Castle
I’ve been deliberating a lot recently about building a cubby house for B. I’m thinking I’ll make him a little castle, with a tower, and a trapdoor through the roof – maybe one of those cargo nets on the side so he and his friends can scale the walls, and of course a drawbridge.
I’m working on getting it designed properly – and R’s friend Tracy run’s a timber yard, so she’s offered to help me out with it. Apparently she can look over and correct my plans, tell me what bolts and timber I need and help me get it cheaper – which is awesome because I haven’t the faintest idea 
I want to make it about 3000mm x 2500mm, and about 2800mm high at the top rampart of the tower. I’ve also decided that I’ll build it in sections that I can bolt together, with some of those bolts that have reciprocal nuts for doing exactly this kind of thing. That way when we move I can pull it apart and flat ship it in pieces.
The biggest challenge so far (seeing as how I haven’t gotten to any of the actual building or refining the designs) has been to come up with a mechanism for the trapdoor. I want the trap door to be solid enough that B can stand on it while he’s on the roof, and to seal so the rain doesn’t come through – but I also want to make sure he can’t drop it on his head or his fingers as he’s climbing the ladder.
While chatting with Big Michael and Sian on saturday morning over breakfast (which was lovely) I came up with the idea of using something along the lines of a couple of big cogs on the outside of the castle. The idea being that inside, there would be a rotating handle on the ground floor, and one on the upper wall – both of which turn together. There would be teeth on the handle so that when you stop winding it it automatically locks at that position, and the lock could be lifted from either side of the roof.
The idea is that B could crank the handle and get the trapdoor open, then climb the ladder and use the handle at the top to crank it back down. This way he doesn’t have the opportunity to drop it on himself – am I clever or what.
Now I just have to get the designs right and actually build the damn thing.
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