Time to show you guys our second big build for the coming Hogwarts slumber party! (If you missed the giant stone fireplace build, you can check that out here.)
The last few years John and I've put up a fake brick entry to our back room, like this:
After two years we wanted a change, though, and wracked our brains for an appropriate entry to the Hufflepuff Common Room.
Eventually I narrowed it down to basic 'Puff priorities: fun and food. Throw Christmas into the mix, and of course you get a life-sized gingerbread house, right?
Here's a teaser to get you to keep scrolling. Muahahaaaa.
The basic structure went up lightning fast: John was done in barely two days. He used cheap 2X4s to build the frame, keeping the whole thing in two pieces for easy installation:
Testing the fit inside:
You can see here how we're narrowing the entry to give ourselves room for the side walls of the gingerbread house. Gotta have that symmetry!
From there John clad the walls and roof in Masonite panels:
(This thing took up most of our garage, so this was as far back as I could get for photos!)
My initial design included two small turrets, but they were such a struggle to work around that we eventually - and very reluctantly - nixed them to make room for these House mascot cookies I drew instead:
