By Kelsey Ligon
A crooked, whimsical playhouse is taking shape at the house on the corner of Royal Run Boulevard and Dorchester Drive in Zionsville.
Michael Klingsmith, who returned from deployment with the U.S. Army about a month ago, is building the structure for his daughters, Lucy, 7, and Sophieah, 5.
Neighbor Evan Hardy, upon viewing the playhouse, remarked that it was truly “one of a kind” and reminds him of something out of a Dr. Seuss story.
And he’s not far off in his description. Klingsmith envisions a playhouse that is constructed of curious angles. All of the lines of the walls and ceiling are slanted, with the only straight boards being those in the floor.
Klingsmith is working without a blueprint, and when he went to the store to get the cedar planks for the playhouse, he said “the (employees) were entirely lost about what I wanted to create.”
His inspiration for building the house? He saw one like it online and knew he had to build something similarly imaginative and playful. The family views the project as something special to work on together.
“The girls love it,” said Dawn Klingsmith, Michael’s wife. “It’s a good bonding experience.”
Lucy has been active in helping her dad build the playhouse.
“It’s awesome because Daddy built it,” she said.
Klingsmith expects the playhouse to take no more than a week to build. He is still unsure what color the house will be, but thinks his daughters might decide to go with a shade of purple.
When the playhouse is done, Klingsmith wants to hang a light on the outside porch of the playhouse and a flower pot that’s just slightly crooked.
