A backyard build of the Herbie Cubby House in Melbourne. The family painted it pink, with white details and styled it with flower boxes and a pergola. It sits comfortably in a compact yard and became an instant favourite with the kids. A clean, calm build that shows how the Herbie looks once it is finished and lived in.

Welcome to stage one of the Bates Clubhouse. If you've been keeping up on stories, you probably know we've been working hard to get the boys' new cubby painted, and it's finally ready. We chose the Hide & Seek Kids cubby because they come in already pre-assembled panels to save time, unlike other cubbies that come in a million different pieces, which as time-poor parents we just didn't have time for. So Hide & Seek Kids was the obvious choice. Bradley and I have loved working on this together. From choosing the colours to the painting parties after the kids went to bed, it's been such a labour of love, and so special to give our boys something we created just for them. We can't wait to show you the Bates Clubhouse as it all comes together, so stay tuned for stage two, the assembly.

Welcome to stage two of the Bates Clubhouse, the assembly. After weeks of prep and painting, it was finally time to bring the cubby to life, and we were actually pleasantly surprised by just how simple this part was. With just nine panels in total to piece together, assembly was super straightforward, and before we knew it, we had an actual cubby house standing in our yard rather than just a vision in our heads. But the best part of finally getting to this step was seeing the kids' faces light up as their dream cubby started becoming a reality. Watching their excitement as each panel was put into place just made all of the time and effort so worthwhile. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Corey, that looks nothing like the inspo pic, where's the slide?" And you'll find out soon enough in stage three when we lift the Bates Clubhouse onto one of the new Hide & Seek Kids cubby house lift kits. Stay tuned!

So today is day one of creating the kids a mud kitchen. We got the mud kitchen from Hide & Seek Kids, it's the Danny. So this is what she looks like, and then that's all of our supplies that we're needing for today. This is where we're putting the mud kitchen, I am so excited. All right guys, we have officially started the mud kitchen. All right, so this is what we got, this is the color. So I'm just putting on the first coat now, we're going to do two coats of this. Good job, yep, roll the paint out. So we are up to the second coat of like the top layer, and then I'll let those dry and then I'll flip them over and I'll do two coats on the backside. I did not realize how fast this was going to be, rollers are the best invention ever. Okay, so these are all of the other pieces that I still have to do, and then there's a couple down the bottom as well, but I feel like I'm going pretty good so far. It's day two of painting, so I've now flipped them and done the first coat on the other side. I'm waiting for them to dry, and then I'll do the second coat.