Cardboard House

Sophie's bottom drawer was broken, and while it was out and we were fixing it, the girls climbed in and out like mad. So I got them a box out from under the house so they could continue to climb in and out of things without me pulling my hair out. It was from my parents new air conditioner, so very good quality cardboard - perfect for children to climb in and out!

After it had been in the house for a while, I thought I'd better actually make it into a proper house, so I did! It's a little bit of an irregular shape for a box - much longer than usual, and no door (it came with a removable lid, which I didn't use here). Still, I think it works as a house. I used some random sample tin of paint I found in the laundry to do the outside and some of Fiona's old student acrylic paint for the roof.

Wall paper on the inside is just wrapping paper. I managed to rip it getting it in there, so I don't like our chances of it staying too long, but oh well. The kids are kind of confused as to why that smaller set of windows don't actually open out. I'm pretty happy with the windows, because they are double layered for strength.

That said, I think the frame of the window needed more strength because Hugo got over excited about looking out and managed to make the whole box fall over and ripping the wall in the process. I was thinking I'd just use the green pop tape to fix it up, but then we were resilicone the window fly screens last week (can you believe ants eat silicone?!?) and had some silicone left over so I just used that. Should last a long time right? And now that rip is water proof.

I'll cycle the houses back under the house next week so that the kids don't get bored with them. Then, next time I take them out, they are new all over again!