My son always loved role play as a youngster. Although his father was dubious to get him what he called 'a girls' toy', I had always promised him that when we got a house with a garden he could have his own little house like the one at playgroup. When he was 3 we moved to a house with a garden and as I had promised I went on the hunt to find his own miniature home.

I looked on the internet and found the prices ranged from £50.00 upwards and came in plastic and wood. As we had just moved money was a little tight. I came across this in the Wilkinson plus catalogue for £60.00 and decided it was the one. I had it delivered to store for free and went to collect it.

The house was plastic and came in 5 sections - four sides and the roof. It took two of us to put it together because each side had to be held up by one person whilst the other bolted it together. The bolts were made of plastic and came with a nut to tighten up. The front door clipped on as did the shutters on one of the windows; the other windows didn't have shutters. There were also a few stickers of flowers that went on the side.

The house was up. My partner laid 4 slabs down for it so the grass didn't get killed and we lifted the house onto them. I was pleased that it was nice and sturdy and the door was a good size for a child to fit through although a bit of a squeeze for me.

That summer was great, we'd never had a garden before and this was definitely a good addition. I was given a little cooker and I bought a table and chairs and that was our café set up. We would play for ages with him being the chef and waiter bringing out the food and serving me at the table. At the end of the summer we dismantled the house so it didn't get damaged as quite often the colours fade on plastic in the rain.

The following summer we gave the house a wash down, I did find some of the grooves difficult to get into to clean. This was because they had lots of bits of fluff and spider webs where it had been in the garage all winter. The house went back together no problem except some of the stickers were a little worn and another summer of fun had begun. This year we had the table and chairs inside and he would sit in there with his friends using it as a den. The possibilities for play are pretty endless depending on the child and their imagination.

About halfway through the second summer I found a couple of the bolts had snapped. Although there was 3 bolts to each side and six holding the roof on, so 1 or 2 wasn't so bad but once they had snapped the house wasn't as sturdy and started to sway. When the house started moving more bolts started to snap until it came to the point that the house was unsafe and we had to take it to the tip.

Two years of play for £60.00 wasn't bad and by the next summer my boy was probably a little old for a playhouse anyway. His little sister had come along by then and had it been more durable we would have been able to pass it on to her so a little disappointing. If I were to buy another playhouse I think I would spend a little bit more on getting one made by Little Tikes as there stuff is a lot more durable.