Playhouse dreams

Back in 2003 I made a playhouse for my (then) two children.  It was huge and lovely and took a ton of time… but heck, I was in the house I was going to live in forever, so it was well worth it. 

Old playhouse post from 2003

Fast forward 9 years, and we moved from that house soon after that playhouse was finished.  It wasn’t the plan, but it is what ended up happening, and for the next few years we were playhouseless. 

We have two kids that never even lived in that house we thought we would be in forever, and now we own a house that we have spent a lot of time these last three years making  our own.

This summer we decided to tackle making a fort for the kids in an unused corner or our 1/4 acre lot.  It required lots of inspiration.  I even made a Pinterest board for it.

We considered having someone from Seattle come in and build one for us like this:

Via

But it was super cost prohibitive and we were working with all cash.

I even spent a while wishing I had scrapped the fort for the kids and made myself a deck instead:

Via

Wouldn’t that be lovely?  One day… I even have Wisteria I can plant to come up and give that sweet dappled glow…..  *sigh*

But for now, our project is the playhouse in the far left corner of the yard.

We had some ideas… but first we needed to tackle the floor of the playhouse, which is basically a deck in a corner that is on a steep hill.   We tried to put in the posts and build the deck ourselves.  That didn’t workout so well… and then had to pull the whole thing out.  Yeah, cemented 4X4’s are not fun to pull out.  So we called in a professional friend to help us make it ‘plumb’ and ‘square’ and we were on our way. 

After we had the 8X8 ft deck, we had to decide on a design.  I was very torn between this:

Via

and this:

Via

(which we were very clear we didn’t know how to do, and I was tempted anyway, just cuz it’s awesome… however, I am married to “Mr. Nothandy” and although I am very handy, I am not skilled in this area at all. So I was really torn and I knew I was looking at some serious work if we I picked this one.)

I also wanted a slide for the kids as we don’t have a flat place for a play structure, and I really was unsure that we could pull off the second design without needing marital counseling afterwards.  Seriously.  The Man just about choked when I told him I may pick that one.

Until I saw this:

Via

It was the perfect mesh of the designs I loved most with a touch of whimsy AND a slide.  AWESOME!  And even better yet, she has step by step instructions right on her blog!  I don’t think I could have wished and prayed for a more perfect solution.  The only difference between ours and the one pictured is that the deck is 2 ft less in length (hers is 8x10ft) and the slide has to go in the front because the deck is surrounded by bushes on three sides.  Other than that, we are following the instructions step by step, and I even bought the same interior paint color. (cuz it’s that cool!) I can’t wait to share it!  So far it looks good and every time we pull of any piece of the project without a squabble I feel absolutely triumphant!  I can’t wait to show you what we have done.  The roof goes on this weekend!