Hi fellow Hiveians,

Today I wanted to share the fun our son and I have been having with building some stuff. He’s completely obsessed with building shows on TV so I figured why not, let’s build something together!

Construction Men

So our son has always been a lover of anything construction; vehicles, tools, materials. You name it, he loves it! That also equates to things we do lately, he's stolen a couple of my 2x4 pieces of wood and just goes nuts building things all day. It's really fun and cute to watch. So I figured that I wanted to do something fun with him now that he's older and is a lot more coordinated and to build something together from scratch. We've gone to the big box hardware stores like Home Depot and built the little things they offer for free which has been fun but it isn't the same as taking something from scratch and building it together.

The first build we started was a typical one, a bird house.

So the tools we needed for the job are: a tape measure, a power drill, a bit set, a hammer, some nails, a level, some headphones, a circular saw, a basic pencil and a square.

The supplies I bought was 1 sheet of 2' by 6' piece of 1/4 inch plywood.

So to start this, I didn't really have any plans drawn out so I wanted to first draw out what I had in my head. On the upper right section I made my little drawing and put the dimensions. Our son drew his own little bird house on the bottom left side, I was proud of him! He did a great job. The dimensions we were working with were: 10 inches wide at the base, 10 inches deep, 10 inch walls on either side and the front and back were 16 inches at the peak down to 10 inches to meet the walls. It was surprisingly challenging to geometrically think of the design but I had a lot of fun putting it together!

While I was busy drawing and getting things sorted out, he grabbed a piece of wood, a nail ahd the hammer and got the nail perfectly in the middle when I wasn't paying attention! He didn't crush his finger or anything, made me proud lol he didn't do it in this spot but he brought it over when he was done, I freaked out a little bit thinking he did it without supervision.

So in order to cut the wood I had to put the plywood on one of the buckets that was on the deck. I store my car things that stink like gear oil among other things. They are useful for things like this! I drew my lines on the wood to give me some space between the cuts so I didn't cut one a little too short since I was using a circular saw not a tablesaw or chop saw. It was fun free-cutting these, gives you some appreciation for focusing and making sure your lines are straight!

So now that all the boards were cut out I just needed to fix some of them up a bit. The larger pieces needed a trim down, you can see the line on the right side of that board. This is to make it the right dimensions so it lines up well.

My next task was to make the pitched roof. This one took me a minute to figure out what I was going to do, I didn't really plan for it until I had it cut then I needed to figure it out. I made a mark in the exact middle of the wood (or as close as I could get it lol) and then I made a mark at 10 inches on either side. I drew a line from the middle out to those outer points to connect them. It thankfully turned out pretty well!

I cut them and they didn't end up looking horrible, I was excited lol

Now for the tougher part, getting them put together! I was kind of struggling with how to do this and made a few mistakes on the first parts. I was using the nails and putting them together without drilling holes and it split one piece and popped it out on another. I had to use my drill and the smallest drill bit to make a line down the center of the vertical board so that the nail could slide in and not pop out, it worked out well once I figured that out!

The little munchkin was really excited to help me nail in some nails at this point. He did a great job at hitting them straight on and not bending them! I definitely had a proud moment there lol

So now that all of the sides were together and nailed! We didn't complete the roof yet but that will be coming hopefully today after I finish working.

I didn't cut any holes in it yet either, @ssiena was like "that looks cool but how's a bird gonna get in there?...." lol not finished yet of course! We just did the biggest parts to it while we had nice weather, the rest will be coming. Once I'm done with my part here, it will be time for @ssiena to paint it with him. I'm not the biggest fan of painting so I'll let her do that with him so she can have a hand in the build as well!

What About You?

What've you done with your kids like this that's a lot of fun? I would love some ideas! I've got some that I think will be fun, one of them being a crayon holder, another being a wooden tray to carry things. It lets me get my DIY activities with wood while not having the great workshop my dad has at his house since we don't live there.

Connect with me!

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