The vision started humbly. We gathered discarded monitors and salvaged PC parts, hoping to upcycle them into something magical. At this point, it was just a wild idea, and I had no clue if I could actually pull it off.

Countless late nights in the garage were spent cutting, drilling, and assembling. Slowly, the rough paper sketches transformed into physical wooden parts, and the sturdy skeleton of the PAL 1000 finally took shape.

The front interface needed to be inviting and safe. We carefully milled custom panels to house the screens and controls, ensuring everything would be perfectly positioned and smooth to the touch.

Breathing life into the machine meant tackling the hardest part: the electronics. With little prior experience, I had to learn soldering, wiring, and coding entirely from scratch to build the 'brains' that would run the system."

Drawing inspiration from Charlotte's favorite movie, 'Inside Out,' the control deck was born. I designed a highly tactile, arcade-style console with chunky, colorful buttons specifically tailored to engage her sensory preferences.

The final touch: adding the 'magic' LED lighting. When we finally flipped the switch and it lit up perfectly, the exhausting garage project officially became a mesmerizing, interactive sensory safe space for Charlotte.