How Many Cubes? (Math Forum Problem #17028)

Something interesting for before the summer hits :)


Here are the front view and side view of some cubes that I arranged.

Questions:

1. What is the largest number of cubes that I could have used to make this arrangement?
2. What is the smallest number of cubes that I could have used to make this arrangement? 

http://mathforum.org/pows/submission-flow.do?execution=e1s1