COTTAGES FOR A CAUSE: Playhouses are serious stuff for children's charity (with PHOTO GALLERY)

Where else can you save a submarine from a watery grave, fly down a zip line, sail a ship into the wind, make customized pizza from a cypress tree, or slide down a fireman’s pole?

It’s the 2008 Cottages for Kids.

On display throughout November on the East Long Green at Rosemary Beach are 13 of the most extraordinary, one-of-a-kind playhouses all ready to be auctioned on Nov. 29th.  The event brings out the kid in everyone, no matter what their biological age, and is the major annual fund-raiser for the Children’s Volunteer Health Network, Inc.

The project is the third annual fund-raiser for the faith-based, non-profit organization that facilitates free access to mental, dental and medical health care for underinsured and uninsured children in Walton and Okaloosa counties.

In May of this year, the Children’s Volunteer Health Network put out the invitation for local builders and architects to design and build playhouses using the 2008 theme “Cottages for Kids: Earth Friendly … Kid Approved!” 

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For a complete look at the cottages and the fun at Rosemary Beach, click here.

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And the response was an amazing array of imagination meets initiative.

Chairman of the event, Kate Johnson, walks the greens between houses and explains, “They are all built using green building practices and lots of whimsy!”

Billie Gaffrey designed and provided this year’s theme and logo, which is available on T-shirts to help with the fund raiser. She is a self-taught artist with her own art gallery, GaffreyArt in Blue Mountain Beach.

Throughout the month, the playhouses have been open on weekends and holidays with live music and the opportunity to meet the builders.

THE COTTAGES
Craig Baranowski, President of CJB Construction was the first to sign up at the kick-off party. His Fury from the Deep is an octopus eating a submarine — and while it may sound like Jules Verne’s story, in actuality, it sits as a brainchild partnership from CJB and Chris Stoyles of Archiscapes, LLC. Stoyles explains that the team wanted a cottage that did not look like a happy fairy tale, and “stood out from the rest; I think this did the trick,” he said. 

Boudreaux’s Shop’ n Shak is the Raffle Cottage for 2008 built by Susannah Rice and Ted Foret with Sabatier LaBarbera Architecture. Rice fashioned the outside of the two level general store, kitchen and café from fence board salvaged and recycled from hurricanes Gustav and Ike in Louisiana. A fully equipped play kitchen is banked with windows to see the world, complete with a dumb waiter to take dishes to the top deck. Susannah’s desire is for the raffle to give all children a chance to take home one of the playhouses. And although one man wanted to buy it and convert it to a tree stand, the playhouse is ready for hours of fun. 

The Crooked Cottage was designed by Porter-Smith Design; with Thurber Architecture and builder, Regal Stephens. It is the childhood poem about the crooked man and his wife come to life.  A mushroom table and stools hold a Mother Nature tic-tac-toe game; moss hangs from the ceiling along with an opossum family and a stuffed bat. The two-story, slightly-slanted cottage has shingle siding with driftwood corners and a tree face completed with twig eyelashes. The cottage has sold already.

Green Top Two built by Artisan of Seagrove Beach with Architect Gary Justiss was a crowd favorite with tons for kids to do. Little red wheelbarrows, a rain water tub, watering cans, gardening gloves, tools, hats, and aprons, are all ready for play.
Steve Stevens is a co-sponsor for the second year of Green Top and loves volunteering at the event.   “This is great to get to share in this much joy,” he says. “There were two little boys here most of the morning and they were so busy you would have thought that they were getting paid to play!” 

Ladder Company 30A was built and designed by Dixon Kazek Construction and is four 8 by 8 modules that fit together to be a fire department and a sheriff’s office with a chalk board lined jail wall — perfect for the bored prisoner. A rope ladder is poised against one side and allows access to the roof of the cottage where there is a working bell ready to announce any emergency. A fire soaker is also mounted on the top side. Extra special touches include a flag pole and firefighter suit hanging on the wall, and then there’s the fire pole! The white stucco sides are designed to reflect heat and help maintain the perfect temperature of the cottage.  

Yin Yang Garden Cottage’s builder was Freeport Steel and Framing and their architect was Tim Tricker. The builder’s crew worked all day for several weeks and then would stay on the work site while a wife brought dinner in to share. This is their first year to participate, and their bamboo latticed creation is a favorite among adults as it is so serene and would be the perfect spot for a hot tub!

One Fish, Two Fish; Red Fish, Blue Fish was created by Alys Beach Construction with Alys Beach Resorts Architect and has scales made from smashed, recycled soda cans. The underbelly of the big fish houses a tire swing for those recently swallowed, a great net is set up to scale to the second-story for the lookout — pirates, mermaids, ships and the like can all be seen through the eyes of visitors to this cottage.

Piazzetta dei Bimbi built by Arkon Group, Inc and Braulio Casas Architects was built with three-year-old Cecilia Casas in mind. Her Mom and Dad created three separate play houses that make for a small town with a planter for a “public space.” 
Tara Casas explains that although this is their first year to participate in the fundraiser it is certainly only the beginning! 
“I love this event!” She begins. “Not only does some very fortunate child take these playhouses home at the end of the month, but children from all over have had them to play in during the weekends!” 

Big Kahuna’s Look-Out is the fun effort of Ederer Construction with Margaretten Architectural. It is the perfect place for a little surfer dude to hang loose!  There’s a lookout tower on the top deck, a surfer’s pole, a huge sand box, places to climb, colorful surfboards, and a rainwater catch system that allows a rain chain to send the water into an irrigation system for plants along the beautifully-colored play set.

The second cottage to be sold already is called Tweet Crib and was designed by the Chancey Design Partnership and built by John Willis Homes. It is the hot spot with a working zip-line coming out of the second story. The pop art sculpture is a bird house take off with a V-shaped roof to look like a bird in flight. One complete wall is made up of recycled plastic bottles.  

Beyond the Wave’s architect was Studio-A-Architecture and the builder was Davis Dunn Construction. It is the traditional look playhouse that was inspired by an original island plantation structure turned into a pirate hideout in San Salvador, Bahamas. The floors are an amazing painted mural of sea life imagination with mermaids and treasure chests, pirate swords, sharks and octopus, plants, shells, and Neptune’s trident. It is a prototype for “kit-of-parts” type construction.

Plato’s Playground was built by Sunset Builders and Studio-i-ARCHITECTURE and is themed “attempting the impossible.” It uses the basics of shape but is far from basic. “Heartworks Kids” hand painted the flooring, the wood trim, and the roof with colorful pictures, sayings, handprints and messages. The skylight and the slide make it even more fun. Thoughts like “stop yelling,” “Remember how small they really are,” “giggle a lot” and “read books out loud with joy” are neatly printed below the roof line and offer excellent advice. 

Spin Sail was built by Four Seasons Builder with Fouquet Architecture and Interior Design and is a beautiful sea blue with dark chocolate wood trim. The bottom floor has the helm that allows the children to turn the sail on the top side and climb up to peer into mounted periscopes on all sides. It was purchased already by a couple who live near the gulf and think that it will be a great art work after their kid’s playhouse years. 

To date, CVHN has made over 800 appointments with over 90 medical, dental and mental health providers who see children at no cost.

They have a mobile dental unit that visits children identified as having a need in area schools and it will be on site weekends through the end of the month.  An anonymous donor gave a $50,000 check to the organization after seeing the unit, and the $125,000 raised from the 2007 Cottages for Kids event also went into the unit.

Board member Zach Billingsley and his new wife, Hannah, have helped to recruit volunteers for the month-long event — about 22 per day are needed.

Darla Wright worked to recruit volunteers and reached out to South Walton and Freeport High School where members of their Key and Anchor Clubs came out to work with the children who visited the cottages.

“There are a lot of committed people giving time and love to this cause, not just this weekend but every day.”

Cottages can be bought now or at the auction on Saturday, Nov. 29, at 11 a.m. sharp. For more information, visit their Web site www.cottagesforkids.org or call 622-3200.