• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

William L. Stuart

author of The Gemstone Chronicles Series

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Building Maggie’s Fort – My Spring Project!

June 21, 2015 by Bill Stuart 3 Comments

Maggie’s Fort!

Regular readers of my blog know I have two grandchildren, Aidan and Maggie. Both inspired characters in The Gemstone Chronicles, my fantasy adventure series. In the books, Maggie loves girlie things like makeup and jewelry, but she also wants to ride 4-wheelers and do everything her brother does. She is kind of fearless. In fact, in Book One: The Carnelian, Maggie hops on the back of the kelpie and almost drowns and in Book 3: The Emerald, Maggie has to face the cockatrice alone!

The fort:

Given her personality, I wasn’t at all shocked when she asked me to turn the swing set in our backyard into Maggie’s fort. Not a playhouse, but a fort! I started thinking about how to make the conversion and I think the end product turned out exactly like I wanted. Maggie hasn’t seen it yet, but I think she’ll be thrilled.

Before:

What did I start with, you might be asking? When we moved into this house almost 8 years ago, the property came with a swing set. Both Aidan and Maggie have enjoyed it over the years, and I have done a couple of repairs on it due to falling tree limbs, but, it was just a playground swing set. I did pressure wash it before I got started on construction, and here is the before picture.

Maggie's Fort Before

Fort construction:

My project kicked off with the addition of the roof. First, I had to add the rafters.

 Maggie's Fort - Rafters

Now for the roof. I decided to go with a clapboard style roof. I used a guide to put each board in place so I could go up and down the two ladders to attach the roof evenly. Lana did question how many drills a guy needs. Since the boards were about 6 feet long, I needed two ladders with a drill and a screwdriver stationed at the top of each so I could efficiently install the roof by myself without having to carry drills up and down the ladders. Besides, can you ever have too many drills??

Maggie's Fort Adding the roof

Finally, the roof is complete and the construction phase is done!

Maggie's Fort Roof Complete

Now on to the paint. Nana designed the paint scheme. The swing area is green (though it doesn’t show up particularly well in the pictures).

Maggie's Fort Green Swing

Nana decided that the exterior of the fort would be an off-white color. I think it turned out nicely!

Maggie's Fort White Exterior

We also decided to add some yellow into the paint scheme and stain the floor brown. Luckily, I dodged the rain got the painting done!

Maggie's Fort Inside and Floor

After:

We added a window box with some Vinca for a bit of decoration, and a flag that Maggie can fly when she is in residence. Here is the final product! I think it turned out great and I believe Maggie will enjoy it when she visits!

Fort Finished

I added fresh cypress mulch and I’m thinking about adding a couple of planters to give it additional color, but that may wait until next Spring.

What do y’all think? If you read any of The Gemstone Chronicles, do you think Maggie’s fort matches her personality? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Connect with me:

If you want to connect with me on social media, I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and, Goodreads, or email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. I welcome new friends! I look forward to meeting you!

Filed Under: Cool Things

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Steve miler says

    June 21, 2015 at 9:04 pm

    Nicely done, Maggie will love it. Happy Fathers Day!

    Reply
    • Bill Stuart says

      June 22, 2015 at 9:39 pm

      Thanks! I saw the pics of you and your boys, so it looks like you had a great day, too! Happy Father’s Day!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

Follow Me on Social Media

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Follow Me on Goodreads!

Follow Me on Goodreads

Search this website

Site Policies

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookies Policy
  • Accessibility Statement

Copyright © 2023 Food and Fiction, LLC. All rights reserved.