“The grandkids are coming in August. I think you should build them a play kitchen,” Anne said to me a few weeks ago. ”Now, what does this have to do with Ten Centuries?” you ask. Well, the basic Ten Centuries philosophy is that life is more fun if you do stuff. That even includes building a play kitchen from scratch.

I decided to make three pieces: a stove, a sink and a refrigerator. But where to start? Going to the internet, I looked up play kitchen plans and was astonished to see that the plans showed the stove and sink base to be 18-22 inches tall. I grabbed a tape and measured 20 inches from the floor, “That is tiny,” I thought, “it must be a mistake.” But before making them bigger I called my daughter, Marion, the proud mother of a 3 ½ year old. “Monette is only 36 inches tall,” she replied, “20 inches is past her waist.” I forget just how little a little person is.

Building from scratch.