There was a little house... in the middle of the woods...

So I got a hair-brained idea about trying to get my kids outside more. I think it started when I told Mia I was getting rid of her TV and she hugged it and cried. My great plan comes first with a magical-in-the-woods-old grandma-hidden-princess cottage, and I was on the hunt. I finally found something I was happy with and when I brought it home Kevin looked at the instructions and said, "What did you get me in to?" The Instruction book said that 2 adults could do put it together in 3 hours. 2 adults plus Mia add an hour... 2 adults add Julia - 10 hours later... The instruction manual lists 70 different phases of construction and 7 different bags of hardware...

Here are some pictures to help illustrate...
The box barely opened and all there was inside was lumber. But I cleared my huge stick pile and all the wild animals and not to mention the centipedes all were very upset.


This was when we realized our mistake. We should have just bought the girls a box.


I'm trying to sort the lumber. Everything was marked P6, P7, Q4, O2, N1, R17, etc... there were about 40 different sizes to sort through.
Progress. This was before Kevin realized her used the wrong size of screw and had to rescrew every side piece.

When the roof started coming together we couldn't get the girls out. Julia could see her daddy through the roof.


And finally we finished around 10 pm. This is the next day and the kids wouldn't stay out.

Here Mia is looking through the bay window... that's right, real style...
...and here is the breakfast bar, or what I call -the first thing to break. What would make it more perfect... We just need a witch to move in and we're set.