, everything has to get loaded into the truck!

Tree house & play structure family business

Good Morning! Barbara likes to start her day with a cup of coffee from Atlas, favorite cafe in the San Francisco Mission district.
Followed by a hug with husband Jeff while discussing business...
Married over 18 years, they still love to work, live & play together.


Barbara's nephew, Tym, gave her a bike last night. Tym likes to tinker on old bikes, fixing them up and releasing them back into the world to be used again. Later in the day, Barbara finds time at work to try it out on the walking/bike path near the shop. Next time, Daisy & Jeff are going with her!

Rudi passed his interview for citizenship!

Good news. Rudi came in this morning and announced that he passed the interview. He has been "recommended for approval".
Now he is just waiting to receive notification of the final decision and then he will be sworn in at the ceremony to become a US citizen.

Congratulations Rudi!





Marco is bringing over the kitchen sink!

He's about to start detailing the Kitchen Set which includes a refrigerator, sink and stove. Just needs to add doors, burners, stainless steel bowl & faucets, oven racks, etc. and it will be ready for staining...





Meantime, Ember (sister & guest artist) is helping out by staining the knee braces that will go under the Big Deck.









And Aubrey (nephew and newest crew member) finally gets a chance to do something other than grind redwood lumber smooth, which is apparently cause for a smile.

He's looking forward to Monday when the crew goes on site to install - that's his favorite part of this process!





Barbara and Ember take time out for lunch. The South San Francisco fog has moved in so its cold outside - lunch is in the office today!







Oops - Aubrey is back on grinding.
Armando is using a template to draw the carving line around the "who-goes-there" on the upper Dutch door. And Marco is building the rung ladder.






While Jose is applying the 1st coat of clear, protective tung-oil to all the finished, thoroughly dry parts.

And anything not yet dry is put out on the dock in the drying racks.

Barbara's back from the LI Treehouse install

After a week on site installing the Long Island treehouse, this is Barbara's 1st day back at the shop.

1st order of business is to walk her dog, Daisy, who is really happy to have Barbara back! Daisy (a rescue from the Ridgeback society) is half Rhodesian Ridgeback and half unknown - maybe German Shepard.

Barbara's dressed in magenta & red, with a touch of orange - one of her favorite color combinations! She also likes blue jeans and red cowboy boots.










Next, a walk through the shop to check out the progress on our next adventure: Castle Play Structure.

Wall panels for the Princess Tower are in the staining bay. Rudi has just finished this panel and it is ready for some drying time.







Turns out that Rudi will be taking tomorrow off for an important appointment: his interview to become a citizen of the United States of America!

Rudi, who was born in Amsterdam, has lived in the US for over 20 years. This is a momentous occasion - he has studied long and hard for the test. Barbara is helping out by asking Rudi some US history questions . Rudi is giving her the names of the 3 branches of the government. Do you know them?



Then on to conferring with Marco about the status of the play structure. Marco is working on the play accessories for inside the Princess Tower.










Back in the office, Barbara is taking a call from a client. When I looked over from my desk, I just loved the red boots and couldn't resist this shot.

Castle Play Structure: building in the shop

Remember Castle Play Structure? While Barbara and crew were in Southampton last week installing the Long Island Treehouse, the guys were back at the shop in South San Francisco building this large, intricate Castle Play Structure.












The Clubhouse with Big Deck and 9' long Bridge (left side) were almost finished last week . This week we will build, carve and stain the smaller Princess Tower (right side).

Start of day: Jose and Armando set up the Princess Tower walls that were rough constructed on Friday. This initial "set-up" is to make sure everything fits together perfectly!











Once the "fit" is confirmed, the guys take the panels apart and bring them back out to the grinding dock.
Where Armando carves heart cut-outs and scallop trim around the doors & windows, while Aubrey finishes up grinding the floors smooth.













When the 1st panel is finished, the guys bring it over to the staining bay.

Each panel weighs about 80 lbs so teamwork is required.





One panel carved and ready for staining - 3 more panels to go!
Staining bay is already stuffed with parts from the Clubhouse, deck and bridge.

Rudi starts re-arranging the finished pieces to make room for the Princess Tower panels and parts.







Jose continues to work on the gable roof, getting it ready to move to the staining bay.







Meanwhile, back in the staining bay, Rudi is almost out of color. He'll take inventory and then start mixing a new batch of color from scratch.
Ember finishes up the under-belly of the 9' long bridge. Even the undersides have to look good.





Rudi mixes more color in the Color Works back room.
He starts with hand-mixing the old-fashion way,








Then moves the bucket onto Big Betty (our powerful, electric stain mixer). After mixing is completed, the bucket is weighed on the industrial scale.












Staining bay is definitely getting crowded by the end of day. More pieces are due over tomorrow.

Time to start final detailing soon.