Sunday, July 13, 2008

The Playhouse

Back in the early 'sixties, my Dad worked at the Awnair company. They manufactured and installed their own specially-designed awnings. They had a proprietary configuration that incorporated tubular white loops as part of the bottom edge trim that made them distinctive.

Dad also installed aluminum storm doors. After putting in the new doors, he'd take away the old ones. I think he said he got $5 a door.

They also handled aluminum storm windows.

One day there were some old, small "sample windows" that were being thrown out in favor of the new model samples. My Dad saw that the old ones were being discarded and a plan emerged.
Why not build a small house around these small windows?

He glommed onto the windows and a pile of discarded storm doors and brought them home in his truck.

He built a small plywood floor in the corner of our back yard.

He then screwed the old storm doors together into panels that he used to frame in the walls.

I think he made the roof out of storm doors, too. I'll have to ask.

With the tiny windows in place, he bought a "square" of brown aluminum siding and slapped that up on the frame.

One more discarded screen door was installed as the actual door and, voila, we had a play house!

In the picture on the left, you can see one of the tiny windows on the left side of the house. (Click to enlarge. That's Sheila Flanagan, neighborhood kid, in the photo.)

The photo on the right shows me and my brother, Scott, by the main entrance. That's probably my Dad's reflection in the upper pane of glass.

We moved at the end of September, 1964 and the playhouse was left behind. I think the next owners used it as a tool shed before replacing it with a bigger, commercial shed. The fools!

We kids had a pretty neat club house for a while there, though, courtesy of my Father's imagination and resourcefulness.

Thanks, Dad!

6 Comments:

Blogger whimsical brainpan said...

That is so cool!

I like the way your Dad thinks. :-)

July 14, 2008 12:18 AM  
Blogger Lee said...

Brilliant! That must have been so much fun!

July 14, 2008 4:45 PM  
Blogger DirkStar said...

How cool...

The best childhood plaything I ever knew?

I lived out in the country surrounding Jeffersonville, Indiana and just down the railroad tracks that ran behind our house was a potato-chip factory.

Sometimes we would round the bend in the tracks and our eyes would be rewarded with the sight of mountains of orange cheese curls, rust colored bar-b-que chips or massive mounds of white sour cream and green onion chips.

We played king of the hill on mountains of crunchy chips for hours upon end...

It was awesome.

July 14, 2008 10:21 PM  
Blogger Allan said...

Kudos to yer pops fer the mansion!

July 15, 2008 2:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, man - cool Dad!

July 15, 2008 5:36 PM  
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March 20, 2010 7:05 PM  

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