“Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when I was six and my biggest problem was what kind of dress to put on Barbie or whether or not I had enough Legos to build a fort” –Unknown

You remember being a kid, right? The minute dawn breaks, it’s off to the backyard where the playhouse or tree house was awaiting your new adventures. Nothing was better.

It is almost as if building forts and tree houses, or playing in a pre-fabricated playhouse was an unspoken rite of passage through anyone’s youth.

Why? We’re not sure, but for some reason kids have an overwhelming urge to begin stretching their wings and restlessly look to leaving the nest by building forts they can call their own. Admittedly they never seem to get further than the confines of the backyard, or nearby empty field where forts, tree houses and playhouses are built in abundance.

Yes, a few of us built those venerable “sofa-forts” in the living room, using only the finest technology of couch cushions and sheets in order to create the ideal location to hide out on Saturday mornings. But let’s focus on exterior forts, playhouses and such…

Well, there is a non-profit organization in California that is taking the idea of playhouses and forts just one step further—a whole lot further actually. It is called the Dreams Happen Event and it supports the Rebuilding Together Peninsula Organization in Palo Alto, California.

So what does saving a peninsula have to do with a good, sturdy fort?

Well, apparently everything.

This organization has been asking for donations of time and materials from construction companies, architects and other individuals. The goal is to conceptualize a playhouse idea, draw up plans and then build beautiful, durable playhouses that kids actually use. The playhouses are auctioned off with proceeds going towards the Rebuilding Together Peninsula efforts.

Remember, these are groups of highly respected and professional builders and architects who come together to create magnificent playhouses, and their creations are auctioned off at prices ranging from $13,000 to $71,000. Yes your eyes are not failing you;

Seventyone—Thousand—Dollars. ~gulp~

Each and every one of these playhouses is truly a masterpiece, being custom-designed and built with stunning features that uniquely distinguish it from other playhouses. The themes can be anything the architect’s mind can imagine. The few rules are that these playhouses have a maximum footprint of 8’x10’ and may be up to 10’-6” tall. Some playhouses even incorporate such features as slides, climbing walls and nearly all have operational doors and windows.

This year our friends at Chesler Construction have certainly outdone themselves. They are in the process of building a playhouse that any young baseball fan would gladly call their own—a smaller version of the impressive AT&T Park which is the home to the 2010 and 2012 World Champion San Francisco Giants. (Yes, the well-recognized AT&T Park clock tower comes with it too!)

Here is what AT&T Park looks like:

And here is the playhouse that Chesler Construction is currently building:

Schoollockers.com was approached to donate actual, usable lockers for this project and we gladly donated lockers to Chesler Construction so that this smaller version of AT&T Park would be perfect, right down to the lockers! Yes, these are bright “San Francisco Giant orange” kids lockers, direct from our impressive line found Schoollockers.com

The Chesler-donated playhouse comes complete and ready for game day; with orange stadium chairs, an electronic clock that looks like a San Francisco Giants scoreboard, a San Francisco Giants flag as well as a ladder on the inside made up of real used wooden baseball bats.

If this has inspired you to begin a spring project of your own in your backyard for that certain child/fan with a favorite sports team and you find that you need some kids lockers to match the team colors, then click HERE

If you decide you need a color not featured online, call our friendly staff and we’ll work our hardest to find a solution. Trust us, this is a great dad/son or daughter project for anyone!

Since 1993, the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California has co-sponsored and produced the biennial Dreams Happen event benefiting Rebuilding Together Peninsula where they see hundreds of people flocking to bid on one of these unique and priceless playhouses.For more information click HERE

Check our blog for more details and updates as we approach the June 1, 2013 auction.

Things sure have come a long, long way since the days of rusty nails, duct tape and old plywood from the neighbor’s chicken coop now, haven’t they?