This is a series of posts journaling the construction of a playhouse for my kids. But not just any playhouse. A spaceship!
(Or time machine depending on what movie they just watched...)
The goal is to get my kids imagination working over time. I'll let you know know if it works!
Now that the “skeleton” is in place, I’m thinking this thing needs some skin. I picked up these 4’x8’ sheets of plywood at Home Depot. They cost a bit more than I feel like they should. Something like $25 a piece. But it’s about the only thing that will work for this. The other thing is it’s impossible to find a sheet that is perfectly flat. Makes them tough to cut in the extreme cases.
The prototype for this is easy: two clamps and a sheet 
Let me start this off by saying that the nose cone of my “couple-weekends-only” project is my arch-nemisis. It’s taken easily half the effort of this project.
I swear I aced geometry in highschool…
So this is where we are at:
Obviously, if we put walls on this thing, it won’t be very aerodynamic. So we need some sort of a nose cone. Seems simple…
Oh man, it is not. <Read on…>
You can’t fly a spaceship or entertain young children unless you have some cool interactions. Let’s think this through…
The second row of seating (Communications and Navigation Officer) doesn’t have a nearby wall to mount panels to. We’ll need to integrate something with the nose cone…
That’s a start. From the side?
Let’s take a closer look at an earlier state:
Seems fine. Right? <Read on…>
A platform with castor wheels does not a spaceship make.
Let’s see about some walls. The depth and width of the ship so is 5’x5’. Because I’m shooting from the hip, I’ll make the walls 5’ tall as well.
It all began when Kelly’s Grandfather passed away.
People were sharing their memories. He was a great man. Kind and thoughtful and caring. Kelly’s mom talked about how when she was 6 years old, he built her a play house one weekend. She had so much fun and all the kids in the neighborhood loved it.
I was inspired to do the same for my kids. We had recently visited a children’s museum and they had a cool area with a little wooden box for a place to pretend to fly in outerspace.
Well, that’s right up my alley. I decided I would build a space ship.
© 1997–2018 Mike Wille