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Pet project pays off

A Lutz mom with no building experience crafts a doghouse that mimics her home, earning her the grand prize in a This Old House contest.

By JUDY STARK
Published January 14, 2006

	[Times photo: Melissa Lyttle]
	Cheryl Morgan used all kinds of creative materials to build her doghouse. The 4½-foot-square home has room for Sadie, a 10-year-old Labrador retriever, and Tea, a 2-year-old Yorkie.

LUTZ - Other stay-at-home moms may shake their heads in disbelief, but Cheryl Morgan of Lutz was worried about how she would fill her time when the youngest of her four children started kindergarten last August.

"I happened to be standing in a checkout line at Lowe's," she recalled a few days ago, "wondering, "What am I going to do with my time?' " She picked up a copy of This Old House magazine, thumbed through, and saw a story about a contest: Build a doghouse that resembles your home.

"I thought, "Wow, that's what I can do. That's going to be my project' " when daughter Chloe, 6, started school. Just the thing for Sadie, a 10-year-old chocolate lab, and Tea, a 2-year-old Yorkie.

Morgan had never read the magazine and has watched This Old House the TV show only "a couple of times."

The deadline was barely a month away, and although Morgan, 44, is "a rather crafty person all around," she had never built anything, didn't know how to handle tools, didn't know which materials to use.

Turned out it didn't matter. Hard work, creativity and three-times-a-week shopping trips at Lowe's on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard won her the top prize in the magazine's contest for a doghouse that looks surprisingly like her own brick, stucco and shingle home, down to leaded-glass double front doors and an American flag hanging off the porch. Her winning doghouse is featured in the January-February issue.

She spent hours wandering the aisles at Lowe's, "wondering, "What can I use?' It was trial and error. I spent a lot of money on things I really didn't use." She also discovered that even though Chloe was in school, she didn't have all that much time, what with household chores and chauffeuring kids.

Lattice strips and mortar-patching mix resemble brick siding. She used putty to replicate stucco. For the roof shingles she used strips of safety-skid tape, spray-painted with a medium that creates a stonelike appearance. The house is framed in birch. She used automotive pinstriping tape to create the divided-light windows. She mixed five shades of "oops" paint - wrong colors - to come up with a beige/putty tone that matches her home. The house stands 4 feet 9 inches tall by 41/2 feet square.

Victory was sweet, since she got "a hard little snicker" and not a lot of support early on from husband Kirk and son Addison, 14. But friends and neighbors cheered her on, and once her family saw how dedicated she was, they got behind her, she said. (The family includes daughter Kandall, 24, and son Opie, 19.) When she learned she had won, "they were as ecstatic as I was, and my husband said, "I had a dream you won first place.' " Her prize: a year's supply of dog food and a digital camera.

Morgan's doghouse was chosen as the winner from dozens of entries because "it seemed to us she embodied everything we wanted to achieve in the contest," This Old House editor Scott Omelianuk said. "Get out there, get involved with your hands, be creative, take some pride in your home. I'm glad she stuck with it despite her son's and her husband's ribbing."

The judges were impressed with her creativity in using unusual materials and her craftsmanship.

In front of the Morgans' home stands a stump where a huge oak tree, damaged by hurricanes during the summer of 2004, finally fell last September. When the stump is removed, Morgan said, "I'm going to place my doghouse out there. It's a lovely yard decoration" that Chloe uses as a playhouse more than the dogs do.

Morgan said she is "afraid to count up all my receipts," but concedes the cost of the doghouse is "several hundred dollars."

The judges were also impressed with the 100-word essay she submitted with photographs of the doghouse. She ended it with this thought: "This is a perfect example to set for my children: Anybody can do anything they put their mind to do."

View Cheryl Morgan's doghouse and see other contest entries at www.thisoldhouse.com In the box on the left, "Homeowner know-how," click on "remodeling and adding on."

[Last modified January 13, 2006, 08:17:05]