Dad of the Year Spends 18 Months Turning Daughter's Room Into Her Dream World

As a kid, case if youre being thetold daughter to go toofyour Reddit room user is usually radamshome. some sort of punishment. But thats not the 1

She wanted a fairy tree in her room that she could sit inside and read books, climb the branches, and that also had a top sitting area.

So whats a dad who is an artist in the video game industry with minimal carpentry skills to do?

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Take some welding classes in order to build an enormous tree in his daughter’s bedroom, thats what.

More than 350 hours, 18 months, and about $4,250 later, he had turned her storybook dreams into reality.

How did this actually happen?

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He consulted with both a private fire protection engineer, and a residential fire prevention specialist from the city’s fire department to ensure hedidn’t create a fire hazard, and then he set off with the drawings.

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Then he built a scale model using Sculpey modeling clay and some plywood cut in the dimensions of her room, including the window and beams in the ceiling.

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Once he set up a work station, he set 1-inch grid lines to match the model, which made it easier to quickly see where things like branches were supposed to be.

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He found if he drew the silhouettes of the model on the wall, he could attach the steel rebar straight to those lines.

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As soon as lines were drawn, he started welding and creating a steel skeleton using mostly -inch rebar and -inch steel rod from scraps, or Home Depot, engineering it to easily support three adults.

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He bought a Miller 211 MIG welder, and the inert shielding gas came from the wire itself while an industrial fan sucked the smoke out the window as he worked.

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To get 240v power to the room, he built a 50-foot 8-gauge extension cord to plug into the dryer receptacle in the laundry room at the other end of the house.

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At this stage, with the skeleton almost finished, he estimated he had already spent about 100 to 120 hours.

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To apply the skin to the branches, he found “expanded metal lathe� was easiest to fasten to the skeleton with zip-ties.

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After applying the expanded metal lathe to the branches, he took a break to let the little customer get a peek.

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To apply the concrete to the branches, he used two parts portland cement, one part water, one part polymer fluid, and added two ounces of fiberglass shreds to the mix.

The concrete was applied with a trowel just like stucco application, and silicone bark rollers and clay sculpting tools were used for texture.

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After he paper machd the branches, it was time for painting.

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He started with a very light coat and then gradually applied lighter colors and Rit clothing dye for an ink wash in the crevices.

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When things started to get a bit frustrating, he kept this picture of her in the room to help through the tough parts.

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Then he started painting the walls and rough blending before glazing.

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And of course, hardwood floors, which his father-in-law helped him install. They used a good insulating underlayment because her room is above a part of the house that doesn’t get much heat.

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He had pre-drawn the curve on the sub-floor and used a jigsaw to cut each piece of hardwood before nailing it in, to get this curve shape. Why? The plan was the put squishy green carpet around the tree.

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He created the fairy windows by using a Rotozip before painting them with watercolor paint.

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And the fairy door? A trip to the local Michael’s craft store yielded some good details pieces, the doorknob was found at Anthropologie, and he made the big gold hinges from Scupley and painted them with Testors paints.

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He used deep-set receptacle boxes so he could put these transformers right behind the switches, keeping them enclosed. Theyre wired to the window lights, and each window light has a small landscape light inside.

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For the branches, he found silk branches online and at Michaels.

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And whats a tree without birds? There are five nests throughout the tree.

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The birds and the butterflies maintained their composure through a lot of work with the hot glue gun.

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While most of the decorations are cheap, they splurged on a few of them made of hand-blown glass and fastened them with heavy wire to steel parts of the branches.

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And of course, even more butterflies.

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Those lights mentioned above? He wired standard Christmas bulbs in parallel lines, controlled by a dimmer by the door. When turned all the way down, they look just like stars.

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She has her own reading light inside the tree, which is a fixture on its own dimmer switch, and a sitting area in the middle.

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Via: Imgur

The knot hole fairy windows are on their own circuit, dimmable from a switch near the door...and perfectly double as a night light.

I think she likes it.

Read more: http://twentytwowords.com/awesome-dad-transforms-his-daughters-room-into-afairytale-treehouse/ Dad of the Year Spends 18 Months Turning Daughter's Room Into Her Dream World

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