Katie's Lego Dream House

Katie and I were delighted to be asked by Ocean Loans to take part in their Lego Dream House competition. Usually Pip is the Lego King in our house (we make lots of "factories").  Up until quite recently Katie showed very little interest in getting involved with our factory making but receiving some Lego friends sparked a bit of interest in her (an interest I had to share one Sunday afternoon as I helped her put it together). Fired up by this success we were up for a little creativity although I was concerned as to whether we could actually make something that wasn't a factory.

When the Lego Creative Building Box and green base plate arrived we pondered what Katie's Dream House might look like. Katie fiddled and played with the Lego but nothing really jumped out at us as an idea.  We built a few different houses but neither of us felt inspired by our creations. I then asked Katie what her Dream House might actually consist of and the idea of a playground started to grow.  

As relative Lego novices we initially tried to build a full house structure but realised we wouldn't have enough Lego or space left to build our dream garden.  We decided to build the front of the house only and have the garden taking up most of the design at the back.

We set to work..........

We argued a bit...............

Katie had ideas that required Mummy to put into action..........

Mummy got quite into this Lego building lark and started to have some fun as well.....

Here is the brief Katie came up with for the design.........

Katie's Dream House would have an adventure playground in the garden.  It HAD to have a swing because swings are Katie's most favourite thing in the world.  As a toddler she would make me push her on the swing for hours at a time.  I had pretty impressive biceps at that point in my life I must admit.  Katie and I both adore zip wires so we needed to create one of those.  Katie was insistent the zip wire had a tyre to sit on so we removed a tyre from a Lego wheel.  Katie and Pip both love being around water so she felt a paddling pool was paramount. We "borrowed" some water from a Lego Friends set we have and Katie added some of her little stones from her collection to create a little beach area.  Finally a see-saw and roundabout were added to the list so 360 degree see-saw was created to act both as a see-saw and as a roundabout.

Here is a step by step photo library of the building of our design....

Katie was delighted with our finished house.  I'll admit I was too.  It was wonderful to build something other than a "factory" and it opened my eyes a little to what we could create with Lego.  I think we might be creating a few more Dream Homes and some other things we can dream up......

The most fantastic part of making the playground Dream House happened the morning after we made the design.  Katie asked to play with her house.  Pip came along and joined in and I watched their imaginations really fire up as they talked about going on the zip wire and flying through the air on the swings.  They imagined paddling in the paddling pool and playing on the pretend sand.  To see them enjoying our creation together was wonderful.  Katie and I even wondered what our next creation might be and Katie said we might even start our own business selling our designs (only joking Lego - don't worry - your business is safe!).

Katie and I would like to say a big Thank You to Ocean Loans for asking us to be a part of the Dream House fun......  We LOVED it!


Note: We were sent the Lego Creative Building Box and base plate by thinkmoneygroup.com as part of the Lego Dream Houses competition. All words are our own.