King County Journal - Thursday, August 28, 2003

Let's play house: Kits give children a place to call their own By Jean Parietti Journal Reporter      Kids love to have a place of their own, and what better place than a hideaway in the back yard?      Playhouses or clubhouses come in all shapes, sizes and price ranges, but they have one thing in common: they're places where kids can play with friends, work on projects or just hang out.      Mercer Island sisters Allie, 11, and Madison Roodman, 8, marked the recent completion of their playhouse by hosting their birthday slumber parties there.      Their parents, Cheryl and Rich Roodman, chose a garden building from Garden Solutions to become their younger daughters' playhouse.      "I had received a little promotional card from Garden Solutions," one of several in a packet in the mail, Cheryl Roodman said. "I just sort of flipped through them, and this little playhouse that's featured on there just caught my eye. I showed it to the girls and they got kind of excited."      The Roodmans started with a basic ranch model and added a Pergo floor inside and a cupola and crowing rooster weathervane on the roof. The girls chose the cheery color scheme: blue, pink, yellow, green and white.      Initially, Cheryl was trying to choose paint to match the tan and cream in the sample photo. "I got out some Sunset magazines and looked at colors other people had used," she recalled. "I thought, this is a children's playhouse and we can be more creative than this."      Her daughters are artistic, Roodman said, and they "had fun choosing the colors and deciding where those colors would be applied."      The Roodmans had the playhouse wired so the girls can use it year-round. Now they have a place to hang out and work on art projects, and "as these kids get older, we could turn it into some kind of artist's studio," Roodman said. Some day, the playhouse could be used by grandchildren or converted to another use, she added.      Parents or grandparents who are thinking about building a playhouse have many options, including purchasing plans and building the house themselves (visit www.abetterbackyard.com/play.html for a sampling of companies that offer playhouse plans).

Other choices include:      * A Victorian playhouse kit from Backyard America in four sizes, with base prices ranging from $1,100 to $1,500. The gingerbread-style house features two working windows, shutters and flower boxes; an optional front deck and railing complete the look. The homeowner must buy roofing shingles, drip edge and paint or stain (www.backyardamerica.com).      * For more whimsy, choose the Belfry, Burrow or Mini playhouses produced by Practical Folly, based in Ontario. The kits come prepainted, inside and out, in the customer's choice of up to three colors. Prices, including shipping, range from $7,800 to $8,200 for standard exterior cladding; knock about $1,000 off the price if you're willing to paint it yourself (www.practicalfolly.com).      * Cedarshed offers the Playhouse, intended for very small children, and the Clubhouse, which can accommodate kids through their teens. Both structures are made of cedar and have attached covered porches. Both are available as kits from The Yard Works in Lynnwood; $1,300 for the Playhouse, just under $1,900 for the Clubhouse (www.cedarshed.com, www.theyardworks.net).      * Amish-crafted playhouses starting at $1,600 are sold through HomePlace Structures in Pennsylvania. The log cabin models have options such as a real stone chimney with a propane fireplace; prepainted Victorian models are available. The company recommends hiring a carpenter to assemble the house. (www.homeplacestructures.com).      PHOTO by Maxwell Balmain/Journal: Madison Roodman (left), Sasha Sommer and Allie Roodman hang out in the Roodman sisters' new playhouse on Mercer Island.