The 2010 ORIX Parade of Playhouses benefiting Dallas CASA is coming to a close – at least for me. My playhouse is getting delivered to Northpark Mall today and over the next three days, all 17 playhouses will be delivered, inspected, and installed. At that point, the playhouses will be strategically displayed around Northpark Mall from August 6th through August 22nd where almost 2 million people will go through the mall and see them. Pretty cool.

After this post, I will only cover this subject one more time this year and that will be to show you the other playhouses that were designed and built. I know what 4 of the other playhouse look like and they are all really good.

So the cedar shakes have all been put into place and you can see how everything came together. I was trying to simulate a thatched roof and knew that a cedar shake roof would give me the texture and color I wanted, there was a sense of movement I was looking to created. It was great to see the carpenters putting the roof on – they had a blast despite the hot weather. They saw the 3d images of the roof but I told them that this was their contribution and I was going to let them design the pattern of the waves. Steve and his guys did a great job.

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soffit edge detail

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Close up view of the reed ceiling

A look at the underside of the ceiling where I installed reed grass to cover up the plywood sheathing and to dress things up a bit. This reed grass was picked up at Home Depot for just a few bucks.

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1x6 rafter tails

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interior ceiling detail

This is inside the playhouse looking up at the double rafters and the reed grass ceiling. Yes, the guys working on this were wondering what I was doing laying down in my dress pants and button down shirt when it was 100 degrees outside just to take a picture. When I was in there, they were hassling me a little, giving me instruction to touch up this or hammer down that – ha ha ha……sooooo funny. But when I came out, they all wanted to know where they could get their hands on the photos. The guys who helped build this playhouse are all very proud of it – just as much as I am.

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interior view looking at end wall opposite the entry

The interior walls are covered in untreated homasote- a pressed paper wallboard. If you have any kind of design background , I’m sure you’ll remember all the tack boards you had access to in school were covered in the stuff. Super cheap and super awesome and I think made for the right interior finish, both in terms of texture and color tone. How do you like the material reveal I put in between the bottom of the rafter and the top of the homasote board? Mies van der Rohe would have appreciated that little gesture. There is also a blackened metal rail that rings the bottom of the homasote to create a ledge or shelf.

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The bottom edge and rail

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If you are in the Dallas area, I would love it for you to come by Northpark Mall and see the playhouses for yourself. If you are interested in buying a $5 raffle ticket which could win you the playhouse of your choice, visit the ORIX Parade of Playhouses benefiting Dallas CASA site here – you don’t have to be present to win.

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