Building a wooden playhouse for my children has been a dream of mine since before I had any children 😊. For a long time I couldn't do it, because I didn't have the equipment nor the time, but then Covid came along, and I started working from home, and finally I had the opportunity to do it.
It took me about a month to complete, and the kids loved the whole process. When it was finished, it was featured on Ynet and on a Paula & Leon (channel 12)
#Designing
I designed the house using SketchUp (web). The original design didn't have the balcony and the steps, which I decided to add later.
Here's the 3D model (available through SketchUp's 3D Warehouse):
#Preparing the kids for a hard day's work
Safety first!
#Building the base
The base is built with 10x5 (metric) beams. If you look closely at the pictures below, you'll notice that I accidentally used the sidings for the floor (I didn't know what goes where at the time...). So I had to remove and redo everything using 3x15 when I realized that. That was a time consuming mistake, but fortunately I was able to reuse all the material without wasting too much.
#Building the frame and walls
The frame was made from 5x5 and 10x5 beams. For the walls I used tongue & groove sidings, and at this point I made another mistake - I attached them with the tongue facing down instead of up (which could cause water to build up along the joints). Again, I had to redo an entire wall...
#Building the roof
I chose a steep angle for the roof, because the steeper the angle - the longer the roof lasts. On top of the refters I attached wall sidings (with the nice side pointing in), and then placed shingles on top of the sidings to make it water proof.
I struggled a bit with cutting the sidings for the dormer window, but the singles covered everything.
#Building the windows
I made the windows from 2x5 beams and 4mm acrylic sheet. I sealed everything with acrylic caulk to make it water proof.
#Building the steps and second floor
#Building the balcony
The balcony was a late addition. I used two 7x7 beams to hold it, and dipped the bottom of the beams in tar to protect it from the wet ground during the winter.