Papercreters: [papercreters] Re: newbie....

Friday, July 18, 2008

[papercreters] Re: newbie....

A playhouse can be constructed out of papercrete just like a real house
can be. The same basic construction practices we have discussed will
apply.

Most cities allow for a structure that is under 100 sqft without
requiring a permit. Each local city is different, so check with your
local building department to see what they allow for sheds and other
small structures. Some cities will allow larger ones, up to 250 sqft,
but blanket exemptions that large are very unusual.

Many cities actually have a website or a pamphlet about small
structures. If your local city has something like that, get a copy and
read it carefully.

To fall into this category, most cities do not allow the structure to
have artificial heating, and are not allowed to have electricity. Your
city may be different. You'd be amazed at how warm a passive solar
design can be in the winter, though. What playhouse is any good at
night if you don't get to run around with flashlights anyway?

Just like any other structure, start by building a good foundation.
You'll want to get the papercrete up off the ground. You also will
want to get the floor level and elevated up high enough off the ground
that you won't have to worry about water finding a low spot and wanting
to flow into the playhouse. Unless you want your playhouse to be a
mudpit?

You can easily build a simple rectangular box, a dome, a weird curvy
thing, a triangular playhouse, or whatever you dream up. Just be sure
to keep the papercrete up off the ground, protect the papercrete with
something to keep water out of it, and have fun. Keep things very
safe. Remember that kids will probably climb on top of it. They will
hang from any exposed beams or rafters. They will crash into it with
bicycles. They will hide stray dogs in it. Water fights will
regularly drench it inside and out. The furniture will find its way
into the neighbor's yard.

I'm getting misty eye'd just thinking about all the great fun. I have
no idea how my parents survived my childhood.

This sounds like a very fun project. I wish my parents would have been
interested in something like this when I was a kid. My brother and I
just built forts out of cardboard boxes. We'd have to constantly
replace smelly boxes when our dog would "mark his territory" a bunch of
times on the side. When it rained we would have to tear it down and
throw the boxes away. :(

Then we'd get back on our bikes and go get more boxes at the grocery
store and start over. It's amazing how many flattened boxes two kids
can carry on their bikes. We had them stacked up twice as tall as we
stood. If we only had them fall over twice on the way home, it was a
very good trip.

We did a really good job of killing all the grass in the yard on that
construction site. :)

We also seriously damaged a major branch on a tree where we threw a
rope up and used it as a construction crane. (No pully, we just pulled
on the rope and let it saw through the bark and injure the tree. Dad
was really ticked off!)

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "rlhw00" <rlhw00@...> wrote:
>
> hello everyone. just joined a few days ago and have spent several
> hours reading past posts and checking out the files and other
links.
> since this is all new to me i'll be mostly a look and learner for a
> while. i would be very interested to know if anyone has made a
> playhouse using papercrete. we live in the south so i don't know for
> sure papercrete would be an option to build with. we do tend to get
a
> tornado from time to time and if insurance wouldn't cover a
papercrete
> structure then all the money and effort would be lost. any thoughts??
> thanks,
> rebecca
>