box playhouse

we finally got the plumbing hooked up to use our new fridge last week and, while pretty excited about the fridge, i was actually more excited to get my hands on the box the fridge came in. it's MASSIVE and i had so many weeks to gaze at it and plot what it could become once vacated. on friday, during the kids' naps, i got to work:



using a box cutter (utility knife), i cut the top flaps off first - we'd had to pull the seam of the box apart to get the fridge out but i actually found it easier to work with this way as i had something to grab onto when cutting. then i guessed what height would work for mae and measured and cut the roof angles.



for the roof sides, i scored a line across the cardboard where i wanted it to bend (just ran the knife lightly across a line i'd drawn from side to side, cutting the first layer of board only).



then i could measure how much needed to be trimmed off to make the side meet up with the point of the roof and then score, bend and trim the second roof side.



i again had to guess how big to make the door since mae was still asleep. and you can see where i had to do a little tape patch up job as i started to cut it to the floor before realising that, since the box doesn't have a bottom, i needed to leave the door in a bit for stability.



and yay! maesey woke up so we could tape up the seams (i used super wide masking tape so that i'll be able to paint it) and cut in the windows together (actually i cut in the windows while she stood far, far away from the super sharp knife blade). i had planned to do the traditional four pane window design but after cutting the two top ones above the door, i was a bit worried about structural integrity so decided to leave it as is and mimic the design on the side.



oh, and i cut a little doorknob in, too, after watching her play in it for awhile.



do you think she is happy with it? : )

let's cross our fingers for some decent weather this week so we can take it outside and paint it up!


note: our box had a written on it that because of sharp corners and staples, children should not play in the box (i love that you can read that type right under mae's cheeky face above) but we had already pulled the box apart by its one seam and it wasn't even put together with staples, only glue so i'm assuming that was a general "to avoid potential lawsuits" disclaimer from the manufacturer. still, if you decide to make a boxhouse yourself, watch out for staples. and sharp corners, apparently.