I'm a big fan of yardsales and love to find great deals on outdoor toys and equipment for the kids. We have a nice fenced in side yard just for the kids to play in and its packed full of outdoor play equipment. My husband thinks that I am nuts because I go to great efforts to get different outdoor toys each year for my kids and that means spending time going to yardsales, scouring freecycle and cheapcycles, craigslist, even ebay local pickup and curbside delights. It was at a yardsale that I found this Little Tikes Cozy Cottage and was able to get it for $15, plus it was in great shape as it had been kept indoors. Well, anyone who knows Little Tikes playhouses, knows that they last a really long time, clean up nicely and sell for way more than this! So I picked it up thinking that it would be fun to put in the corner of my yard for my kids to play in.

The Little Tikes Cozy Cottage looks like a little gazebo with its rounded octagonal shape. The sides of the house are white and it has a domed roof that is bright blue with a red dutch door. I've seen this house in other color schemes including the newer neutral colors and an older bight yellow and green style. Currently the Cozy Cottage is not listed on the Little Tikes website, as they restyle and up the prices of their houses just about every summer season. As it turns out once I purchased this gazebo playhouse I was made aware by one of my friends who actually deals Little Tikes and other kids play items second hand (she makes a business out of what I do as a hobby!) that this playhouse is considered "hard to find", especially in the good condition that the one I'd picked up was in. She came forth with all sorts of offers to buy it from me and threatened to come and take it in the night (I know she was joking!). Of course, her desire for it somehow made me want to keep it even more! I told her that I'd consider selling it to her or trading it for a bigger house after the kids had played in it a bit to see if it was a keeper or not.

So, was it a keeper?

Well, first things first - in order to get the Cozy Cottage home and into my mini-van we had to disassemble it. I thought it would be easy to put back together when I got it home but that was easier said than done. This is really a 2 person job and a pain in the butt. The sides of the cottage screw together and then the roof needs to be lined up just so and then screwed on. Of course, I managed to strip a couple of a screws in the process and my husband had to be called to rescue and put it together. This house isn't meant to be taken apart and re-assembled - so its best if you are purchasing it second hand to try to get it home in one piece to avoid the nightmare of re-assembly.

Once together, its a cute little playhouse but gosh is it small inside of there. The dimensions of the house are about 3 feet wide by 4 feet high - maybe a bit smaller than that, as we no longer have the house. (Guess that tells you what I did with it?). The playhouse is really cute, 2 of the sides are open with big windows and one is made to look like a kitchen with a yellow ledge that has a sink and a stove burner on it. There are decals on it for a microwave, lights, a clock, a puppy dog house and a few others. In the red door, which is a dutch door so its only from the waist down (for kids) there is a small mail slot which we used the plastic letters that we have that came with the Little Tikes Activity Garden and the Buzz About Mailbox.

The Cozy Cottage is sturdy, as Little Tikes products are known to be and will last you a long time. If left outside the decals will get some wear and tear and the colors may fade a bit but that doesn't really affect play-value all that much. The original owner of ours kept it indoors so it was good as new when we got it. After about a month of us keeping it outdoors it did get a little dirty but nothing that hosing it down with the garden hose and soapy sponge couldn't clean up.

I thought it was really cute and appreciated that it fit into a small corner of the yard, but boy did it look small! The true test would be how the kids liked it. My daughter who was around 18 months at the time loved playing in it and enjoyed going in and playing at the sink or sliding letters thru the mailslot. This little playhouse was just her size and because its open on 2 sides plus the 1/2 door it was great because I could see inside. Now, my 5 year old on the other hand - he barely fit into the house even though he wanted to go in and play. So, I could just forget about the ideas that I had of the kids playing in there together. Or, about my daughter playing with her friends on a playdate in this house. Too small, Too cramped, and the picture shown of this product with 2 kids inside and one kid outside is not very realistic at all!

The family that I purchased the playhouse from had only one small child and lived in a townhouse where they didn't have a lot of space. In this situation I could see it being a perfect fit. As I said, my daughter loved to play in this and enjoyed playing in it by herself. But, I feel that playhouses are most fun when played in by more than one child and this house really is too small for that. I love the styling of it and appreciated that the sides are open because it allows you to see what your child is doing in there all the time. Its not a bad playhouse at all. It just wasn't for us, and so I made a phone call to that friend of mine and arranged to trade it in for a different house.

If you want a small house for a small child and are good at putting things together (or can buy it assembled at a yardsale and get it home in one piece), then this is a cute little house. If you want something for more than one child or a child over 3 then skip the cozy cottage!




www.littletikes.com


Other Outdoor Play Reviews
Step2 Sunnytime Adirondack Chair
Fisher-Price Power Wheels Jeep Enforcer Jr
Little Tikes Climb & Slide Playhouse
Little Tikes Turtle Sandbox
Little Tikes Buzz About Mailbox
Little Tikes Variety Climber with Swingset Extension
Little Tikes 2-in-1 Snug 'n Secure Swing
Little Tikes Load & Ride Dump Truck








Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 15
Type of Toy: Playscene
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months