1630 See Saw Lane

My sweet Sawyer turns four next Tuesday.  Don’t even ask me how that’s possible.  We’ve been so busy this summer that August (and her birthday) completely snuck on me.

We’ve been wanting to get her a real playhouse for about year now.  She has a little plastic one in the barn that she plays with all the time, but we were wanting to get one that she and brother could both play in and one that would survive outside.

Growing up, my grandparents ALWAYS had a little place for us to play outside.  If there was a shed or garage on the property, my sweet Mema (Alene) never used it for herself – it was for us kids!  I can’t tell you how many mudpies and dirty cups of coffee we served at her house but it was a lot.  I sure wish she was around to play with my kiddos.  I have no doubt that she would think they hung they moon and them feel the same about her. 

We knew we could build one, but our time is kind of precious right now.  By the time Wrexy gets home from work, spends some time with the kids, eats supper and helps with bedtime, that doesn’t leave a lot of build-a-miniature-house time.  We’ve been keeping an eye on Craigslist, this one popped up, we liked it, drove to Denver and hauled it home!

It’s in really good shape and I love the siding and how everything’s trimmed out.  All of the windows have screens, we just need to put in windows before winter.  The inside was unfinished, so Wrexy hooked up our spray gun and painted it all an antique white.  Then, we went to town making it homey.

The only things we bought new for this project was the rug (it’s completely vinyl/plastic so it can be washed with a water hose), some hooks to hang utensils and the flower on the door; everything else we just repurposed.

I covered these cans in cute paper and then affixed them to the wall for her to store utensils and things in.

We’ve had this old bank sorter for a while and I had originally wanted it to organize homeschool worksheets, but it just wasn’t the right size.  We turned it on it’s end and made into a little shelf for dishes.

For curtains, I wanted something that wasn’t going to get absolutely filthy and have to be washed a lot.  I decided to use some vinyl tablecloth fabric I had, that way we could just wipe them down if needed.  We made faux cornices by wrapping a board with said fabric and voila!

And how cute are those mustached dog prints?!  They’re my favorite!

Wrex mad a drop down table so that when she wasn’t serving a meal ;), she could fold it up and have a little more room on this side of the house.  (It’s deceivingly small).

We wanted to put a little chandelier over the dining table.  I used embroidery hoops and wire to make a form (well, actually, Wrex did) and then I hung these old marquee letters from each hoop.  I think it’s adorable!

We got some little records hot with an iron and folded them up to make little pocket shelves that she could store her linens in. We hung bunting on the east and west windows because it seemed too cluttered to add another “curtain.”

All in all, I was completely pleased with how it turned out, I just keep reminding myself that 1) it’s a PLAYhouse 2) it’s outside 3) it IS gonna get dirty!

Sawyer got to see the finished product this morning and her response made my day!  She loved it!It wasn’t even 8:00 and she was already cooking breakfast for visitors!I have a feeling that there will be lots of memories made at 1630 See Saw Lane…Happy birthday week, sweet girl!