Popular playhouse raises thousands for Housing Hope

EVERETT — It’s a dream playhouse for any kid.

And a lot of grown ups, too.

The miniature building contains two rooms with brightly colored walls connected by a ship’s ladder. Sliding plexiglass doors open on hot days to create a cross breeze with windows in the back. It’s fully wired with low-voltage lights.

And it came complete with a green roof and a planter box out front, art hanging on the walls and a bean bag, tiny table and other furnishings.

Builder Jim Gaffney constructed the playhouse for a charity auction for Housing Hope, the local nonprofit that aims to combat homelessness.

For a month, Gaffney spent every weekend and every night working in his shop on the project.

Maybe he should have just written a check.

“It probably would have been easier, but it wouldn’t have been as much fun,” Gaffney said. “It about wore me out, but I really did enjoy it.”

Gaffney, whose firm Gaffney Construction has been building homes and commercial properties in Snohomish County for 40 years, was one of three contractors to make playhouses for the auction.

His playhouse designed by architect Tom Rochon with Designs Northwest in Stanwood won the People’s Choice Award at Sorticulture last month.

And it impressed the Housing Hope folks.

“Oh my gosh, I was breathless,” said Kelsey Dosen, Housing Hope’s special events and marketing manager. “It was so much more than we had imagined or could have imagined.”

She said it attracted a lot of attention at the festival at Legion Memorial Park in early June.

“A lot of the parents wanted this for themselves,” Dosen said. “You know, put a little wine bar in there and have a good time.”

The playhouse, called the Mod Pod, fetched $10,500 at the auction June 7.

In all, Housing Hope raised $38,700 from the playhouses and the sale of bird and dog houses built by a several community groups including inmates from the Monroe Correctional Center.

This was the first time the nonprofit had asked builders to construct playhouses.

From the start, Gaffney wanted to do something different. He approached Rochon, who wanted to design a playhouse with a modern, fresh look.

“If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do something fun,” Rochon said. “That was the approach we took.”

Rochon also wanted it to be environmentally sustainable. So he designed it with a green roof and a rain barrel on the side that could collect up to five gallons of water for the plants.

Part of the challenge was the parameters set by Housing Hope. The playhouse was supposed to be 6 feet wide by 8 feet long and 10 feet high. It also needed to be assembled and disassembled in the winner’s yard, able to fit through a 3-foot gate.

“I tell people I worked for five minutes and then I had to think for 10,” Gaffney said.

During construction, Gaffney added fun details, from the 123 house numbers by the door to the rock climbing handles on the side. For the floor, he used oak plywood, but stained it and routed grooves in it to make look like hardwood flooring.

Gaffney got help from a retired employee, John DeGroot, and his son, Joe Gaffney. As it took shape, Joe Gaffney’s own children, ages 5 to 12, fell in love with the playhouse.

“All my kids wanted to keep it,” Joe Gaffney said. “They wanted their papa to build one for them. It was good to explain to them what we were building it for.”

Gaffney’s wife, Jan, and Joe’s wife, Ashley, helped pick out the color scheme and went shopping for furniture and decorations.

“My wife got carried away with the furniture,” Jim Gaffney said.

The couple who won the auction have a beach house on Camano Island designed by Designs Northwest. They moved to Woodinville and wanted the playhouse because it reminds them of the beach house.

“Actually the people who bought this don’t have any young kids,” Gaffney said. “They have a grandchild that’s about 6 months old.”

That’ll be a happy grandchild.

The auction

Housing Hope auctioned off three playhouses donated to the nonprofit. The Western Store was designed by S.M. Stemper Architects and built by Western Ventures Construction. The Triangle House was built and designed by Dykeman Inc. The Mod Pod was designed by Designs Northwest Architects and built by Gaffney Construction.

Several businesses donated supplies for the Mod Pod: Glass By Lund; Expert Drywall; Evergreen State Heat and AC; Snohomish County Excavating; Hatloe Carpet One; Loberg Roofing; Preferred Electric; Industrial Welding; and Crystalite.

Half a dozen employees from Gaffney Construction donated their time to deliver and assemble the playhouse in Woodinville.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.