In 2021 one of the kids in Somerville started Elfland, a miniature community, in a vacant lot. There had been a gas station there which was demolished to build housing, but with construction delays there it was open for a while. When construction resumed there were calls to "defend Elfland", and while the original location closed it's now on the Somerville Community Path just west of Willow Ave.

My kids like it a lot, and Anna and I decided to build something for it. Anna wanted to make a house, and I sold her on making a triple decker. These are three-unit buildings, one on each of three floors, that are common in Somerville and other older Boston-area neighborhoods.

We cut some 2x4s to size and glued them up:

I did the rough sanding with the belt sander, and then Anna did the finish sanding:

We primed and painted together, and Anna put on the doors and windows:

We brought it over today:

Here it is, with Somerville's best grocery store and the Elfland Museum of Hopeful Art:

I'm strongly in favor of constructing more housing in Somerville, though we'll need a lot more than this!