Your kids need other places to play other than their bedrooms. To prevent them from tearing up the other rooms in your house, provide them with their own playhouse in the backyard. Playhouses are relatively simple to make and the materials can be acquired cheaply if you know where to look. 

Paint 

Kids are going to want their playhouse painted with plenty of colors, but paints can be a rather expensive material. A clever way to get a collection of paint is to ask your local hardware store if they have any paint cans on clearance sale. These paints are usually ones that mixed incorrectly. You can also ask your neighbors if they have any cans of paint that are going to waste in their garage or basement. That way, you can save money and alleviate the burdens of others. This is a great technique for any penny pincher. After all, paint isn’t cheap, so get it at any kind of discount you can. 

Wood 

A playhouse for your kids is going to require a lot of timber. While you can always go to a local home improvement store to purchase timber, it’ll come with quite a hefty price tag. There are cheaper ways to acquire the lumber. If there’s a local construction area where a demolition is occurring, you can ask the foreman if they’d let you take some of the lumber home. Additionally, you can forage for spare timber by dismantling old pieces of furniture or tearing down an old shed or barn on your property. When you need timber, it does not need to be anything special, just plain old wood will do just fine. 

Furniture 

A playhouse is not a playhouse unless your kids have little pieces of furniture for sitting, eating, and playing. Chairs and tables can be built out of spare lumber that’s left over from the construction of the playhouse itself. For additional furniture, you can look around for small pieces at your local dollar store or at garage sales around your neighborhood. You can always ask friends and neighbors if they have old toy chairs for little kids lying around the house you might be able to buy from them. 

Roofing Materials 

The playhouse you build for your children will, most likely, be placed outside in the backyard. This means that it will be exposed to rain, wind, and snow. It will need a proper roof to survive extreme weather. A small playhouse will require a very small amount of roofing materials. You can purchase cheap asphalt roll roofing materials or a few roofing shingles to nail to the roof. Your neighbors might have a few extra shingles left over from a recent roof repair that you could use or pay for as well. 

Even though building a playhouse is a small home project, there should still be precautions taken for your personal safety. Wear thick boots, use protective gloves, and keep your kids away from the construction area for everyone’s safety.