House swaps, fingerprints and playhouse makeovers

This may be the perfect time to start my life of crime. It's not that I have a sudden taste for cat burglary, it's just I think I've lost all trace of fingerprints in a potent mixture of household cleaning products.

Yes, last week, I polished, scrubbed, scoured and dusted pretty much non-stop in preparation for a house swap holiday. I didn't actually think the place was that bad, but when my mother offered to take the children while I got the house ready she did, rather pointedly, say, "I'd better have them for four nights. you'll need the time..."

"Yeah right!", I thought, but as I imagined I'd be getting a little child-free 'me-time' with just Radio 4 for company, I wasn't going to argue.

It was after spending five and a half hours - just on the playroom - that I realised my confidence was ill-founded.

Yes, it's a sobering thing when you view your home through another's eyes.  It's not just that you see dirt and mess where before you only pictured 'lived-in normality' but you also start realising how many jobs you never finished.  So, after three years, our airing cupboard door now actually shuts, pictures which have been propped up in corners are hanging on walls and our bedroom is finally decorated.

This 'finishing frenzy' also extended into the garden.

I have had a problem with the playhouse for five long years. When I originally bought it, I spent an obscene amount of time indulging my ideas of how the perfect playhouse should look - right down to its fitted carpet, brick porch floor and handmade curtains. But the roof remained its visual downfall.

I've considered a few options for hiding the felt - wooden shingles, tiles, sedum matting - but they were all pricey or hard work or both. But in my pre-house swap whirlwind I came up with a new option - brushwood screening.

This is relatively cheap - you can get it from Wilkinsons for as little as £4.97 for a 3m x 1m roll (you'll need about 3) and incredibly easy to fit. I tried to attach it to the edges with fencing staples, but I actually found it better to tack it down with a staple gun.  I added a section each side and then a third bent over the top to give a tiered look that, in my vivid imagination, is reminiscent of thatching.

I also attached small sections to the underside of the porch section to hide the ply-board.

The brushwood is held together by thin wire so you will need a wire cutter to separate off the sections and then you have to twist the wire to secure the ends.  Also, the wire is quite easy to spot when it first goes on, but it wil soon rust making it blend into the colour of the roof.

Best of all, this took me 15 minutes - which is about half the amount of time I spent picking 'Guess Who' game cards out of the side of the sofa...

Comments

[Karen - An Artists Garden]

That is such a cool solution to the nightmare of garden building roofs,

(wonders if she could put it on her new house roof which still leaks rain)

K

PS Guess who has come a long way since my day

[Helen at Toronto Gardens]

Dawn, Clearly you need a house swap holiday in Toronto. I have just the house. And I promise not to look under your rug if you don't look under mine! Toronto's a lovely city to visit with children... and our house is close to everything (except close to being tidy). You might think I'm joking, but...

[Lois, Home Base Holidays]

It often feels like a lot of hard work getting a home ready for a home swap, but just think how great it will be when you get back to your spick and span home after your holiday (your home swap partners will likely be v. careful to ensure it's just as clean and tidy when they leave). And you'll even have a properly roofed playhouse!

Have a great time on your home exchange (note: Home Base Holidays operates Guardian home exchange and I'm sure our colleagues at the Guardian will be interested in hearing about your exchange adventures).

Cheers

[Metropolitan Mum]

I feel your pain. We are getting the house ready to put it back on the market. Grrr. !!

[Dawn/LittleGreenFingers]

Karen - I'm afraid water-proofing wasn't high on my list when it came to material choice. Still, it might distract you from soggy floors for a while.

Helen - funny you should say that - Canada is definitely somewhere we'd love to visit (as soon as my children are close to being bearable on a long flight)

Lois - you are so right - I've returned to an immaculate house.

MM - Can't believe you're having to go through all this again - what an absolute pain.

[twitter.com/countrygate]

Genius! Am off to shamelessly copy on the potting shed at school now that I'm back in circulation after Pride and Prejudice and holiday walking the South Downs.
Cally :-)

[elizabethm]

Love the brushwood idea - sheer genius!

[JamesA-S]

Your playhouse now has that Jamaican Shebeen look. Wasted on children.
I am quite intrigued by the thing that looks like a vast lemon squeezer looming behind said playhouse.
Hope holiday was worth all the Domestos Burns.

PS The solution to children on long flights is a couple of tranquilisers crushed up and slipped into the first Margharitas. Yours, not theirs.

[All Season's Gardener]

That's a brilliant idea for the 'shelter' that we're building at the back of the garden: it's only a temporary structure while we clear out the shed, but it gives us somewhere to stick the shed's contents - it had a plywood roof at present that looks horrible!

[Sierra Nordgren]

Oh! I've always wanted to have my own playhouse when I was young. Your kids are lucky to have you as their mother. And it's great that you are teaching them the importance of gardening. This will be a very useful learning experience as they explore this new hobby and their playhouse.