RESULT!

Today, when Mitzi and I got back from our 10K run, Adam was outside in the one-car garage, sorting through a bunch of stuff.

He finally came up with a plan for our storage, and that plan allows us to get the car in the double-car garage! That's one huge thing I missed during the Year of Living Apartmentally. My car was always garaged at our house in Wichita, and on cold winter mornings, it was really nice not to have to scrape ice and snow off the windows.

We moved everything out of the playhouse, swept and cleaned it out, and then put all of our lawn and garden stuff in it.

I was hot, sweaty, and not thinking straight, so I didn't shoot a photo before we moved all of the junk out, but here's a few photos of it all cleaned out.

Apparently my cousin Sara and I liked to use quotation marks in our youth. Crazy to think that those two autographs have been there for 20 years. Depending on when that was written, we would have been 11. I don't remember what we played in the playhouse, but we were in it a lot. I think we probably played school, and house (there was an old wooden ironing board in the very back of the playhouse when we cleaned it out). And, I guess we liked to write on the walls.

I wish that the wood was more preserved. You can tell from years of neglect and lack of fresh coats of paint, that the old playhouse is starting to look like those old abandoned houses and barns you see on the prairie.

That fence and building on the other side of the window is the neighbor's yard and garage. I'm not sure how old the playhouse is, but it's been there as long I can remember being at Grandma's. Maybe Grandpa built it for Julie? I don't think it was there when the older kids were little, but I'm sure one of them can post here to let us know.

There was a giant fluff ball in the back left corner. Probably a mice nest. Luckily, when I swept it up, nothing jumped out at me.

Here's the after photos:

Obviously, having the lawn furniture in there takes up quite a bit of space, but I don't want to leave that wood furniture out in the winter weather again. It'll need to be stained next spring, anyway.

I think next weekend I need to get all of the lawn stuff cleaned and ready to store over the winter, but it's nice just to have it organized. (Hopefully that organization will magically move INSIDE the house pretty soon!)