Rain on Saturday provides proof that the wood preservative/sealant works.
Water is beading up on the pallet wood we treated with preservative several days ago!
Many more piles of pallets to go and our backyard writer’s cottage will be ready to complete!
Spent the morn measuring and testing the platform for the writer’s room portion of the backyard meditation space in the woods…8’x8′ the simplest base size…
Will precut and predrill the pieces after the greenhouse is finished.
Speaking of which, it looks like the greenhouse rock foundation idea will win out, which meant scraping dirt until we hit solid rock outcropping…
North view
East view
We want the greenhouse to be 8 feet high at the center, motivating us to build a two-foot tall foundation.
The greenhouse base will rest on 4″×4″ posts secured to the concrete footings and the rock foundation built around that.
Something like these images from the Web…
Can hardly wait to pick out and pile rocks but we must sleep, too.
But first, we pause to meditate whilst staring at the treehouse…
Forcing ourselves to say “we,” “us,” and “our” takes practice and a bit of patience.
Even so, we’re here trying to adjust to the habit of seeing the body typing these words as more than one human but rather an amalgamation of conglomerations of perturbations of possible living beings traveling together mainly on one planetary body, itself a mixed bag of rocks, liquids and such.
But we digress.
Instead, we must confess.
Whilst redesigning the backyard meditation/writer’s studio, a play space/work shop, we find ourselves in such a quandary because we can’t decide the final look and function of the base/foundation for the greenhouse.
Making a skirt of pallet wood would create an air gap between the rock ledge and the floor of the greenhouse, a small but steady influence upon the greenhouse ambient temperature within a few inches of the floor. The skirt might keep larger creatures from hiding and living beneath the greenhouse, if we want such.
Making a rock foundation all around the base of the greenhouse would prevent wood-chewing animals from munching their way under the greenhouse, and offer the same passive cooling benefits as the wood skirt.
Leaving the space beneath the greenhouse open to all creatures, regardless of classification due to size or predator/prey status, would be the cheapest solution in the short term.
We like the idea of stacking our own stone foundation, building a set of skills we don’t have.
The next week or so will show what we decided in this matter.
Multiple projects, no deadlines…what to do?
When it’s too cold for us to work comfortably outside, we move the last two concrete footers into place and retreat inside to our overcrowded programmer’s workshop to figure out code to mesh into the end product of another project.
We give credit to others for inspiring our future results, including Erin “Robotgrrl” Kennedy (as always)…
and this person’s pallet wood flooring in a backyard cottage:
I used many pallets. (Lost count) I planned each board then used the table saw to square them up as Read Here: https://www.1001pallets.com/2016/01/pallet-floor-cottage-back
https://www.1001pallets.com/2016/01/pallet-floor-cottage-back
Using both available material (new, recycled and natural) and inspiration from others’ innovation to assemble a greenhouse kit, we want to add a bit of originality to the repertoire of backyard meditative spaces.
Years ago, we planned a backyard writer’s cottage comprised of four sections tied to four compass points:
Its shape gave tribute to our subcultural upbringing:
Back then, our construction capabilities were limited if not nonexistent.
We couldn’t find or develop the confidence to build the original design.
We have changed, grown confident, and now build what we want, giving ourselves a limited budget to force ingenuity.
The new design generalizes the meditative qualities of organised religion, removing specific symbology, wrapped up into the prefab greenhouse kit.
As for the rest, you’ll see soon enough!
Looking to add this Circuit Playground Express to either our motorbike, our writer’s studio or both…
The accelerometer will be fun on the motorbike:
We’re already planning to add this EL panel to the motorbike…
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel – 20cm x 15cm Aqua
Meanwhile, we apply water sealant/wood preservative to the pallets and gather more pallets every few days, including three tonight.
This week, we build the foundation!
Our life consists of rest and relaxation periodically interrupted by short bursts of activity.
Today, we surveyed our small one-acre wooded lot and harvested a few dead cedar trees for the writer’s studio entrance, forming a unique stairway shape that only the trees and their branches will make.
We’ll push over and uproot a few more dead cedar trees next week.
Tomorrow, we make our first long solo motorbike ride. To prepare, we purchased (on sale, of course) a wrist-based throttle control and handlebar phone mount…
Meanwhile, we sit on the green plastic bench in the woods where our studio will be and watch our neighbours, including the chipmunk that hopped past, the gnats flying around our head and a plain white caravan slowly driving through the neighbourhood.
On a side note, pond snails are cruising the frog pond already!
Earlier today, we examined a few solar panels, trying to decide what we need to make the studio/greenhouse totally offgrid, powerwise, but connected to this planet via WiFi.
Today, after picking up another pallet (4′ x 8’4″), we have enough material to start foundation and wall construction on the greenhouse portion of the backyard meditation/writer’s studio…
But first we’re drying them out under canopy cover during a series of heavy rain this week…
We’ll seal them with a wood preservative on a warm, sunny day.
Meanwhile, we take one last look at our chosen construction site beneath the treehouse…
…and decide we like our old abandoned site better…
…because the perspective, the point of view, still speaks to us the most!
The lay of the land changes our layout plans but we’ll only show you why amd how after construction has begun.
In the yard, early spring continues, including the gurgling sounds of a full frog pond…
Until next time, grow wise but don’t grow up!
Time for a morning ride home after an evening saving lives…
…then measure and place the foundation footings!
The cedar posts we wanted to use for the base of the writer’s studio have rotted. Therefore we decided to purchase pressure-treated beams:
Total: $79.06
Picked up two free pallets last night, will use more as we find them, as wall boards, shelves and/or flooring.
Still to buy this week:
Two 2×8 twelve-foot length beams
Freedom to build what we want spoils us!
Writer's oasis 