Cubby House Project – 01 Requirements Phase

May 2014

Thoughts on a cubby started around May.  I found a collection of screen captures I had taken on my phone.  For about 6 months it was only thoughts and no real planning had taken place.

 

23-30 November 2014

We had recently let the cat out of the bag to the kids that we were planning to build a cubby house for Christmas.  I thought it would be a good exercise to determine what requirements they had and to see what could be incorporated into the design:

The 4 year old:

Design features include:

• Two levels
• Beds
• Lifts
• Bathroom
• Work room
• Study
• Door
• Windows
• Dancing Room
• Ballet Room (yes, separate to the Dancing Room)
• 8 Slides
• Mat

The 7 year old:

Design features include:

• Spy room
• Bed
• Lifts
• Thermometer
• Mat
• Dinner room (pie/pizza only)
• Computer

The daddy:

Design features include:

• Fort built above sandpit
• Ability for future expansion for rock wall, slides, ladders

I thought things were getting too complicated.  I was also worried that this was getting too high.

I then tinkered in Sketchup to create a ground level phase 1, that could be built upon in the future:

Needless to say, I need to simply this fairly quickly, and as outlined in the the next section, created a fairly simple, but large enough cubby that should suit all immediate needs.  I also have the ability to expand if required later (verandah out the front, adjacent fort at a higher level).

Before I settled on the final design, the only burning requirement from the kids was that it was to be big enough to sleep in.  Which means it needs to be big enough for an adult to sleep in.