Pehr's House

Not even 6 months old, our daughter has already moved out and got a place of her own, her first step on the property ladder. She's going to show you around her new pad...

when she's a tad older...she might enjoy having a cup of tea whilst perusing her book of birds and sighing at the delicate waft of narcissi.

and getting a bit of shut eye in peace away from pesky parents, oohing and ahhing at her all day.

Yes, us bonkers mum and dad, built her, her very own house seeing as she can't have her own actual room for a while. We spent the Easter bank holiday beavering away...

...architectural plans. 

Construction site was next to the nappy changing table.

Pehr was the project manager, and structural surveyor.

after Nao had finished the woodwork, it was my turn with the sewing machine.

we used 10oz cotton canvas (from an art suppliers). In hindsight, I should have gone with a lighter weight even though it was not as nice, it would have been a darn sight more easy to sew! The canvas frayed badly and it took me a while to use binding tape on all the seems. I really like the texture and feel of it though! (and smell, am I weird?)

anyways, after realising we had not bought quite enough material, and shortening the poles of the house to fit the length of the fabric...I finally set about cutting out the bits to make the door and windows. I made five windows, two on the front and one on the other sides.

The door was made from floral print fabric with a wooden pole inserted into the bottom seam.

It took me the best part of two days, as I always start projects in the evening and then my machine gets too loud for the upstairs neighbours. I put a pillow under my machine to soften the vibration, but it kept bobbing up and down all over the place! I couldn't really do this project in my shed because the tent became quite big to manoeuvre under the needle.

here it is at night with a lamp inside (excuse the mess all around)

I made window panes with cotton muslin (butter fabric from corner shop) with cotton tape sewn on for the bars.

I think really I am just acting out all the things I would have wanted when I was a nipper, in fact I can just about get in it, so I hope Pehr will invite me around for tea one day.

Of course, there's absolutely nowhere to put this house in our titchy flat, so I made a storage bag (as it is collapsable) and I also made a ground sheet, that attaches to the bottom with wooden toggles.

We are nuts, I know it.

*BTW the red lantern is LED not a real paraffin lamp. Please be VERY careful when using paraffin lamps in tents or caravans. I know thats obvious, but just anyways : )