Playhouse Construction - Day 8 & 9

Playhouse construction days 8 and 9 were when things really starting to progress and it was really starting to look like a house.

To view my previous playhouse posts visit Day 1 & 2 and Days 3 - 7

My parents came back about 6 weeks after day 3 of construction. The plan was to get the windows in, the slide on and some of the trim work...which we accomplished all of that and more.

The stairs were challenging. My Dad wasn't exactly sure how we were going to do do them. Our original design had the stairs coming down off the front porch and turning towards the side. But then we thought it could be a safety issue to have an opening along the front face of the porch. So we put them off to the side. The stairs had to be wide enough and deep enough but not too deep for little feet to run up and down them. So as my Daddy says...what starts out as a mistake, actually turns into something really cool and people think you meant to do it like that.

Yes, I know...these stairs look really funny at the moment.

Reminds me of an escalator or something.

We had Eve test out the stairs to be sure they were going to work.

 This picture makes me laugh...she is such a ham. She loves showing off her new house.

As you can see, the windows are all in.

So we drew a design on for the stairs and my Dad cut it out.  

Pretty cool, huh!

So to me...it looks like waves, but Lance's thought was to make it look like flames...

what do you see?

None the less, we really liked the wavy look. Our original plan was to put sliding on this playhouse. I had hauled some from down the street in my neighborhood from a house that was replacing theirs. It was not in too bad of shape...not for a playhouse anyway so I drug that awful stuff down the road and it was stored in our garage for almost a year. But as I mentioned, we really liked the wavy look, so we decided to trash the sliding and just use the particle board that was on the house and cut the trim to also be wavy.

You can see the wavy trim design below around the door and sides of the house.

Again, our original design plan kept changing as this house evolves but our thought was to make the front porch have pickets just like a regular porch does. My Dad had even cut all the pickets to size and brought them to us. But then he suggested perhaps using plywood to cut a design into and make that be the porch railings. So that is what the big sheet of plywood is up for.

And here's a close up of the newly designed stairs with the hand rail.

End of Playhouse Construction - Day 9

Side view of the house with some of the trim on.

 Our plan was to have the house somewhat usable for Eve's 3rd Birthday party which was a few weeks away. And it definitely was...she wants to play in it all the time and it's not even done. The kids at her party thought it was coolest thing ever!

More to come...stay tuned!



Playhouse Construction - Day 3 - Day 7

Playhouse construction was moving kinda slow mainly b/c my Daddy is a BIG part of getting it built and my parents live almost 3 hours away so building can only be done when they come to visit and the weather is cooperating.

To see the Playhouse from the very beginning, please visit Playhouse Construction - Day 1 & 2

The playhouse stayed looking like the picture below for the rest of the summer through the winter months.

But then in April 2011, construction started back and with Eve turning 3 in a couple months she was old enough to really start to enjoy and understand this new project.

Day 3 of construction was to get the rafters built and the roof on the house.

And here is the little princess herself.
She started calling it her castle and that Papa was building her a pink castle.

In between Day 3 & Day 8 when my parents came back, our job was to in close the house and get the shingles on the roof. The picture below is the backside of the house with most of the boards attached.

We recruited some friends to help us finish the side boards and shingles. Our friend had a bunch of shingles that had never been used, so we got to use them and he actually put them all on for us.

The shingles did take about 3 different visits for him to finish...
he's kinda a slow worker but hey...I'm not complaining!

At the end of Construction Day 7, the walls are on & roof is done!

More to come...stay tuned!

Playhouse Construction - Day 1 & 2

I have always loved the idea of a playhouse or tree house. When I was a little girl my Daddy built my sister and I a small playhouse which he then turned into his first wood shop but then we moved and in the next house I had an open tree house of sorts. I can remember talking about building a playhouse for Eve when she was less than a year old. At first we thought we would construct it in the garage and then just move it when our house sold. But of course she was still too young to actually play in it yet. So when our house sold in February 2010 Eve was about 20 months old and the house we bought already had a platform in the back yard that we were told once was some sort of playhouse or fort for the kids who lived there many years ago. So we decided to use that as our base and build upon that. We started construction in August 2010.

BEFORE - this is the platform that was already there

We removed these stairs and added some extra support beams underneath

I have always loved dutch doors so we went to the local Habitat Restore and found this solid wood door for $50. The idea is to cut it down and in half to make a dutch door.

We also picked up these windows at Habitat Restore. The smaller ones were $3 a piece and the longer rectangle was $10.

Day 1 of construction...the 1st wall is going up...

End of Day two...all the walls are framed out

The dimensions of the house are 8x10 with a 2 foot porch.

Once the rafters are up, we are thinking it will peak at 9 or 9.5 feet.

Stay tuned for more to come with this awesome little project...