Jakob’s hut
Over last winter my eight-year-old grandson and I built a hut for him in his parents’ backyard. Before we started I turned to two back issues of The Shed magazine (August/September 2013 and April/May 2015) to get some guidance. I wish to acknowledge and thank the contributors of the two articles (Build a Playhouse and Child’s Play). Between them they started us off in the right direction.
We thought that you might like to see some photos of the final result. My grandson Jakob had a very good idea of what he wanted. Among the requirements [were that] it had to have a porch, windows that opened and closed, a table to work on, and a bunk. In place of the last item we installed a hammock, which is much more practical in the small space available. It has been assembled so that it can be taken apart and reassembled somewhere else in the future. The main issue for me was to get the height right – not too high for an eight-year-old but still high enough that he could still use it in his teens. Also we were limited in space to 2.4m wide by approximately 3m long.
It was a joint effort, with him helping much of the time. There were many good things that happened during the project, most important of all was quality time spent together. The final result is worthwhile and he will be able to benefit from it for some time to come. In the process he learnt many useful things that he will be able to use in the future. Sure, it was not safe for him to use all the equipment, such as power saws, but he learnt what they are used for and the safety issues around them. Jakob learned how to use a batterypowered drill and drilled many holes for me to follow putting in the screws. He also learned about the hand tools, their names and their uses, and was able to use many of them on the project. The final job was to help with the painting.
Jakob learned a little about first aid during the project. One day he grazed one of his fingers and it bled a little bit. He came to me and said, “Grandad I’ve cut my finger.” I had a look at it and said, “It will be alright, just suck up the blood, it will be fine and carry on.” He did not accept my first-aid assessment and treatment. He said “I don’t like the taste of blood.” I asked him if had tasted blood before. The answer was in the negative. I suggested that he toughened up a bit. His response was: “I’m not tough like you, Grandad” and he rushed off to get some TLC and sticking plaster from his parents. On the last day of the project I slipped with the screwdriver and it shot into my finger. It was one of those shallow cuts that really bleed a lot, the blood was dripping off my finger in seconds. My grandson said, “Never mind, Grandad, be tough, just suck up the blood and carry on.”
Tom Nimmo Nelson