Instead of letting a diagnosis dictate his day-to-day life, he poured his energy into creating something his daughters would remember him by. We’ll let him take it from here. And incase this isn’t long enough, check out this blog HERE!“This project was my response to dealing with the news that I had skin cancer, when I found out all I could think of was that I wanted to do something that my girls would never forget, that they could always remember and smile about. I also needed something to help me focus on positiveness while I got my treatments. Again sorry for it being so long, I think I’m supposed to give you a potato if you read the whole thing?(And for the few of you who this isn’t long enough for: here’s the blow by blow“

“Looking down towards the street – So this is looking towards the street on the side of the house. I’m gonna do the best I can with the photos I have.”

“This is looking towards the back from the side (street behind).”

“This is after the first round of dinosaur weeds knocked down.”

“This tree had grown up the side and was pushing through the rafter blocking into the house. The things a beast and was full of wasp nests, not good for the kiddos.”

“An axe, chainsaw and lots of sweat later.”

“Okay, so this is now ready to begin.”

“Looking towards my neighbor’s house where there are three military dogs that try to bite me and my little girls every time we get close to the fence. I’ll be adding a barrier.”

“I blew out my knee twice moving the wood to the back. Second time I couldn’t walk for two days, but had two good buddies help me move the 50 bags of sand.”

“Now the real work begins. I framed out a 2×6 deck with pressure treated lumber and used 16d galvanized framing nails to put it all together. As a note, I’ve since built a deck for someone else and they lent me their nail gun: I will never do hand framing again. Nail guns are like the best thing since microwave popcorn.”

“I had to put up everything by myself so I went ahead and laid out all the wood first so it would be easy to reach as I went.”

“Okay so first I raised all the pieces up and screwed them together with decking screws and moved along all sides ensuring that I got everything level, square and plumb. I didn’t take a photo of it, but I dug and poured concrete for each of the posts with good post anchors at the bottom.”

“I hated the empty garden area above and wanted to make a place for my girls to use their scooters but which also had shade and that I could grow some plants.”

“Trying to lift a 12′ wall that is framed with 4×4 posts was extremely painful, on the third try I was able to jerk it high enough to get under and push it vertical. At one point the wind started blowing and I thought I would die. I didn’t though in case you were worried.”

“I built them a sand box below the deck using 50 bags of sand. I also placed a pressure treated 2×6 all the way around the bottom and used two 1/2″ bolts at every connection. It was now crazy strong. You can also see the chalkboard at the back which I made using hardie tile backer board and screwing to the studs and painting it with a flat black exterior latex paint.”

“As one final detail to provide lateral shear strength, I put three 4×6 posts and buried them into the ground at the front at approx 45 degrees and I then covered these with 2×6 boards and bolted them through.”

“Everything that went into this is more clear in the video, but I stained the playhouse and put up pink mosquito netting for the girls and some solar powered hummingbird chime lights, because I’m like that.”

“And here is now the gate area with the planters installed and I planted the flowers which are crepe myrtle and hibiscus.”

“So I installed some twinkle lights on my daughter’s playhouse because that’s how I roll.” 24 "Oh yeah! And now we can see amazingly. The lights aren't too bright but the warm soft glow enables us to stay outside (and away from the TV) during the night. Yay!"

“Oh yeah! And now we can see amazingly. The lights aren’t too bright but the warm soft glow enables us to stay outside (and away from the TV) during the night. Yay!”

“This is the upper walkway area. I framed a 50′ x 3′ scooter path using pressure treated 2x4s and pressure treated 3/4″ plywood and staining it the same redwood color as the deck. Also I planted a bunch of jasmine against the wall and wisteria at every post.”

“Here are some final after photos, you can see I put a trampoline here as well.”

“And our deck to chill on while the girls play. Hope you enjoyed this