Finally. After way, way longer than I'd anticipated the playhouse is finished.

Well, I say finished, but there's still loads to do. At least it's at the point where I can walk away (it's weatherproof) and finish off at my leisure.

I was lamenting with Karen the other day about how my inability to do things by half is something of a curse. Why can't I just be happy with knocking something passable together and have done with it!? Oh no, it has to have cedar wood shingles and a working doorbell.

In the end it cost us about 450 pounds (if you don't count the true cost of the couple of days I took off work during the week). It cost more than I'd thought it would, but isn't that always the case. Here's the cost breakdown.

Anything not listed above was given to me. It's amazing what you can get if you scrounge enough and ask around. The Perspex for the windows for example, was donated by Pete next door after a chance conversation over the wall about it.

Still, it was a lot cheaper than an equivalent from a maker of custom playhouses. Ten times less in fact. It's easy to look at the cost of custom builds and say "Four grand! For that!!" but having now built one myself, I think that's a reasonable price. If you were to ask me to build one for you then it would have to cost thousands. Especially if it's being erected remotely.

While working on it I did find myself dreaming of taking it up as an alternate profession. Been feeling more and more disillusioned with IT of recent. As they say though, the grass is always greener. I won't give up the day job just yet.

More photos here. Right. That's it. No more talk of the playhouse. Promise.