LEWISTON — All Barbara Gervais wanted was a “small little house for the grandkids to play in.”
So her husband, Clement, went to work.
A carpenter by trade, Clement Gervais knows a thing or two about hammers, saws and tape measures. It did not take long for Barbara to realize that the “small little house” she asked for was going to be a wee bit larger. “It got bigger and bigger and bigger,” said Barbara, a 1966 graduate of Lewiston High School.
“I just got into it,” said Clement, who worked on the playhouse in the evenings and on weekends for about a month and a half before the project was done.
It is not the size of the playhouse that makes cars slow down and heads turn as people pass by on Marion Street. It is the fact that the playhouse is a spitting image of the real house that sits about 100 feet away.
Built to scale of the house that Barbara and Clement Gervais have lived in since 1995, the playhouse features the same cathedral ceiling, the same master bedroom deck, the same double-door garage, sky lights, laminate kitchen flooring, loft bedroom and back porch complete with picnic table.
“I don’t know why. It just popped into my mind,” said Clement about building a replica.
Clement chose to leave the inside rough around the edges. He decided against drywall for one reason. “It’s a clubhouse. It’s not a house. Kids don’t want to be told not to scratch the walls,” said Clement.
The couple has six grandchildren, ages 9 months to 16 years old. Abigail Pilot, 8, Abrina Pilot, 7, and 2-year-old Kyla Berube play house and manage a “McDonald’s” every Saturday and Thursday after school. “We play house. I’m the mom and she’s the baby and she’s the baby,” said Abrina, a second-grader at St. Dominic Academy.
“Sometimes Abrina goes to college, so we sit around and drink coffee,” said Abigail, a third-grader at St. Dom’s.
Austin Gervais, 16, staked his claim on the loft bedroom for homework and the occasional overnight. The girls giggle as they sneak up the ladder and onto Austin’s turf while he is in class at the St. Dom’s high school campus. “We are not allowed up here,” said Abigail. “But Austin’s girlfriend says we can,” said Abrina.
Hoping to drop a hint, Barbara bought a play cleaning set. But for the most part, she comes out to clean the playhouse after cleaning her own home.
“It’s here for them to play,” said Barbara.
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- Kyla Berube, left, Abrina Pilot and Abigail Pilot swing next to the playhouse at their grandparents’ house in Lewiston. The house is a to-scale replica of Clement and Barbara Gervais’ house. Clement built the playhouse for his grandchildren three years ago.
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- Abrina Pilot, 7, of Minot plays with her 9-month-old cousin Brett Berube of Windham in their playhouse in Lewiston. Pilot’s 8-year-old sister Abigail reads to her great-grandmother Gloria Donohue, 85, of Lewiston in the background.
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- Gloria Donohue, far right, pushes her great-grandson Brett Berube on the swing as her great-grandchildren Abrina Pilot, Abigail Pilot and Kyla Berube play at their playhouse in Lewiston.
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- Abrina Pilot, 7, of Minot climbs down from the loft as her 8-year-old sister Abigail and 2-year-old cousin Kyla Berube play inside their playhouse at their grandparents’ house in Lewiston.
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- Gloria Donohue, 85, pushes her great-grandson Brett Berube on the swing next to the playhouse behind her daughter’s home on Marion Street in Lewiston. The playhouse is a to-scale replica of Clement and Barbara Gervais’ house.
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- Clement Gervais built the playhouse to scale of his and his wife’s house on Marion Street in Lewiston. From a skylight above a cathedral ceiling to the double door garage and the balcony off the master bedroom, Gervais did the best he could to make the two houses identical.
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