PACE Rotary - Playhouse 2012

This epic began as a glimmer in the eye of Andrea Seiler, past president and founding member of our club several months ago. Andrea somehow tricked Paul Schaan into having the fine young carpenters under his tutelage build and roof the playhouse as part of their coursework. She also managed to get the raffle tickets designed, printed and donated by Boylan Imaging. Bice & Sons donated and installed the stucco exterior, RailPro donated and installed the vinyl decking, Peerless Building Products donated and installed the fascia and window cladding, Metal Mart donated the shutters for me to install, and Lawrence Meier Trucking (he has a crane) agreed to move the house first to Peerless yard, then to the Northlands Co-op Parking lot, and finally to the winner’s house.

While construction happened, Mauren Fowler at the PACE Rotary club coordinated the tickets, money and members of our club and the Sunrise Rotary Club hit up friends and neighbors to buy tickets. Maureen also graciously counted every ticket stub and unsold ticket, painstakingly to ensure everything balanced (it did!).

PACE Rotary members also manned a table at the Co-op for a couple of weekends to sell more tickets and build club fellowship.

The epic came to an end today under the blazing sun at the home of winner, Josh Hopkins and his young family. Josh has a keen eye for real estate and has recently purchased a character home on the South East Hill. This home has everything you would want: great views, beautiful original character interior, a hill instead of a back lane, power lines everywhere, and the neighbors houses are about 24” away from his. They sure don’t make them like they used to, and while Jeff at Laurence Meier Trucking was super helpful and keen to use his crane, there was no way he could get the house into Josh’s yard.

Josh and I spent quite a while scratching our heads, but to cut a long story short: Josh, his father-in-law Don, his brother-in-laws John and Simon (I think), and I spent the better part of three hours turning the playhouse into a sort of giant rickshaw with wheels on the back end and long 2x8 handles. I can’t believe I didn’t think to take a picture of this thing! We then dragged what turned out to be a surprisingly heavy playhouse about 100’ from where the back lane ended to Josh’s house. The wheels were destroyed, but the house made it through completely intact and nobody was injured, except maybe my delicate eardrums when things got a little “salty!”

After the long pull, when the house was in place and cleaned up, the real rewards were listening to Josh’s boy and his cousins play happily in the house and talk about how it was a “perfect place” in those high, sweet little kid voices and getting to know Josh and his family over the burger and beer that Josh graciously provided. I feel very proud of everything we did, and I wouldn’t have had it happen any other way.

On behalf of PACE Rotary, thank you all!

Yours in Rotary,

Joel McNally