PLAYHOUSE

Dear Olive,

My hunt for someone to build the playhouse is at an end.

I interviewed contractors, handymen, and playhouse construction companies for the past year.  Each person I spoke with said that the project was either too big or too small.  None of the playhouse companies would do custom.  Ultimately, we called the local Career Center.  The teacher was unbelievable.  They completed the entire playhouse as a student learning project for the cost of materials alone.  Here it is being built.

At first, I advised them to build it 8 feet by 8 feet.  When I arrived on site for a visit, it towered over me and I slightly panicked as I realized that it would be 16 feet high and would take up most of our backyard.  

The instructor was uber cool about it and they cut down the frame to be 6 by 6.  Basically, it is just an octagonal turret with a cone roof.  I had been planning this project since my childhood.  I was first inspired for the turret by pigeonniers, which were fancy pigeon coops in the 1700s.

I found salvage windows and had plexi-glass inserted into them.  The dormer window was originally from the first house we owned.  My husband snuck it into our moving truck for posterity.

At the end of the school year when the project was complete, we hired a truck to transport it to our house.  This was perhaps the most dramatic feat since the roof kept hitting low tree branches on the 6 mile trip.  It ended up knocking off and crushing the top cone, which we had to replace. 

I wish you could have seen the kid's faces when we pulled in.  We took out the front picket fence and backed it into the yard.  

Now that the project is finished, we have great plans for a faux fireplace and ceiling chandelier. 

I love your idea for a rain barrel-fed sink inside.  That's gotta happen.  So cool!