My Old Playhouse Gets A New Look

Back when I was a little girl, my grandfather and my dad spent one winter building my sister and I a playhouse. They told us that it was a little house for baby piggies and the little cubbies that they were building were where the little piglets would live, when it was actually the kitchen cupboards they were working on.

I might be dating myself, but it was a LONG TIME ago.

Panelling on the walls was the rage.

So was yellow linoleum.

It was sooooo cute. It had two little windows with cheery flowered curtains. The sweetest set of kitchen cupboards - right down to the two little built in cutting boards. There was a second hand set of cheery floral dishes (that we did not know were second hand) and a yellow legged, wooden farmhouse table. My cousins were so envious!

We LIVED in that thing. It was wired so that we had electricity for our record player. It had a cot that was big enough for the two of us girls to sleep outside when the upstairs of our farm house was too hot. It was a sweet set up. Out back, we had a little graveyard for all the pets and assorted "dead" creatures that we killed buried. Complete with little wooden crosses and funeral services, as needed.

When we out grew the playhouse, it became a storage shed. Then a building for my brother to store his coyote and beaver hides and one day, about 25 years after that, dad delivered it to my farm. Megan was about five years old then. The old playhouse got a new coat of paint and a good disinfection, cheery curtains and a new set of toys.

When it was forgotten and traded (in sorts) for ponies and 4-H calves, it became a shed again. For years now, it has been sitting forlornly behind our wind fence, unloved and struggling.

Until this week.

This week, it was rudely ripped from its resting place, skidded up a hill and up ended. Guts were ripped out, siding removed and its rotting belly exposed to the saw blade. In less than 24 hours, the rot had been replaced with bright new lumber. Strength. Security.

Soon this unloved treasure will be sporting red siding and new windows, a cute veranda and a new asphalt roof. It is coming over to the workshop. It has a new home and a new purpose.

That is, if Mike can pry the shingles off. Andrew may have nailed a case of roofing nails into the old roof, when he was about six years old. A whole case.

Poor Mike!