looking good, are you going to cut away a bit of the wood at the front so you can see in? also if you are doing something like that - you were asking abut platforms, this isn't quite a platform, but you could turn it into one and i think it's a great idea - check 8min20secs out in the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYijl9ftjPY&t=651s