I planned to use BORG pressure-treated lumber for the frame, and construction-grade non-pressure treated lumber for all of the parts up off of the ground (we had LOTS of termites in the soil in Florida) and where the boys would be touching the wood. I planned to buy BORG or other after-market hardware, such as swings, a slide, rock climbing wall grips, etc. Some of the other elements I planned to just build in place, like a little stair in one of the two towers, a balcony that looked out over the lake, and a sliding pole.

I did eight or nine versions in Sketchup, until I had something I liked, that my wife liked, and that I thought was practical to build. That work was done in March of 2009, when LIam was almost 3. Here's how the design ended up: 

The key elements I wanted to include:

• Two towers, each two 'floors'
• A bridge from the second floor of one tower to the other, also serving as the place to hand the swings
• A slide off of one tower, with a ladder
• An internal stair and balcony on the other tower. The stair would have a trap door at the top.
• Flags and knobs using a colorful paint scheme
• A pulley and bucket on the second tower
• Green tarps to function as the rooves of the two towers

2013-10-05 Design Notes: Holly requested a wood finish rather than paint, with a mid-range wood color ( not maple-white, or walnut-dark) and that it fits into the Northwest corner of the office. This, as can be seen from the gallery photos, is an area that is 60" from a door in the wall to the corner, and then 60" over from that corner to a large window in the North wall. After some discussion, I suggested that we just build on one wall, since the corner storage would largely be lost if we built on both walls of such a short area. We'd end up with two 25" cabinets on each wall, with a 25" dead space in the corner, which would take up 50% more space for no extra usable storeage. So I designed along one wall, the West wall. As for the design type, she left it pretty much up to me. Sweet.

2013-10-11 Design notes: As a design influence, I looked at quite a few built-in cabinet designs, but I ended up opting for something similar to what Chris Becksvoort described in his Fine Woodworking article on building a Shaker style built-in from 2011. ("Beautify Your Home with a Shaker Built-In" which is available online with a subscription, Issue #211.)   I modified the design quite a bit to fit the space, but I used the basic construction strategy, including building it from floor to ceiling, and the materials choices (cherry plywood and solid cherry face frames and drawer fronts. One major change I had to make due to the context is that the wall behind the unit is a 50 year old ceramic tile block wall, with limited possibilities for anchoring. So I added anchors to the side wall and ceiling. The Rev 1C design is pretty close to what my sister endded up chosing. Rev 1D replaced the left top cabinet doors with more bookshelves. Rev 1D also added a face frame to the side of the unit, something I had intended all along, but hadn't taken the time to add in the 1C version.

2013-10-16 Design notes: In the model, I placed the side frame. I was going to make it a simple faux, two panel up and down side frame, but I opted instead to match the front panel dimensions, and made it a three panel side frame. The horizontals match the similar eliments on the face frame.