SO MUCH LOVE FOR OUR PLAYHOUSE! From all of you! So many Q’s so I wanted to share how it was created and what we used to create this beauty. So for starters, it did NOT look anything like it does now when purchased. Saying it came in a million different pieces is hardly an exaggeration. I highly say pay the extra few dollars and have it put together professionally. It will save a lot of headaches and parental arguments. It actually sat in our garage for 6 months before anyone would even attempt to put it together. The girls Uncle Tim (my brother) took his college spring break to create the play house of H and H’s dream! How sweet, right?! He did such a great job, it looks professionally done! We were there for it all giving moral support so I can explain to you how he did it. Here how it went down:
Step 1: Unload and sort all the piece. Make sure you’ve got it all! You’ll need to contact the company if anything is missing before you start. It can take up to two weeks to receive replacement parts. It will also make it easier to know where each piece is when building. I sorted ours into piles of: pieces numbered 1-10, 11-20, and 21-30ish.
Step 2: We painted each piece first but I honestly feel it would have been easier to build and then paint. We took the extra step of painting first, building, then painting again to perfect it. So here is your hardest part. Build it! You will need a drill, you do NOT want to screw all of these pieces in by hand.
Step 3: We placed it on plastic and repainted at this point.
*Painting tips* I would suggest to prime the entire house with a white primer first. Then after priming, paint your accent and main color. Don’t forget to paint the inside. We left ours white and it looks great. We chose to leave all the plastic trim the original white, I highly suggest this! It chips easily.
Step 4: The gold accent pieces were our door handle, lights, doorbell, and flower baskets. For this I used spray paint, I would suggest this for these smaller pieces. Spray before it’s secured to the house. The lights originally came black but I wanted them to match perfectly to the flower baskets. I decided to spray them all the same color. I had to use painters tape and cover each small area of the lights that were to be gold as well as the solar panel. This took awhile.. So spray away! Leave them flat to dry.
Step 5: While your mini dream house is drying, level out your ground! We used paving bricks but you could level then use turf, stones, pavement, whatever floats your boat. If you skip this part your house will never sit well. Even if your land looks flat. Don’t make your pad area too large though, you will need it close to the edge in the back and side so you can anchor it.
Step 6: Paint a second or third coat on, don’t stop at just one coat. Depending on your colors, you’ll want to go back and touch up several times.
Step 7: House is dried! Carry it to your leveled out spot. Screw in your windows, make sure it all fits and no adjustments are needed. I know we did have to file one window to get it to fit securely. After filing, it fit great and hasn’t caused any issues!
Step 8: Put on doorbell, lights, flower buckets, doorbell, etc!
Step 9: For the flowers I bought green floral foam and silk artificial flowers. The At Home store has some great single flowers that worked perfectly. To get them to stay in, I measured the floral foam then cut it to fit the planters. I then hot glued the stems into it just to be sure no wind would catch them (or little hands.) After it dried I placed the whole piece in the planters and they’ve been in for 6 months! Other than some fading, they look great.
Step 10: Can we skip to the good part? Ahhh ahhh ahh ahh! We’re here! You have gotten to the part to decorate however you want and enjoy your new mini home with your mini!
*Optional* I say optional but I HIGHLY suggest this. Anchor that baby into the ground! I don’t care how you do it, but do it! I told everyone we didn’t need to. Well, the first big storm we had and the house looked like Dorthy’s from the Wizard of Oz. Across the yard and on it’s side. The next day we screwed on hooks to the bottom of 3 corners and used rope and plastic stakes to anchor it into the grass. It’s worked so far!
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