Lyla Duncan, 4, left, watches from inside the igloo as her father, Jon Duncan, hot-glues another empty plastic water jug into place while making a large igloo inside his Woodbine Avevenu SE home in Warren. Duncan has used approximately 450 plastic water jugs so far and over 5 lbs. of glue sticks while making the indoor igloo. (Staff photo / R. Michael Semple)

WARREN — It is a house that will make Frosty proud.

Jon and Kayla Duncan, with the help of four of their five children, have spent the last several months building an adult-sized igloo, using empty water jugs, in the first floor living room of their house.

The Duncans moved to their 771 Woodbine Ave. SE home last spring from Greene Township. A short time later, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jon was laid off from his job where he did repairs on vending machines, and schools were closed by order of Gov. Mike DeWine.

Moving from the country into the city, the couple found the taste of tap water different from the well water they were used to drinking, so they began drinking a lot of bottled water.

“With five kids, we go through a lot of bottled water in a week,” Kayla said. “We use about 15 gallons of water a week.”

Over the summer, Jon, 33, suggested they do something with the plastic jugs other than recycling them.

“I was doing some research over the internet and saw something about making igloos with plastic bottles and suggested we use our bottles to do one,” he said. “We’ve never done anything like this before.”

Kayla agreed.

So the couple began throwing the jugs into their basement. As the collection grew, the couple posted on a website and told friends about the project.

“People began sending us bottles,” she said. “They’ve been very generous. They want to see it when we’re done.”

Over the last two months, the couple already has used several hundred gallon-sized jugs and more than 100 glue sticks to build the igloo together.

“We wanted the kids involved,” Jon said. “They like building blanket forts, so we figured they would get a kick in doing this.”

The children are cleaning the jugs and helping to stack them.

The couple has only used water, not milk jugs, because they didn’t want to chance a stale milk smell in their house.

“We’ve been encouraging our kids to do art projects,” Jon said. “They’re learning how to build, some geometry and how to work together.”

The interior of the igloo will be more than 6 feet tall, so Jon will be able to stand.

“We probably need another 200 bottles to finish this,” Kayla said. “We figure it will take another three to four weeks to complete.”

It will have a tunnel leading to the entrance. The are using some Christmas lights to provide colors.

The couple said they don’t have a time limit for the igloo to remain standing.

“It’ll be up until the kids knock it down,” Jon said. “It’ll be strong enough for it to be up for a long time, but when they tear it down, it’ll be down.”