“My wife always said that she would like a kids playroom that is separate from the house, somewhere to keep all the toys that didn’t have to be in the main living area,” Howard, 35, told ABC News.
Courtesy David Howard
He said the whole idea started with his desire to start a home remodeling project.
“The sunroom seemed like the perfect spot,” Howard said. “But it was the ugliest room that I have ever seen, and it needed a lot of attention. At the time, I was kind of itching for a project having finished the rest of the house and having a couple of months to recuperate.”
Courtesy David Howard
The room came together one piece at a time starting with ideas for the kids’ toys.”I had thought about building storage for toys and about that time my father-in-law built and gave my daughter a little kitchen he had made,” Howard said. “I figured the kids would like a playhouse to put the kitchen in.”
Courtesy David Howard
The elaborate design features a working rope bridge and a slide, which his kids love zooming across and flying down.“This sounds cheesy, but I really tried to think of what I would like to have had when I was a kid,” the banker by day and builder by nights explained. “The first idea was a loft. Kids like being up high and climbing. I wasn’t 100% sure the rope bridge was possible but decided to give it a shot, it seemed safer than my initial idea of a zip line. Plus the zip line would require a safety harness and adults to really help buckle and unbuckle. All said and done, I’m really glad I went with the bridge!”
Courtesy David Howard
Having the playhouse in the sun room gives the kids light, but keeps them out of the Texas heat.
“We’ve had years in Lubbock where we have reached 100 consecutive days of temperatures 100 degrees plus,” said Howard. “We normally have at least a month or two of 40 to 50+ mile-an-hour wind, and some days we get all four seasons the same day!”
Courtesy David Howard
It took about $500 to build the house. Howard says “it can be torn down in a matter of hours” if necessary, but he hopes that doesn’t happen.“After all the work I put into it, I really hope the playhouse entices someone with kids or small grand children to buy our house,” he said. “It hurts a little inside to think of the house being disassembled after all the hours I spent building it.”
Courtesy David Howard
When people ask the creative dad why he built it, he asks them, “Why not?”The photos have garnered more than 88,000 views in just two days on Imgur after Howard posted them to “inspire someone else to build something for their kids.”
Courtesy David Howard
“Other people have commented on the safety issue,” he said of some comments on the photos. “I think kids learn by doing, and they have to find their limits.”More than anything, this super dad wants his kids to “look back on this and think ‘mom and dad were pretty cool.’”
Alicia Junod
