Once upon a time there was a mom who was daydreaming about building her daughter a playhouse or a tree house in her backyard. She would pin pictures of them on Pinterest, clip ads for people who build them professionally, and walk around the backyard thinking about the perfect place to put one. Then, one day the mom and her daughter went to the local farmer's market on Saturday as usual. And as they were leaving the farmer's market, they noticed a great big playhouse up on a trailer in the parking lot with a sign and people standing around it. So they checked it out. The daughter climbed up into it and explored while the mom talked to the people about it. The playhouse was being raffled by one of the local elementary school PTA's as part of a fundraiser. The mom thought she might like to buy a ticket but had just spent all her cash at the farmer's market. So, she took a picture of it to help her remember about it. Later, she saw an article about it in the local newspaper. She thought some more. Then the following week the mom and daughter went to the farmer's market again and the house was there again. The daughter begged, please let's win the house. So the mom agreed to buy a raffle ticket.... this time before she spent all her money at the farmer's market. But, she only had a $100 bill. She asked if they had change for it and the lady said the mom could buy a pack of 10 raffle tickets for $75. The mom, not a gambler by nature, hated spending that much money on silly raffle tickets but did it anyways since it was for the school and since she hates to be cheap when she clearly has the money. So, 10 for $75 it was. As mom and daughter walked away from the playhouse to do their produce shopping, the daughter asked, "will we win the house mommy?". "Maybe.... but probably not" she answered, and then had to explain why.
Weeks later, the raffle had been long forgotten, but the playhouse dreaming had continued. Then one boring Saturday night at the embarrassingly early hour of 9, the mom was heading to bed when her phone rang with an unknown but local number. She answered it. It was a woman calling and saying, "is this Robin? You've won the playhouse!" She was calling from the fundraising banquet where they had pulled the winning ticket in front of a hundred people at least. There was cheering and clapping in the background. The mom was shocked and tongue tied and shaking. She was asked to say something to the crowd so she said something about how much her daughter was going to love it! The phone call was so loud and hard to understand but basically the house would be delivered the next day! After hanging up the phone the mom burst into tears.... tears of joy, tears of disbelief, tears of hormones? Who knows.
Needless to say, she did not fall asleep at 9pm after all. She couldn't wait to get out in the backyard the next morning and figure out where they were going to put this giant playhouse! So while her daughter ate breakfast and watched cartoons, mom and dad whispered and conspired and measured the backyard. Then, when the decision was made, mom pulled up the photo of the house on her computer and gathered her daughter in her arms and said, "remember that playhouse we saw at the farmer's market and bought raffle tickets to try to win.....? Well,...... we won it!" The mom should have filmed this moment of pure joy and wonderment on her daughter's beautiful face. She too was in shock and disbelief. But later, when the trailer with the house was dropped off in front of our house, it became very real! That day Jackie played in it while it was still parked on the street while we stood around and told the story to countless neighbors.
The rest of the story mainly revolves around the hard work getting this giant, heavy, solidly built house into our backyard safely. Pictures tell the story....
First, there was Eric Pugh of Mesa Towing (a family friend) and his flat bed tow truck.
Then there was grandpa and his years of experience and mechanical mind. Pull the house onto the tow truck, back the two truck up the driveway to our side gate, drop the house down, then use a hand wench to pull it off the truck and slide it on the ground, and spin it so it's facing the right way. Oh, and there was a break to retrieve an electric saw to cut back the giant junipers to make room!
Jackie loves doing everything out there! It's an art studio, then it's a classroom, then it's her clinic like Doc McStuffins. We eat lunch out there. I hope this never wears off!
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