Published on May 29, 2025 2:10 AM GMT
When I came home from work today Lily was very excited: she wanted tobuild a playhouse for our 1.11yo neighbor Jo. Lily had gottenparental permission, the yard had space, and I was the only remainingobstacle. I'd normally be pretty excited about a project like this,but it was 5pm and I was signed up to cook dinner.
On the other hand, we'd recently been reading the LittleHouse books and Farmer Boy andwe'd been joking about how the fathers in the books built thingsunrealistically quickly. Most recently, Almanzo's father buildsa bobsled from scratch in a single a day, including identifyingand felling the trees. Still, most of the unrealism comes from whatthey had to work with: no pre-cut pre-seasoned lumber, no power tools,pegs for fasteners, etc. Perhaps with modern tools we could build aminimal playhouse together and still have dinner on the table by 7pm?Sounds fun!
A key component here is that I already had everything I needed (DIY PantryStaples) on hand from past projects:plywood, 2x3s and 2x4s, screws, wood glue, plastic sheeting, staples,saw, drill, belt sander.
I decided to make an open lean-to, though threesides would be partly blocked by bracing. I found a piece of plywoodabout the right size, and glued and screwed 2x3s to the outside edge.Lily and I cut vertical supports at a 22.5° angle, 42" for theback two and 60" for the front two. We carried it all outside andassembled the rest upside down. Nora helped glue on the supports:
Once the supports were in place it needed diagonal braces or it wasnot going to be sturdy enough. Lily helped me cut these as well, andwe glued and screwed these on. I sanded any sharp corners, and thenstapled plastic sheeting over the top.
Here's a 3.11yo for scale:
And an 11yo:
Possibly we'll paint it, but if not it's done!
It took ~1hr20min from end to end. The longest step was probably whenI needed to get a specific piece of wood out from under a large pileof other lumber. And of course this speed was only possible becauseof the simple design, having the materials and tools on hand, and thespeed of power tools.
It was fun, and the kids and I are looking forward to giving to to Jo!
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