Hand Made Copper Bushings

77 degrees and sunny.  No idea why Christopher Columbus never went to shore - it is nice here.

Today I spent several hours framing out the voids in between the timbers to finish the front end wall of the lower level.  I tried to get the two by fours to friction fit into the space so that I can have a very solid frame to nail to when I put up the sheathing.  It took a while but I was able to nail on the framing and cut the individual pieces of plywood for each area.  I used Liquid Nails to attach the plywood along with many nails to secure this last wall

I was able to remove the straps and wench that I installed on top of the building after all of the framing and plywood was secure to allow the building to align properly.  The wench was used to pull the structure about a half an inch to the side to get the wall to be level.  I'm not exactly sure why the wall moved out of alignment the other day but this was my last chance to get everything perfect before I started on the second floor.

I then measured the placement of the door hinges for the German doors and drilled the holes in the timbers with a 3/8 inch bit, as recommended by the hinge pin manufacturer.  There was a little bit of the top of the doors that I had to cut away to allow them to be positioned over the pins but it all worked well in the end and the doors swing nicely with the copper bushings that I made from old pipe to make up the difference between the smaller pin and the larger opening.

Hinge set on the pin with a copper bushing (inside).

I also looked at the very old lock box that will need some work.  I may take it apart and try to see why it does not spring back into position.  It is falling to the open position and needs some help.

Lock holding the door closed.

Here are a few pictures of the doors that are now hanging on the pins and the mortise that I created on the top timber to hold the left door in place.

Lock bar holding left door closed.

Both doors open to the brick terrace.

Room for a cat to run under the door.  This will be fixed when I refinish the doors.

An almost sealed playhouse.  You can see the plywood that was installed today around the timbers.

Oh, as promised I wanted to show the chalk paint frame that Lauren and I did for her school project.  Very cute.

Laurend did a great job with her painting.

It is back to work for me tomorrow and I will try to get back to this project toward the end of the week.  It was another fun weekend and I did not get a single scratch.  I'll write more next weekend.