# What I did on fathers day!!



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

Well I've spent a nice day crafting with my daughter today, have to be honest i stole my ideas from cbarnes1987's post and tweaked them a bit to match my materials....

first off I went skip hunting at my local industrial estate to get some polystyrene bits and luckily landed on a gold mine, found afurniture factory that was open and once i explained what i wanted the guy gave me a huge 6' x 4' sheet! woot!!

This is just half of it (had to cut it in two to get it in the car lol)










then...


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

I used a hot knife to cut the sides....


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

Then i made a mess lol,


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

rather than glue bits onto my walls (tried this but my glue was rubbish) I used the large lumpy bits already on my polystyrene and reshaped it till i was happy......


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

Then i did this on all 3 sides and the base piece for the cold side of the viv, I used the bottom plate from a plant pot for the water dish (pinched this idea from cbarnes1987 too!)

I used a solid piece of poly for my hide and just cut it to shape, the other hide is a bought one that i had knocking about that i have repainted to match what my end result will hopefully look like


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

The i used some grout from my local diy store and covered everything with it, lucky for me the dark grey grout was on special and i got a HUGE bag for £4 woohoo! (some spare for next time:2thumb


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

And then i painted it, I used a light grey paint with a moss green, I blobbed the green all over the place and while still wet i dabbed the whole thing in grey which sorta blended it across the 'rocks' I got more used to this by the time i ran out of paint lol, next time i think i will have better results but it didn't turn out too bad anyhoo


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

And finally stuck it all in the tank.....


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

All thats left to do now is go grab some varnish tomorrow and slap a few coats on, add the plants and substrate n i'll be finished, yay!

Just thought i would add some words of wisdom from my experience....

(1) Do not use black grout in your living room when you have a cream carpet, for some reason this seems to anger the OH
(2) Do not use the sheet from your daughters bed as a floor covering when you are planning on wrecking it, this angers daughter and OH
(3) After ruining said carpet, do not then relocate and paint garden furniture in nice shades of grey and green, this angers OH
(4) When hoovering up the polystyrene shavings (which now resemble the balls you get in a bean bag) remember that the hoover has a blowy outty bit that sends poly balls flying around the room, this however the OH enjoyed...ok I lie, this angers OH 
(5) Do not when finished send in painted/grouted daughter to OH to clean and promptly sit down and demand a cup of tea, yes you guessed...this angers the OH
(6) Last of all, and perhaps most important, DO NOT, and i mean DO NOT then declare "well i've done my bit, you best get on and clean up now love" for some reason despite the belief that in marriage things should be shared this definatley angers the OH and also had the side effect of not getting my tea cooked for me :devil:


...and a final thankyou to cbarnes1987 whose ideas were most definatly poached by yours truly!
:flrt:


----------



## Tempestas (Nov 25, 2009)

Looks good but whats going in there ? lol


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

A corn morph of some description, once i'm happy that theres no fumes left, and once my daughter finds a suitably sized corn she likes. No rush really, want to make sure everything is all nicely set up and working first.


----------



## Becky Wheeler (Jun 15, 2006)

Looking awesome mate :no1:


----------



## dimebag66 (May 28, 2010)

looks amazing


----------



## Becky Wheeler (Jun 15, 2006)

simondeej said:


> All thats left to do now is go grab some varnish tomorrow and slap a few coats on, add the plants and substrate n i'll be finished, yay!
> 
> Just thought i would add some words of wisdom from my experience....
> 
> ...


ROFLMAO!!! Ohhhh!! you made me laugh so hard I had tears coming down my face!!. You deserve an oscar!! :no1:


----------



## EsotericForest (Jun 3, 2009)

Looks like a perfect fathers day to me


----------



## thething84 (Apr 26, 2010)

simondeej said:


> All thats left to do now is go grab some varnish tomorrow and slap a few coats on, add the plants and substrate n i'll be finished, yay!
> 
> Just thought i would add some words of wisdom from my experience....
> 
> ...


loving the words of wisdom. Really made me giggle. Anyways. looks good. better get on a finish mine. but for some reason it takes me longer to get started as i put everything inside the viv to please the oh by clearing the lving room floor. so to start i gotta empty it first. LOL


----------



## Crested Fairy (Nov 16, 2009)

Great build and a lovely way to spend fathers day  ive been doing bits to mine today  not far of being done now then will put up my post and piccys  your words of wisdom really made me laugh glad you had fun and made something great aswell as your mess haha keep up the good work but dont annoy your OH too much lol, I look forward to seeing the end result


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

hehe, glad you liked my words of wisdom lol. Truth be told i enlisted the OH on painting duty by the end


----------



## Crested Fairy (Nov 16, 2009)

sounds like your lucky to have her lol its good when everyone get involved and all help out it makes the finished result more rewarding knowing how much works been put into it x


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

yeah it was good fun, nice to do something constructive as a family instead of the usual plugged in to tv/pc etc, plus my OH (who i agree i am lucky to have) has gone from refusing to allow a snake in the house to discussing what to make next time :2thumb:


----------



## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

Tempestas said:


> Looks good but whats going in there ? lol


 
him if he keeps pissing the wife off.


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

Meko said:


> him if he keeps pissing the wife off.


Ahh i see you've met her already!


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

Well thats me all varnished and done, just gotta leave long enough to clear off any fumes and then I can put out the 'To Let' sign.

To those of you that do these builds...how long do ya reckon I should leave it to make sure any fumes have gone? advice appreciated as I don't want to accidentally gas my prospective tenant.


----------



## Nicky_KM (Feb 7, 2010)

simondeej said:


> All thats left to do now is go grab some varnish tomorrow and slap a few coats on, add the plants and substrate n i'll be finished, yay!
> 
> Just thought i would add some words of wisdom from my experience....
> 
> ...


Hahaha :2thumb:

Looking brilliant! Done a great job there.


----------



## thething84 (Apr 26, 2010)

looks great. wish i could finish mine that quick. lol. 

as for the varnish. use ya nose. if you can still smell the vapours they are still present.


----------



## cbarnes1987 (Feb 2, 2010)

Nice job but your problem with having a corn in that tank is ventilation, like in mine I have 2 80mm vents each side and a 36'' x 1" vent at the back.


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

cbarnes1987 said:


> Nice job but your problem with having a corn in that tank is ventilation, like in mine I have 2 80mm vents each side and a 36'' x 1" vent at the back.


The entire lid is a vent and there is a 20mm x 400mm one at the front, that should be ok i hope :s kinda worried now


----------



## Becky Wheeler (Jun 15, 2006)

Hiya hun,

I would leave the viv for a week for all the fumes to go and leave the doors open. 

Looking fab btw hunny!! : victory:


----------



## komodoking (May 18, 2010)

It's looking good man, great job - here is a pic of my Corn's new home to be -


----------



## simondeej (Jun 10, 2010)

Finally, got my corn, he seems to like his new surroundings....


----------

