In 2021 one of the kids in Somerville started Elfland, a miniature community, in a vacant lot. There had been a gas station there which was demolished to build housing, but with construction delays there it was open for a while. When construction resumed there were calls to " defend Elfland", and while the original location closed it's now on the Somerville Community Path just west of Willow Ave.

My kids like it a lot, and Anna and I decided to build something for it. Anna wanted to make a house, and I sold her on making a triple decker. These are three-unit buildings, one on each of three floors, that are common in Somerville and other older Boston-area neighborhoods.

We cut some 2x4s to size and glued them up:

I did the rough sanding with the belt sander, and then Anna did the finish sanding:

We primed and painted together, and Anna put on the doors and windows:

We brought it over today:

Here it is, with Somerville's best grocery store and the Elfland Museum of Hopeful Art:

I'm strongly in favor of constructing more housing in Somerville, though we'll need a lot more than this!