The Little Helper Tower Nears Completion

Joshua loves to help around the house.  He's especially interested in anything that happens on the kitchen counters, whether it be food prep or washing dishes.  We have been using kitchen chairs and letting him stand on them when he's helping.  But those chairs aren't made for that and could tip over if pushed the wrong way.  So we wanted a safer and more permanent solution.  We found something online that would work: a little helper tower.  But we also found a DIY site that provided instructions for how to build it yourself.  I'm in no way experienced with woodwork or building things, but it seemed like something I could do, although I knew it would take a lot of time.  But I thought it would be special for me to build something by hand that all three of our kids would be able to use.  So several months ago I set out to make it, armed with only some lumber, sand paper, wood glue, hardware, and tools.  I hardly have any free time, so it's taken a long time to do, but it's almost complete after I spent several hours working on it today.  I even did the optional mod to add hinges to allow it to fold flat, which I thought would come in handy.  I still have a few steps to go, such as the platform and the support footers, and then of course painting it, but it's getting close.  I'm hoping to have it done in time for it to be a Christmas gift for the kids, so I'll need to find some time over the next couple weeks, but I think I can get it done.