Mini-Peter Builds a House!
a Mini-Peter Adventure transcribed by Nikki, 2007

April 18-30: "Lookin' for a place to live..."

     I was out shopping one day when I came across some Orange bamboo placemats, so I brought them home for Mini-Peter to see if he could think of anything to do with them.

     "I'm sure I'll come up with something," he assured me.

     Later that evening, he seemed to have had an idea. I found him chopping wood on the kitchen table.

     "Whatcha makin'?" I inquired.
     "You'll see," he replied mysteriously.

     The wood turned out to be the legs for a large platform made of some old shelves I wasn't using anymore.
     I guess putting that construction vest back on went to his head as much as the jacket did, but at least this is more, well, constructive.
     Evidently, Mini-Peter loves hot glue as much as I do!

     Was he building a stage, I wondered? I watched with growing curiosity as he formed a large square structure out of clay and asked me to cook it for him. He then began gluing it in place on the platform he had built.

     He asked if we had any Orange wood stain. I told him it would be expensive, but that food coloring might work just as well.
     We mixed up some Orange, and it did the job brilliantly!

     He built some impressive stairs up to the platform, then enlisted the help of Kitty and Lugnut for the next step.

     "It's a house!" I mused.
     "Now you've got it!" he confirmed. "But more of a hut, really. Summer's coming, after all."
     "That'll be perfect! You can set it up on the front porch on sunny days."

     He took a day off from his exhausting work, then called me over to my desk the next day for a favor.
     "I've hit a snag. Several, in fact. We're out of hot glue, and I need something for carpet, and more placemats for the roof. I've got some money left over from my jacket fund - it should be enough. Maybe next time you go out you could stop by the craft store?"

     "Sure. I was going in that direction today, actually."
     I took his money and brought back the supplies he'd requested (and a bit of change), so he got back to work immediately.

     The carpet was relatively easy.

     He built the roof over four days, and asked for my help to put it on. We needed Kitty and Lugnut's assistance as well, as it was more difficult than we had expected. With the four of us all working together, we had no-one to take pictures of the process, but it was very frustrating and consisted mostly of swearing, mini-swearing, and burned fingers. No burned mini-fingers, of course, because Mini-Peter left his gloves on. We also killed the glue gun, but I had a spare in my tool kit, so we kept right on working until the roof was completed.

     He was going to make a real door, but at the last minute he had a better idea, and made a curtain of raffia instead.

     He glued it on, added a decoration I'd given him for this project, and the hut was finally finished!

     "I hereby decree that all who enter this hut must call me The King of Orange!"
     "The King of Orange?" I questioned. "You're not having another flash of Jacket Attitude, are you?"
     "No, silly. I'm mostly kidding."
     "Okay, good. I suppose I don't fit in your hut anyway, so I don't have to worry about it."
     "What about us?" Lugnut asked.
     "Can we be the Prince and Princess of Orange?" Kitty queried.
     "Of course!" Mini-Peter agreed.

     So there you have it. The Royal Family of Orange. I can go along with that. They earned their titles by hard work and accomplishment. How many Kings hand-built their own castles?