I had a real one, an awesome little playhouse built by my grandfather with real working windows and a door, cute pitched roof and painted just like our real house. I loved that playhouse! Since having my kids I have thought many times about buying a playhouse kit to make one for them like the one I had when I was little.
This Fall Zander got Fort Fever. He started drawing elaborate schematics for forts, dying to build one with his dad. So, as Christmas was approaching I told Lance that what I really wished we could do for the kids was build a fort. My wise husband pointed to the unfinished attic over our garage in the backyard and declared, "We have a 500 square foot fort way better than anything we could build sitting right there". So, we decided to go for it!
It started with cleaning all the stuff out of the attic. Ug. It was painful. Here are some cell phone before pictures (please note I took these after I had cleaned out most of the stuff!).
We wanted the fort to be all about pretend play and fun. So, we hired our contractor to build a stage, install a huge blackboard, and make sure the electrical system was all safe. I made some curtains and rigged a rod system to hang them. Then we basically moved a bunch of toys and things we already had up from the garage where they were not being used to their full potential. The result is this:
Come on up the stairs, try out the pulley system and be warned to KEEP OUT!
We have a stage for putting on performances:
A huge chalkboard and a whole corner devoted to making art:
A tent for boy and girl camping adventures:
And an area to set up your stuff and engage in some good imaginary play:
The fort was a huge surprise and an awesome Christmas morning reveal! On rainy days off of school like today it is totally priceless!
I love it! That is amazing!!!
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