Ronald would love this.
A single parent with a passion for fun projects created an miniature McDonald’s drive-thru for his two boys — spending less than $50 to build the backyard playplace.
Architectural assistant Daniel Mills, 38, got the idea when working on a project for a local Golden Arches franchise near his home in the U.K. — dumpster diving to find much of the material he needed to make the dreams of nine-year-old Leo and eight-year-old Zac come true.
“When they saw it, they went mad with excitement,” Daniel said. “As a single dad, it is often challenging to keep them occupied. But then I spotted my shed, which needed some major TLC — and I had an idea.”
“I thought it would make a great playhouse, and I couldn’t help but see it as a mini drive-thru.” Daniel, a keen do-it-yourselfer, started by collecting wood from a fence that had blown down at his neighbor’s property.
He repurposed materials found in the dumpsters at a building site, along with a collection of wooden slats from an old IKEA bed, then attached wheels to the bottom to make the baby-sized burger joint mobile.
To top it off, Mills plastered the gift to his boys in true-to-life McDonald’s signage, to make it even more real for them.
Three days later, he presented it with considerable fanfare.
He said: “I covered it in sheets, ripped them off and immediately, they asked if they could have breakfast there. “And lunch, as well as dinner. “Each weekend, we played with it constantly.
“One would stand at the hatch, while the other came through in their toy car to order – it was fantastic,” he recounted.
“After grilling up some burgers to act as a makeshift Happy Meal, they would sit on the picnic bench all smiles.”
Eventually, the boys no longer wanted fries with that — and Mills began thinking of another project, this time building them a traditional English pub playhouse, starting with a $25 secondhand playhouse.
The drive-thru has now been sold off for more than $350 — far more than it cost to build — after Mills said he received 26,000 queries from prospective buyers via social media.
“I was told by many it was too cheap and some offered much, much more,” he said.
“As a single parent, hearing people call you a top guy and say how lucky the kids were, meant a lot.”
For other dads interested in gifting their children something unique this year, Mills said that it starts by thinking outside the box.
“You’ve got to repurpose and see objects differently,” he urged, noting how much of his project material was either salvaged, free or found at secondhand stores.
Raid your garage for half-empty cans of paint, he said, find old pallets and put them to use.
“If you’re patient and willing to search around, you could probably build something for next to nothing,” he said.
