When I came home from work today Lily was very excited: she wanted to build a playhouse for our 1.11yo neighbor Jo. Lily had gotten parental permission, the yard had space, and I was the only remaining obstacle. 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 Little House books and Farmer Boy and we'd been joking about how the fathers in the books built things unrealistically quickly. Most recently, Almanzo's father builds a bobsled from scratch in a single a day, including identifying and felling the trees. Still, most of the unrealism comes from what they had to work with: no pre-cut pre-seasoned lumber, no power tools, pegs for fasteners, etc. Perhaps with modern tools we could build a minimal 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 Pantry Staples) 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 three sides would be partly blocked by bracing. I found a piece of plywood about 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 the back two and 60" for the front two. We carried it all outside and assembled the rest upside down. Nora helped glue on the supports:
Once the supports were in place it needed diagonal braces or it was not going to be sturdy enough. Lily helped me cut these as well, and we glued and screwed these on. I sanded any sharp corners, and then stapled 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 when I needed to get a specific piece of wood out from under a large pile of other lumber. And of course this speed was only possible because of the simple design, having the materials and tools on hand, and the speed of power tools.
It was fun, and the kids and I are looking forward to giving to to Jo!
(I made sure to publish this tonight before going to bed, because otherwise Julia will see the pictures on my camera roll and worry that I'm abusing her absence to construct unapproved housing units.)